My husband is getting chemotherapy and has had 2 units of red blood this week. He is not doing very well, he's losing weight and can't keep his red or white blood cell count up, so the therapy has been cancelled four times now.

So he's reluctant to go back to see the doctor about this problem (below) and I can't blame him.

I want to use home rememdies but don't want to make it worse. The hospital won't give me advice; they insist I bring him in. But he won't go.

He complained of 'chillblains' yesterday (his term) and I looked at his feet and legs and was shocked. He has a massive bruise on one calf. He says he slipped outdoors and fell and banged it days ago.

But the bruise does not look like a normal bruise. There are two hard, white ares in the centre of the bruised area, and the larger feels warmer than the surrounding area.

Both feet and lower legs are very swollen. When I pressed one area, the dent took a full five seconds to 'bounce back'. A test on the corresponding area of my own foot bounced back (normal color restored, tissue rebounded to normal depth) within one second.

I have given him very gentle massage using mineral oil as a lubricant, and using a slight 'squeezing' pressure beginning at the extremity and moving toward his body (away from his toes) to try to 'milk' the fluids from the swollen area.

He tolerates this well, and said it felt better afterwards. I have done this last evening and this morning.

Is it safe and correct to do this? Are there other things I could do?

(He is normal weight (175 lb., 5'11" tall) and had been outdoors yesterday, puttering around the yard, where he got a chill.)

First of all, I would no longer massage his legs. He is having circulation issues (as evidenced by the "pitting edema" in his legs) and possible fluid over-load from the transfusions.

As for the massage, men (and women) of his age may have a globule of fat, a clump of bacteria or a blood clot which can break loose during massage and become an embolism (especially since his legs are swollen). This probably would not happen, and as I am not a doctor and he is not my patient I can't tell you how much he is at risk for it, but in his condition, I would not care to risk it.

He most definitely SHOULD go in and get seen for this edema and the bruising. Circulation issues should be assessed especially since he doesn't seem to have had this problem before (or you would have mentioned it).

I am not going to get into all the possible problems because that would only worry you and I might be wrong anyway.

He is in a fragile state and should be seen for ANY changes outside his normal "baseline".

Babs, I don't have any advice, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry you're going through this. I didn't know your husband was ill. I'm thinking of you.

I'm afraid he won't go to emergency. (We're in a small town and on stat hols and weekends when the doctors' clinic is closed we need to go to the ER for attention; staff there or the duty doctors will call our family doctors if they think it's necessary.)

He is scheduled for chemo Monday morning so I'm hoping he'll be all right until then.

Thank you for warning me not to massage. The site you sent me to mentions organ failure, and we were warned that there would be some failure of liver function at some point, sooner or later.

It also mentioned sodium chloride. We have been very moderate salt-consumers, but lately I've been using more salt since I'm trying to make his food more palatable since he was losing weight. We'll reduce salt immediately.

So thank you for your advice, Sher. It sounds very logical to me.

Thanks, Sarai, for your good wishes. Actually he is a very 'patient' patient, so is not hard to look after at all. Except for some stubbornness about going to the hospital, which is understandable, he spent hours there this past week for tests and transfusions. And taking iron pills, which he says constipate him. But he's anemic, so he must take them.

Babs, try replacing salt with a mixture of tumeric, garlic powder (or even better, granulated garlic), onion powder, a touch of cumin, and a bit of celery seed. The American Heart Association used to have a recipe called "The Spice of Life". It was something to use in place of salt. It takes a few days to get used to the new flavors, but it's worth the trouble. If I can find the original recipe, I'll post it.

Thank you, DG, as it happens I have all of those on hand. I'll make up a little batch right now to test on him.

babthrower: Since you did not mention it, it would be helpful to have your husband raise his feet when sleeping and sitting. Also, before he gets out of bed, maybe with your help he can raise each leg up and down a few times so that the problem might possibly be less intense throughout the day. You have to continually check for any ulcers, and should they develop, you need to get a doctor to tend to them right away.

My legs cause me problems with discoloration, lumping of the skin, and swelling. I am supposed to walk, but I find that less salt, sugar, food period, and stress--along with more walking--keep the swelling away, although I seem to be stuck for life with the discoloration and lumping of the skin, unless I resort to creams which might cause worse problems. I have recently begun to exfoliate the skin, something likely out of the question for your husband, and this has helped a bit with the discoloration and lumping. Attention to diet, exercise, and stress yield the best results for me.