Re: Cellulitis, recurring infections, lymphedema

[Guest guest]

Hi Jeff, welcome...

Folks have already been sharing info with you about the thyroid stuff so I'll zero in on what hasn't quite been covered yet.. if that's okay...

My experience has been feeling more HYPO after illness rather than HYPER but it can be different from person to person.

I've also had RAI to destroy my gland, I was in thyroid storm due to a genetic defect in my TSH receptors. So I can relate to what you've been through facing the radiation. They killed mine completely.

Did they tell you what caused your gland to over produce? Has anyone used the words Grave's or Hashi's?

Anyway... the swelling in your legs, the cellulitis and the difficulty in knocking out the infections:

Those of us that get RAI are at risk for developing problems with our lymphatic system. Without getting hugely scientific about it... it's basically a case where one or more of the lymph nodes in the area around the neck and upper chest can become damaged by the radiation. It doesn't happen in everyone and it can take as long as 20 years for the symptoms of that damage to finally present... It was around 12 years for me. A lot of it depends on how high your dose was and how long it took for your body to expel the radiation after you were dosed.

My 'plug' seems to be in my upper chest.

My first clue was major swelling in my feet and calves, as months passed I developed a huge dark reddish purplish area on my left shin... it was hot and uncomfortable... As I researched and spoke with other folks we finally figured out that I most likely had a mild case of cellulitis. I was lucky.

It took a lot of effort to get it to heal up, I used compresses, kicked up my vitamins, especially vitamin C... it took months to clear it up. It was nearly gone in the left shin when it started up in the right and I started my treatment all over again.. I've been good now for well over a year.

Cellulitis is a bacterial infection in the lymphatic fluid. It tends to happen in the fluid that is pooling when the body can't drain efficiently. It is not unusual for a cellulitis infection to become system, affecting other organs... I'm wondering if that might be what happened to you, the difficulty in clearing up the kidney infection and the repeated issues with UTI.

We can gab more about this.. you can also do some googling on Lymphedema... I have some links in the links section of the group that will lead you to a support group and a website that I've found to be very helpful.

Fewer docs are familiar with the diagnosis and treatment of lymphedema than thyroid, so it's not a whole lot of fun.

You may not have lymph... but until you find out for sure, I'd suggest staying away from diuretics, they will only make the lymphedema worse. Put simply, if you use a diarrhetic to pull water from your tissues the lymphatic fluid becomes even thicker and ends up being harder to move through the damaged lymph nodes. The nodes are like one way valves, the damaged ones have trouble opening the valves to let the fluid through. The body can reroute to other nodes, to a degree, but eventually fluid starts backing up.... where it decides to settle depends on many factors... often it's in the feet and lower legs first, but not always.

There are steps that you can take to help the fluid move out of your body, I use mostly MLD (manual lymph drainage) massage, you can also use compression garments/wraps/bandages. I have no insurance either so I've had to learn to do much of this on my own...

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On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 22:16:46 -0000 "Jeff Wade" writes:> One emergency room doctor explained how after > an infection, you can have a thyroid storm and go from hypo to > hyper. > I discontinued synthroid and still felt like @##%%**. Went to a > clinic about a month ago. Doctor did labs and I'm hypo! Started > taking synthroid again - about 2 weeks now, but still exhausted all > the time. Have sleep apnea also and can't use machine. Can people > hold down a job when going through this? Is it me, or is it > impossible for me to try to get a full time job at this time? Came > very close to becoming homeles - Thank God I still have a place to > stay, couldn't imagine being homeless like this. When I try to > explain to people how tired I am, it's obvious they think I'm either > crazy or lazy.> One more thing - blood pressure is up and my legs and feet are > swollen. Went through this about a year ago, nobody seemed to have > any answers. Also had cellulitis. Any relation to thyroid? Thanks > for > listening. Jeff