Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Cankles

So, I flew to Utah on the 22nd and then a couple hours later went into a salon for a pedicure (thank you, Jen!). The guy working on my feet said, "Oh, have you been experiencing a lot of swelling?" I say, "No, not really." but then I look down at my feet and gasped as I see that they are swollen and have indentations from my shoe straps! Oh, I guess so. Probably just from the inserts I wore in my shoes right? Made them kinda tight. Or I hear travel makes some people puffy... No, I have officially moved into the realm of cankles.
I know this is a normal pregnancy symptom, but it feels anything but normal. In the summer when it's really hot my feet and hands swell a little, but nothing like this. The sensations are gross and uncomfortable. Those first couple days I thought that my skin might actually split open. Brandon assured me that that could not happen, but I wasn't entirely convinced. Putting my feet up above heart level helped a bit, but it is not an easy thing to do, as pregnant women are not supposed to lie flat on their backs. In addition to putting my feet up for swelling I'm also supposed to walk around a lot and not sit still too much. ? Which is it? Asked my doctor yesterday and he said it is really both. So many contradictions!
He also said I need to cut back on my sodium and drink more fluids. Sounds easy enough. I've always been pretty good at drinking lots of water and I am more a sweets-lover than a salt-lover. Doc told me they would give me a list of foods high in sodium. In my head I'm thinking, "Like I don't know this stuff - mac n' cheese, canned foods, pickles, blah, blah..." Two shockers on the list: bread and cereal. Not all cereals, but lots, and most all bread products. That makes life a little harder. And protein is hard to come by unsalted. This is going to be harder than I thought.

(Imagine my fat legs, feet, and ankles here cause I'm certainly not going to be posting a picture.)

5 comments:

Lindy said...

mine got so bad that i could make a fingerprint imprint and have enough time to mae enough more to make a smily face. it was cheap entertainment

stephanie said...

ah, come on, you know we are all dying to see those cankles! once you have the baby and the swelling immediately goes away, you will be shocked at how skinny your feet really are. it is a nice surprise after months of not so nice swelling.

Tori :) said...

Oh that sucks!! My sister always swells really bad also. And I know she is so miserable!
I wish you had posted a picture. I remember my sis emailing me one of her swollen legs/ankles. She titled it "My tree trunks."

Unknown said...

Now, if you're like me, the swelling DOESN'T go away right after birth. In fact, I didn't swell AT ALL until after I had Sophie. Then I was swollen for about 10 days.

sjmiller said...

I was swollen a lot with Heath, and that was miserable. With Olivia, not at all.

Good luck! I know your pain!