Dr.,
What may be the cause of occasional edema of my left leg only? I recently have been under alot of stress,and went to the e.r. because both of my legs were cramping badly,felt like they were on fire.the e.r physician diagnosed it as myalgia,he did not specifically state fibromyalgia. have been smoking and drinking excessively due to a life changing event,could you maybe shed some light?

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Dr. Joshua’s Answer:

One-sided swelling could be caused by a number of things, I’ll list a few here:
-bacterial infection (especially if there’s fever, pain and redness involved),
-deep venous thrombosis, i.e. blod clot of the deep veins of the leg (should be treated immediately because it carries the risk of pulmonary embolism)
-disturbance of lymphatic circulation (esp. if you’ve had a thigh / groin region operation performed in the past, could also be caused by a tumor in the groin area)
-elastic knee support or anything else that might block the return of blood from the leg
-cardiac insufficiency could rarely cause one-sided lower leg swelling?

If you’re smoking and drinking heavily, your cramps may be caused by and electrolyte imbalance, or lack of vitamin B. Make sure you eat properly, take vitamin B supplements and you could try and take some magnesium supplements for the cramps.

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