Swollen ankles after last chemo session

I had that for a while and in the end, due to additional symptoms, was referred to a cardiologist, which resulted in a lot of frowns when my ECG and echo gave textbook results that any 18 years old would be proud of, but my blood tests came back suspicious, and even more suspicious when repeated a while later. Due to low blood pressure, and in spite of the oedema, cardio told me to up my salt intake, try and drink 4 (yes, four) litres of water a day, and repeat the bloods next month.

Meanwhile, at some point after I finished chemo, the oedema started to disappear. It took weeks to start manifesting, but now I have my feet back. I am still going to do the next blood test to be sure, but I now think that the fluid retention was not heart-related but happened for some other reason as a result of chemo. Most of the other symptoms improved too, again convincing me this was chemo immitating a heart issue and now starting to fade.

Hi GreyCats, Thank you for your reply. My ankles have gone fown a bit  but not totally and are a bit sore. Amazing how chemo wrecks our body.  As long as is gets rid of the cancer, at least the sactifices are worth it. Glad to hear you got your ankles back. Good luck with your blood tests! Hearing your ankles got back to normal gives me some hope. I am having blood tests so we will get to the bottom of what is causing my swollen ankles. I think I want to get back to 'normal' already and it is taking longer than anticipated. I have to be a little patient... Best of luck to you with the rest of your recovery. I have radio next and will start on Zoladex injections  and Letrozole after that... more side effects to come. Hopefully, they are not too bad!

A lot of what you said just now is exactly how I felt, and still do. I am also familiar with the soreness, and in my case, due to some other issues, they decided it is likely a light form of peripheral neuropathy, which is a nerve issue. Interestingly, my oncologist did not think that aspect would improve for me, whereas the oncology pharmacist was telling me the majority of patients do improve. Well, so far, I am seeing some improvement but the issue is not completley gone (yet?)

As for wanting the side effects to go already, oh yeah. This is where I could do with my oncologist suddenly gaining prophetic powers, because he really has no way to estimate how long this would take. With some side effects he said the expectation was, "within weeks," and with some he said it was more likely to be months, even up to a year past last chemo. I told him to give me a better offer, because I was not going to bid on that one  .

One thing I forgot to mention earlier, about how long it would take the water tablets to show effect. I am glad to hear your ankles have gone down a bit, but it may take a little longer before you see the full effect of the new medicine. Sounds like your doctor is estimating that within one to two weeks the issue should resolve, so I hope that today will see even more improvement for you.

Read with interest your problems with feet and ankles. I finished chem Feb 2020 and Herceptin injection Dec 2020, bilateral mastectomy July 2020, letrozole August 2020  and from March 2021 on exemestane  (initially letrozole). I had arthritis in my left ankle before cancer. I know have awful feet to the extent I can't find any suitable shoes (they are making me boots). I have exercised and walked each day until very recently when I find I struggle to walk the pain in my right food has increased markedly. I also have very swollen ankles. I was taken off my water tablets during covid when the swelling reduced following a urinary tract infection. I don't ask to go back on the water tablets as I find I have urinary frequency problems and, to be honest even when taking them prior to cancer I had swollen ankles. 

I have been on exemestane for over a year now and am wondering why things have gotten so much worse recently. 

I have Aromasin the brand name for exemestane so it is not down to getting a cheaper generic version and I feel reluctant to try anastrozole having read on this site that it seems to be the worst for joint pain. Has anyone had similar?  Has anyone any advice?

Sorry I was taken off water tablets not during covid but during chemo!!!! My brain is still not the same as pre-cancer and I haven't had covid so can't put any of it down to long covid!!!!

Hi! 

I too had swollen calves and ankles during chemo - which generally went down each night. However, after my last Docetaxol it got worse - to the point that I couldn't stand! 

I spoke to the Chemo Nurse who just said 'that's to be expected!!" I asked for Water Tablets to be prescribed, but they refused! The swollen ankles and calves took about 5 weeks PFC to improve! I am now 10weeks PFC and only have pain in one of my ankles! 

Hope yours improves soon x 

Rozalia said:

My brain is still not the same as pre-cancer

You and I both.

What about complementary therapies? If the oncologist says that a specific therapy will not interfere with treatment, and since conventional medicine cannot help enough, that might at least offer some relief?

Thanks for the reply. I tried acupuncture which did indeed help. She did some bleeding which reduced my ankles but she is off work having a baby and I don't think this is something most acupuncturists do. I have weekly osteopath sessions and maybe get some relief for a couple of days.  I take CBD which did help initially but doesn't seem to be doing much good now. I am going to see my GP to ask for a referral for steroid injections but.....

Yeah. There are situations where, after nothing seems to solve the issue or give significant relief, I start going with, "I will try anything, as long as I know I am not causing damage." For me this translates to my usual routine of asking my oncologist for permission. On several occasions he responded along the lines of, "I don't think this will help, but it's not going to cause harm, so go ahead if you like," so I did. I wonder if, in your case, it's worth trying stuff such as kinesiology. While there seems to be a lot of focus on dealing with the symptom (water retention) I would want to know what exactly was causing it, and it's not sufficient to tell me, "it's the chemo," because I would want to know how exactly the chemo was causing it, what was the exact chain of causation, so I could tackle that rather than only the end symptom. 

I am suffering from Neuropathy quite badly too. Walking and standing was so painful and difficult to start with after this last cycle. It has improved but not significantly. The legs hurt too (the muscles perhaps?)... I also have Neuropathy on my fingers, not just my finger tips but all of my fingers and weirdly (not sure if this has happened to other people) on the lower part of my face (the area around my mouth: lips, chin, the botyom part of my cheeks). 

My Oncologist said the worst of the symptoms would improve between 4 and 6 weeks after the last chemo but the Neuropathy would take longer. Didn't specify how long...

My ankles look better today, not back to normal yet but definitely getting there! One weird thing I noticed the other day was that my left arm (the one without lymph nodes) felt a bit "spongy". I haven't suffered from lymphoedema yet so I thought it might be the start of that. It coincided with my ankles being swollen and strangely lasted only a day or two and went down to normal... A coincidence or was that due to the water tablets? I don't know.