Water retention? Carpal Tunnel? Please advise. Yes, it is ME again...

[Alexa808]

I'm 36+1 weeks pregnant.

Since yesterday morning I've had the following problems: I got out of bed and the soles on my feet felt swollen and hurt when I stepped on them. My hands have no strength in the mornings and feel stiff and balling them to a fist hurts on the joints and knuckles.

There's no obvious swelling to be seen and neither the feet nor the hands feel heavy or warm. It gets better as the day goes on, but never ceases completely.

Does anyone know what this is? I drink a lot of water (2-3l a day) and don't eat much salt, etc.

anyone?

Hi Alexa, I suffered from Carpal Tunnel SYndrome from around 35 weeks onwards, they way I understand it, it is fluid retention in the C Tunnels which are the things that your nerves run through. I only suffered with it in my wrists /hands. When I woke up each morning, my hands were stuck in a certain position and it wasn't until I started moving around that I would be able to slowly move my fingers (they also cracked a bit when I wiggled them). Like you as the day wore on, it eased off a bit. I couldn't move my hands / fingers at all for the first hour of the day ! The Community MW sent me to the GP, who gave me some hand / wrist supports (they kept my hands in a certain position over night) and this did help a bit. My DH called them my claws !
The good news is, as soon as I had DS it went away.
xxx
ps I drank lots of water too, so I don't think it has anything to do with it. I didn't have water retention anywhere else.
pps When the MW first told me what it was I thought she said Carpet Tunnel Syndrome

I had carpal tunnel and sore feet towards the end. Splints at night might help to stop you tensing your hands while asleep. Also try raising them up on a pillow while in bed, this helped a bit. The only thing that really helped was no longer being pg though.

Seems odd that the soles of you feet are swollen. My feet and ankles swelled up so much that the skin nearly broke but I never had it on the soles of my feet.

I too had carpal tunnel syndrome but my midwife told me it wasnt worth doing anything for it - I was 37 weeks. I found that holding my hands in the air before I got out of bed in the morning and sleeping with them rested on a pillow helped.

When I started maternity leave I was determinded to get my swelling down. I would sit for hours doing a cross stitch with my feet and I got them nearly back to normal - As soon as I was on my feet for longer then 30 mins it was back.

Just keep thinking you havent got much longer and once your lo is here it will all go x

NL: claws... Lovely...
Yes, mine are stuck in a certain 'frozen' position in the morning.

SH: Thank you, I'll rummage in my cupboard, must find stuff to make them...

Yes LL: the soles really hurt...very weird indeed. Will try the holding up thing.

Thanks very much for all your tips. Can't wait for baby to arrive. Feeling rather heavy and rusty these days...

Alexa - I know this is an old thread. But I have the same thing (including the feet) post pregnancy. Did you ever find out what the problem was? I went to see a consultant last week and he was scratching his head (although gave me injections of cortisol in my wrists).

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