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Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar?
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 TL;DR: Legs continually swollen and achy with weight gain, lots of blood tests and heart exams that have come back normal, doctors stumped and doesn't appear to be overtraining.

Not seeking medical advice, just wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience. Several weeks ago, I had an odd virus where I had body aches, occasional fever and fatigue, but none of the symptoms I usually get when I'm sick (runny nose, congestion, coughing, sore throat). After 4 days of bed rest, I started feeling better and hopped back on the bike. I ride every day commuting to work during the week and then going on longer rides on the weekends. I noticed about a week after returning to cycling that my legs felt odd and more fatigued than normal but continued to train and won a crit via a solo break. Continued riding with odd weariness in the legs and began bonking on the short ride home from our local Thursday evening crits, which was very atypical as I usually have plenty of fuel to get me home and more. A few days after the second Thursday evening crit, my legs started feeling swollen all the time and I gained ~12 pounds over that weekend, which alarmed me. I've been racing at 157lbs all season and shot up to 169/170 from Friday evening to Sunday evening, and my legs felt from that point on have fel constantly fatigued, swollen, and weren't recovering per normal overnight. Went to the doc and got a few blood tests with everything coming back normal except for a high creatine kinase count (459), so the doc advised me to stay off the bike for a week. A teammate of mine who's a doc referred me to a sports medicine doc to rule out heart issues, and I got more blood tests that Friday and an EKG, all of which came back normal (including a CK test), so I hopped back on the bike. Got another blood test the following Monday and my CK count came back in the normal range after riding all weekend (203) and I was feeling better.

Tested the legs a bit the following Wednesday to see how they'd fare and how I'd recover overnight, and everything seemed fine again. Raced Thursday evening and finished 6th, then bonked again on the way home and the swelling, achiness, and lack of recovery has returned and remained ever since, regardless of how hard or long I ride (haven't trained with my usual intensity for weeks now). Went back to my doc and got a blood test for thyroid issues and the result came back normal (TSH was 0.779) Got an echo and the sonographer said that it was "beautiful", so I could rule out heart issues, but he recommended I check for autoimmune diseases.

Doc now wants to try a CPET/VO2 max test to ensure my engine is ok and look at my iliac arteries as well but is admittedly puzzled and said it doesn't appear to be overtraining given the leg swelling. One final odd symptom: went swimming with my kids in local rivers because it was hot. The first time I went up to my waist and once I got home, my legs were burning and it felt like I'd slathered them in Icy Hot. The second time I swam underwater and upon returning home, both my arms and legs were burning and stayed that way until I went to sleep. It seems the cold water "awakened" something up in my system to cause this...a different sensation from the fatigue I've had in my legs. Weight is now remaining around 167-169 when I've been racing at 157 all season and riding doesn't appear to help with weight loss even though I'm eating less as well.

Sorry for the long post - just checking to see if anyone's had something like this before.
Last edited by: yftoad: Aug 23, 16 10:09
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Re: Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar? [yftoad] [ In reply to ]
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Highly doubtful but might want to rule out Kennedys Disease.

Formerly TriBrad02
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Re: Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar? [yftoad] [ In reply to ]
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Sounds a lot like PMS symptoms. Hormonal funkiness?
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Re: Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar? [lam] [ In reply to ]
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Ha - maybe PMS, 'cept I'm a dude.
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Re: Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar? [yftoad] [ In reply to ]
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Just a thought but check for DVT blood clots and pulmonary embolism if you have any shortness of breath.. cheers LARob
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Re: Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar? [TriBrad02] [ In reply to ]
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TriBrad02 wrote:
Highly doubtful but might want to rule out Kennedys Disease.
Hmm...no tremors or cramping to speak of, but just muscle fatigue and the burning sensation when in contact with cold water.
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Re: Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar? [hercules] [ In reply to ]
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hercules wrote:
Just a thought but check for DVT blood clots and pulmonary embolism if you have any shortness of breath.. cheers LARob
Thanks, @LARob - no shortness of breath thus far or any noticeable issues with my heart. Primary issue is the swelling and discomfort in my legs and weight gain.
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Re: Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar? [yftoad] [ In reply to ]
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Good news on the "no shortness of breath" the only reason I mentioned it was back in 2012 when I had my DVT and PE I really didn't have any symptoms or so I thought, but when I look back I first noticed when I would go out for a run all was fine but as soon as I stopped my knee would just burn like crazy for a while and it felt swollen, then would just go away so I never took much notice of it but that now was probably the start of the DVT blood clot that went from my groin to ankle in around 3 months before the PE hit me, so I just wanted to mention it when you said you felt your legs swell as I know now that is another sign of blood clots.

Good luck with finding out what is going on as I know myself how frustrating things can be when you know something is wrong but can't get to the bottom of it. Cheers LA Rob
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Re: Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar? [yftoad] [ In reply to ]
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I went through a similar issue back in 2014, about 12 weeks out of Kona, with the leg swelling. Gained 6 pounds in each leg. No fatigue though. My lymph nodes in my groin were the size of almonds (in the shell). Certain, can't remember which, blood levels were off the charts. I literally saw 4 specialist is 2 days (Kaiser Rocks) and had one of the nodes surgically removed. Oncologist thought I had lymphoma. To this day, no one has a clue to what it was.... The swelling took forever to go down and seemed to migrate from my legs to all my joints. Training was fine throughout the entire experience but still was about 6 pounds heavy in Kona 12 weeks later... Weird shit that was never explained!

Team Every Man Jack

http://www.teamemj.com
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Re: Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar? [hercules] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks, LA Rob! Maybe I should get that looked at. Was your DVT on one side only, or both legs? I've got pretty equivalent discomfort/swelling in each leg. Appreciate your feedback!
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Re: Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar? [yftoad] [ In reply to ]
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Just the one leg at that time, started behind the knee but they can happen anywhere in the leg, probably is not this but when you are trying to rule all issues out it doesn't hurt to cover all the bases to ask the doctors as I find they are only as good as your inputs and questions. As like my issue I had every test under the sun, from heart scans to an angiogram, stress test you name it, only by chance when went to see a gastro doc he did a full body CT scan and found my PE which then led them to find the blood clots as no one suspected PE and DVT. Cheers LA Rob
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Re: Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar? [dmounts] [ In reply to ]
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Wow! That's crazy. Hoping what's ailing me is something viral in my system that just needs to work its way out. Just weird to be captive to my own body when I'm not actually sick (at least not that I can tell, anyway!). Glad yours got resolved!
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Re: Swollen legs, fatigue & odd weight gain - anyone experience something similar? [yftoad] [ In reply to ]
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Yftoad - curious if your symptoms ever went away? I have experienced the exact same symptoms over the last five months have gone to so many specialists with all tests coming back negative. Please let me know! Thanks, Pete
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