I Said Betty..not Barney!

If you ask me what character from the Flintstones that I most identify with, I would have said -Betty! If you could see me now, you would think that I must had said Barney. I first noticed the change when I took the picture of my dirty feet...I thought that my toes were looking a little fat. I know that I didnt get the fine, small baby hands and feet that my sisters got..( I have had a demand for clarification- I am not saying that my sisters do not have ankles...simply that at one point, I did!) .but at least I had ankles!

As the days have gone by, the transformation has become more and more obvious. Definitely Barney feet. Heather who is a couple of months away from producing my second grandchild and I, have joked that I must be getting her pregnancy symptoms...her ankles are still normal...not quite Betty like, but certainly not Barney's! As you can see by the picture on the left..her ankles are in tact.













Not so with the Barney Rubble foot on the right! And btw...that is not dirty tiles..that is the colour. :-)

Although my medical expertise is extensive...including but not limited to urology, genecolgy, oncology, pediatrics (but not the new fangled kind!) and psychiatry..the onset of "cankles" (credit to Dr. Brotherston for the terminology) is not something that I was familiar with.

So...back to school I went. After exhaustive research...ok ... a couple of clicks on the internet I found....

Common Causes

Foot, leg, and ankle swelling is common with the following situations:

• Prolonged standing- Nope
  
• Long airplane flights or automobile rides- Not applicable
  
• Menstrual periods (for some women)- Not applicable
  
• Pregnancy -- excessive swelling may be a sign of pre-eclampsia, a serious condition sometimes called toxemia, that includes high blood pressure and swelling- Definitely not
  
• Being overweight- Maybe..but not 10 lbs worth
  
• Increased age- You cant possibly mean me!!!!!!
  

The clue was found in the sentence about preventing this in the future-- Avoid sitting or standing without moving for prolonged periods of time. Ding, ding, ding!!!

Who knew that sitting at this computer writing a blog could be dangerous to my health??

And the cure.. lie down with your legs higher than your heart! Pretty tame recovery, as far as recoveries go!


So, where's my book? ...I am going to bed now and start working on turning these babies back into Bettys!