Red legs and high blood pressure

[buckingfitch]

My mum suffers with high blood pressure and takes medication for it, she's also had a heart murmur since birth but it's never really effected her. She just walked in the front room and her legs were so so red looked like severe sun bun, told her to sit down and put her feet up and the redness faded pretty quickly. Could this have just been because of her high bp or could it have been something else? Honestly never seen anything like it

Sun burn not bun

That's worrying. Do you have a blood pressure monitor?

Is there any swelling?

She's just got up again and it's happened again.. Yh she has a bp machine it's 131/82 which is quite good for her

They do look a bit swollen Yh, the skin on her legs looks tight if that makes sense

BP isn’t too bad, some BP medication can impact your kidneys, especially if taken long term. Has she had a meds review with a blood test recently? I would certainly say she needs to get in with the GP as soon as she can, just in case there is an issue there.

I’m just thinking with swelling that could indicate water retention which could mean her kidneys need checking.

Thank you, she was told recently she has a fatty liver I'm not sure if they said anything about her kidney I'll ask

Which pills does she take? I started taking BP meds in Jan and had this for 10 days last month including the really red band and right skin. Apparently it's a known side effect of one of the pills so I've been swapped to another type and it's fine. I also spent an afternoon with my feet raised high but it was the change in meds which did the trick.

I was on amplodimine before.

Yes she is on amlodipine she's been on them for about a year and a half but then they also put her on ramipril as well about 3 months ago, I wonder if it's the combination of the 2 causing it?

Don't know and I'm not medical but mu sister is and definitely said it was the amplodimine and the docs instantly switched the meds for me. I'm now on Losartan which works well for me plus the tablets are much smaller!

She needs to see her doctor as swollen legs can be due to heart or kidney problems. However amlodipine also can make legs swollen and legs that are swollen a long time often go red.

This is what mine looked like if that's any help. I was also told (by a family member who's a doctor rather than by the GP) to press the tight bit and check it didn't leave indents.

Oh no hers isn't like that, her whole legs go red every time she stands up you can see them slowly going red until the whole leg is RED like she's been sitting in the sun for 10 hours

My mum was on Ramipril (and a diuretic) and her legs were like your mum’s. As they got worse they sometimes actually leaked fluid but the Gp was never overly concerned. Just make sure they aren’t very warm/ hot to the touch and see if they ‘pit’ when you press them with your finger. She needs to see her doctor to maybe look at her medications. The advice we were given is to elevate them as much as possible.

Please call 111 - my mum had a clot w hich produced symptoms like this which needed blue light to a&e

@lokijet I've been trying to tell her to but she just keeps saying she doesn't wanna sit in hospital for hours ffs!

I get this (On amlodipine, Losartan and several other drugs for heart, with lymphoedema both legs and lipodermatosclerosis ) it is always a reason to see the GP. For me it was initially a precursor to cellulitis. (just getting over bilateral cellulitis, still quite unwell).
This can become serious very quickly and may lead to sepsis. Even if your Mum does not have this, any changes to the skin must be taken seriously and she should seek help ASAP