Swollen ankles but no other symptoms of anything sinister

[sophiad]

Hi all
I'm 34+2 and been suffering with swollen ankles for a couple of weeks now. They get a lot worse during the day when I'm sitting at my desk in work. I had blood preassure and urine checked at an appt last week and all seems ok. I know sounds silly but they're getting me down a bit, feel tender and tight and I just keep looking at them and feeling sorry for myself. They get better once my feet are up at home. Was just wondering if there is anything else I can do at all......But I'm guessing it's all part and parcel! And at what point if any I should worry about them!? x

I've had the same (now 37+3), my calves, shins, feet and toes were VAST, it caused my ankles to feel bruised and I could only get trainers on and barely get the laces to meet. You could press my shins and leave a deep depression in the swelling.

I also developed high bp & protein in my wee which lasted for about 10 days and had me in hospital a few times, a few doctors told me that they no longer class oedema as a PE symptom, it's just classed as a normal pregnancy symptom now.

With swelling they tell you it's more of a concern if you get sudden swelling to your face.

The best thing I've found for them is massage, at first I used to lie on the settee with my feet on DH's lap and he was massaging them in long strokes but a different MW told me last Friday that their reflexology masseur said that you need to imagine it as a honeycomb, little pockets that need breaking up and to massage with thumbs in small circular motions.
I've got a big plug-in back massager with 2 vibrating pads so got DH to use that instead and the difference was amazing, overnight I could do my ankle boots up and after 3 sessions I can get the calf length ones on.

I do have to do it regularly, he missed last night and they are getting fat again but nowhere near as bad.

Also as well as the good advice above, drink lots of water. Sounds contradictory but it helps to move the water around your body and reduce the swelling.

Can you get your feet up at work? That might help. I'm on my feet all shift (7.5 hours!) and got swollen ankles from early days and I found scholl maternity compression stockings in Boots which help to minimise my swelling.

Thank you ladies. The joys of pregnancy eh! I now totally understand what they mean when they said last 6 weeks is hard