'em Pesky Piles

At this late in my pregnancy, just when everything seems to be going smooth sailing, I just had to experience sore piles.

Also called hemorrhoids, piles is an agonizing condition caused by irritation of veins from the rear end. They are awful! Hurts so much and now I'm wondering if the swelling will stay on and affect me over the next couple of weeks until I go into labor. I sure hope not!!!

I did my research on this and I should stock up on my fibre intake and consume lots of fruits/vegetables. That's basically all I had been doing the last couple of days...

At the same time, I also picked up a couple of tips from friends who have gone through this and they recommended a couple of tips to ease the discomfort:

1) Soak in warm water several times a day. This is absolutely soothing.
2) Dap don't wipe when cleaning that area.
3) Apply coconut cream to the infected area. Apparently this works wonders.

The worst for me was when I started bleeding! Yeah, that scared the crap out of me as I was not sure whether it was just because of the piles or what. At that point, I was concerned that the baby will be affectd so I went straight to my Ob/Gyn as I did not want to take any chances. The bleeding was because the piles burst.

In addition, she prescribed me medication to help my little "piles" situation. 5 continuous days on both internal and external applied medication, morning and night, I now feel as good as new!!! :)

Cankles alert! What happened to my ankles?

I know swollen ankles, feet, hands and face are quite normal for many during pregnancy, but not in my case. No, no, no! Bloating and water retention are no pregnancy symptoms of mine... at least not that I know of...
 

Yet today, as I gazed down at my puffy-looking feet and, omigod, I can't see my ankles anymore!!! They have somehow merged with my calves.

Could I have grown cankles (calf and ankles combined) overnight??!!?? Is that even possible???

I have been walking alot more than usual the past few days as I've been busy playing host to colleagues from out of town and country during the evenings of our Marcom Asia team off-site meeting. Not to mention eating alot too! :) Amazing how only today, after everyone's made their way back, that I only noticed the swelling... I guess the exhaustion of the events of this week finally caught up with pregnant me huh?

Hmmm, I did read somewhere that there are a number of things that one can do to ease swollen feet during pregnancy. Perhaps today's my chance to put them to the test! :) Although, I do think that this is only temporary and a result of my over-exertion of the past few days.

My first instinct was to soak them in warm water to help relieve the swelling and also possible spasms. 15 minutes in luke warm water and they feel as good as new!

I also managed to get my loving husband to gently massage both my feet to soothe the swelling and stimulate circulation. *heavenly* Ooooh, the man can be so good with his hands!!! (I knew there was a reason why I married him - one of which is this) *wink* :)

Just to make sure I don't get feet spasms, I also made sure to regularly stretch and flex my feet (while sitting down, lying...) - basically any opportunity I can - and put a small pillow under my knees while I lie on my back to sleep (as advised by my OB-gyn - keeping knees bent while sleeping minimizes leg cramps).

Oooh, perhaps this is the perfect excuse and timing for me to go shopping for more comfortable, flat shoes this weekend... you think???