Red/Purple Painfully Swollen Feet & Legs :: Dr.'s can't figure it out!!!

Starting about 6 inches below my knees my legs are swollen down to my toes. My legs are red, warm almost blistered. My legs in that area are so sore and tender down to the bone I cant touch them. Two days ago I woke up and the were bright bright red. Burnt, and extremeley painful.
I would be very interested if anyone finds out what this is.

My mother has been going through the exact same thing. If you find out anything please post!

I won't cover everything my husband has had and gone through, but all of your symptoms have been his at one time. He was diagnosed with RA and also Wegener's Vasculitis; now has severely damaged lungs and pulmonary hypertension and is on Flolan. But what caused all of this I believe is that 10 years ago at the beginning of all this he somehow contracted MRSA. He's had it 2 more times since then and it may be that they it never really went away. It is just recently that doctors know anything about this or have even tested for it and sometimes it still doesn't show up. They finally found it in a sputum test. It all started in his feet. First they went numb, then they hurt, then he had terrible red spots that developed in open wounds, and then it hit his lungs, then kidneys, but again, it took them almost 10 years to discover what was causing everything and by then, his lungs were about gone. Unfortuntely, before it was diagnosed, he had gone through chemo treatments 3 times and been put on various other antibiotics that only worked temporarily.

All I can say is please ask the doctors to check for NRSA before it's too late, although sometimes it can't be stopped.

I'm on no medication, and the swelling as been going on for 3 months. I'm starting to get a tad bit worried. I'm a wrecker driver. So, I'm not on me feet that much. This sleep thing "apnoea" not sure what the is, but I have all kinds of sleep problems. maybe thats related, and I'm sure my weight doesn't help. But three months? I don't want to go to a doctor but maybe I should.

I think cellulitis is a convienant catch-all disease/word. I have been anorexic since my teens and took diuretics off and on to lose weight. One day my feet swelled up and turned red/purple and my family doctor sent me to the hospital, where they said it was cellulitis. I was 26. I am 50 now and they still swell up and down. At the end of the day they are huge and in the morning they are better. I also have chronic kidney disease and will soon start dialysis or have to have a transplant. I have 15% kidney function in one kidney and none in the other. My family doctor says it is because of my kidneys (swelling feet) and my kidney doctor says some of it can be attributed to kidney function but it's not caused by that. I have also been told it is due to electrolyte imbalance- decreased potassium. Anyway, everyone thinks my feet look wierd -especially me. They are most painful on the bottom tho'- they are very hard and sort of knobby on the bottom, even when they are not swollen. And now I have to take diuretics.

So , has anyone ever found out why their feet/ankles are so swollen and discolered?? I'm very interested because I have the same symtoms as you all do!

Well, after reading about everyone's experience perhaps we should each write letters to hmm...podiatrists andother Doctors, explain that we are a group suffering and mystified and would like some answers. It may be that we are each suffering from some different DZ (disease) that have similar side effects or takings meds like glucocorticoids (prednisone) that have similar side effects. I was an RN a short time (after all that school) and still I could not tell you that this kidney related or something else. And neither can my Doctors. I am a big watcher of Mystery Diagnosis and Diagnosis X on Discovery health ..so I know that Doctors don,t know everything and actually could and some will just blow you off if they don't , while others might care to investigate. Perhaps as a group we could just put together a lot of info from the internet and books. Doctors do it all the time. and post what we find here.
Have a good day (or try) all foot sufferers!9[/b]

Thank you all for your comments, this is the first insight I've found on the internet that relates to my balloon feet and ankles (which look like someone has inflated a pair of rubber gloves).

They're bright pink and a bit swollen in the morning but by the end of the day, they're considerably more enlarged - the ankles being around 2" larger and by then my feet are purply blue with white toes.

I'm in the UK and my GP says the cause is due to inertia. He's partly right, and I do suffer from whatever the current term is for CFS/ME amongst other things but that simply doesn't explain why walking, for instance, doesn't reduce the swelling. Nothing except compression reduces the swelling which is, as others have said, uncomfortable to the point of being painful at times and very tender to the touch.

I have the same problems going on now. I amm a 33 yr woman and the docs are stumped to i am on the same dieretic meds and nothing. been through all the same probing. Have you had any luck on what u might have? please let me know for maybe i can run it by my doc. Angela

My doctor confided in me that there are new diseases now some coming from a complex DNA change in bacteria called bacterial Phage. Also new is Morgellons which these are one of many symptoms. The Center of Disease Control has joined the Morgellons Research and they've discovered more evidence of which is astounding. Google Morgellons Air for more info.