I went to Florida and all I got were these lousy cankles

I got home late Tuesday night (okay it was actually very early Wednesday morning) from a quick trip to Pompano Beach, Fl. Aunt Cecilia has had a place down there for about 10 years, so I was about a decade overdue for a visit to this sleepy little ocean front town that finds itself half way between West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale. There were 15 of us from the Suraci clan down there spread out between 3 condos. Mom and I shared an ocean front room on the 7th floor (the penthouse... kinda) and the view was awesome (so was the room).

But more on that in another post. This post is about my souvenir from the trip. Enter... Exhibit A.

These little piggies are not going to market.

It might be a little difficult to tell from this photo, but typically you can actually tell where my lower leg stops and foot begins. What you're looking at here is a common side effect of Taxotere called edema. Unfortunately, I didn't notice it until we were on our way through security to board a flight back to VA. A quick check of the internet proved to be less than helpful. Search results produced everything from This is very common, just be sure to keep your feet elevated and also be sure to get up and walk around once an hour to OMG you have a blood clot and you'll probably die of an aneurysm if you get on a plane. A call to the on-call doctor (why does this stuff always happen after business hours) - I'm going to refer to him as Dr. Jerkface - wasn't much help either. 

Fortunately, the flight home was an uneventful one and I made a call to my real doctor first thing the next morning. She had me come in for an appointment - just as a precaution - then sent me over to the hospital for a sonogram (another precaution). While edema is quite common and usually goes away on its own, its symptoms are also similar to that of a blood clot. Increased risk of blood clots includes things like flying, having cancer, and receiving chemotherapy. And treatment consists of blood thinners. 

Good news... no blood clots! 

Edema is sometimes treated with waterpills. But apparently those come with their own side effects and potential complications. So for now... fat feet it is!