04-13-2018, 05:39 PM
Hey there 
I don't have PAH, and I've never heard anyone mention pain meds causing fluid retention, but I'm currently on Spironolactone @ 25mg in tandem with Furosemide @ 40mg. I can honestly say it's a real damn struggle managing fluid retention so I can certainly sympathise with you. I'm limited to a max of 1.5litres fluid intake per 24hrs which has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to try and live with day-to-day, it's just really not much fun being desperately thirsty all day every single day :'( oh and Spironolactone commonly causes breast enlargement in males when taken for long periods, so thats awesome too right? :
Anyways, for me, spreading out my 1.5litres through the day is key, keeping a complete food&drink diary helps with this tremendously since things like soup or milk in my cereal also need to be accounted for in that 1.5litres. Also, try and stay the hell away from salt (and ham/biscuits/cakes/anything processed really these days), which you are probably already doing because of the hypertension but even just small amounts make me noticeably retain more fluid than usual and of course makes me thirsty too :'( yay :p
Lastly, I've always been a gamer at heart, and long periods of being stationary whether standing or sitting or anywhere in between can be really bad for my legs swelling up, so as well as taking loads of little stretching breaks I also bought one of those mini-cycle things for under my desk to keep my legs moving while sitting at my pc. Not entirely sure if its just a placebo effect since my regular doctor actually laughed when I told her about it, but I saw there's one in every room when I was admitted to the transplant assessment centre after I had a teensy tiny little bit of a heart attack last year
Oh yeah I just remembered, in the evenings at home I usually have ice instead of an actual drink, sucking an ice cube or flavored ice pop/pole thingy is great for keeping the amount of fluid intake down
I don't have PAH, and I've never heard anyone mention pain meds causing fluid retention, but I'm currently on Spironolactone @ 25mg in tandem with Furosemide @ 40mg. I can honestly say it's a real damn struggle managing fluid retention so I can certainly sympathise with you. I'm limited to a max of 1.5litres fluid intake per 24hrs which has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to try and live with day-to-day, it's just really not much fun being desperately thirsty all day every single day :'( oh and Spironolactone commonly causes breast enlargement in males when taken for long periods, so thats awesome too right? :
Anyways, for me, spreading out my 1.5litres through the day is key, keeping a complete food&drink diary helps with this tremendously since things like soup or milk in my cereal also need to be accounted for in that 1.5litres. Also, try and stay the hell away from salt (and ham/biscuits/cakes/anything processed really these days), which you are probably already doing because of the hypertension but even just small amounts make me noticeably retain more fluid than usual and of course makes me thirsty too :'( yay :p
Lastly, I've always been a gamer at heart, and long periods of being stationary whether standing or sitting or anywhere in between can be really bad for my legs swelling up, so as well as taking loads of little stretching breaks I also bought one of those mini-cycle things for under my desk to keep my legs moving while sitting at my pc. Not entirely sure if its just a placebo effect since my regular doctor actually laughed when I told her about it, but I saw there's one in every room when I was admitted to the transplant assessment centre after I had a teensy tiny little bit of a heart attack last year
Oh yeah I just remembered, in the evenings at home I usually have ice instead of an actual drink, sucking an ice cube or flavored ice pop/pole thingy is great for keeping the amount of fluid intake down