♪ Bon and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Well, hi there folks I'm Bob Schrupp physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck physical therapist.
- And we are most famous physical therapist on the internet.
- In our opinion of course Bob.
- Humble opinion.
Today we're gonna talk about three easiest ways
to stop leg/foot pain and swelling
at home without exercising.
- Yeah, this is a nice deal you know,
physical therapist promoting something without exercise,
doesn't happen a lot - Right, right.
And no pastry either. - Yeah.
- We don't want that either.
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That's all I have to say.
- Excellent job, Bob.
Once again, you continue to amaze our viewers.
- Yeah.
- So this is something that I wanted to bring up.
We got leg pain, foot pain,
oftentimes associated with swelling.
There's typically two categories.
Oftentimes if you sprained your ankle,
or some kind of traumatic injury,
swelling and pain associated.
And the treatment for that as well
as people have chronic swelling.
Oftentimes from congestive heart failure,
or some other issues related to the heart,
the fluid, the lymph. - Gathers in the leg.
- Yep, gathers in the legs. - Right.
- And it doesn't come up.
And you can get dramatic swelling in the ankles.
- Oh yeah absolutely.
- Associated with pain. - Gain quite a bit of weight.
- Exactly, yeah. - Yes
- It can be a real serious problem if it gets carried away.
So we're gonna talk about three easy solutions,
relatively easy solutions.
But you need to know what to do and when to do it.
- And when it's safe to do it. - Right, exactly.
- We gotta make sure that you're always,
you know, following the medical advice
that your physician may be giving to you.
- Exactly, so first of all,
if you do have swelling,
whether it's from an injury or it's chronic.
Elevation is one of the things that's pretty safe to do.
I don't think you have to get a hold of a doctor.
- Right.
- So laying down the rule of thumb
is elevate the swell part.
In this case the leg,
higher than the heart. - Than the heart, right.
- So you can do that laying in bed
or on your couch whatever.
I should maybe get a pillow here Bob.
- Sure
- So you can just take two or three pillows
and put them underneath your legs.
Particularly the the calf.
- yeah, this wouldn't be enough.
- Yeah, that would be not enough.
(laughing)
Probably two pillows, you know.
Even if I put another pillow here.
- [Bob] Your just not even then.
- It's better than flat.
- [Bob] It's better but look,
it's still below your heart.
- Right.
So stick pillows as needed,
'cause you wanna be comfortable.
One thing we really like if you have chronic problem.
- [Bob] And that shows you why,
because you need so many pillows,
but you could do it with one leg wedge.
- Yep.
- [Bob] These are nice.
- And they're not that expensive.
- [Bob] Yeah, they're nice for back pain too.
- Yeah, so we get that.
Now our elevated, it's very comfortable.
I've had almost all my patients say this feels good.
It elevates, it's comfortable.
And you can do your ankle pumps.
- [Bob] Yes, you got room.
And you also had mentioned in the past Brad,
that some of these are a little bit longer in length.
- Right, yeah.
- [Bob] So if you're like me,
you're gonna have a lot of leg sticking out over the edge.
- If you're taller than six foot,
you'll wanna get.
And they show dimensions from this corner on,
and that's for the taller people.
- [Bob] They must have different heights too, don't they?
- Yeah, I believe so.
Typically, I believe this is eight or 10 inches.
And that's typically enough for most people.
- [Bob] So just pay attention to that.
- Yeah, exactly.
So the other thing you can do.
If it is a problem from an injury,
and it's swelling like a sprained ankle.
You can do this and you could put a cold pack
around your ankle or knee.
Whatever it is that's swollen.
And that'll be beneficial for 10 to 20 minutes.
Usually people that have chronic swelling the lymphedema.
Cold packs are not used with that.
- Right, right.
- There may be exceptions,
but you'd wanna get that from your doctor or therapist.
- [Bob] If you have chronic swelling.
This is a great position because of the exercise.
You can do the exercise in this position.
- Even though we mentioned without exercises,
you can you can augment and help with ankle pumps.
It's very simple.
- Butt squeezes too - Oh yeah.
And there's a size we've got a really nice video by Erin.
- [Bob] Sure.
- Our guess therapist who is certified in this.
On how to do massage for lymphedema.
And if you look up on Google Bob and Brad.
- [Bob] Self massage too.
- Yep, self massage for lymphedema.
Erin will go through that in an excellent way.
Anything else with elevation Bob.
- [Bob] That covers it.
- Good, good, excellent.
So next one, number two.
Now this one is very commonly used
is compression garments.
- Yes.
- Now, when I first was in therapy,
and I didn't have this as at school.
I thought, well,
if you put some kind of compression garment on your leg
to squeeze that fluid out.
You wanna get a nice tight.
The tighter the better.
Not that case whatsoever. - No, that's a no.
- You're gonna get in trouble with this.
- We'll show you why.
- Right, exactly.
So compression garments.
You can use a strap. - Sure.
- Or a comprilan which is a higher grade,
it's got some special qualities.
- Doesn't stretch as much and so it doesn't,
- It doesn't get too tight.
- Right it doesn't get too tight.
- We're not getting into that with this video,
because there's some skill involved.
- Right.
- You have to be taught how to wrap it properly.
The two things that are much easier.
And this is commonly used in the medical field is tubigrip.
It's not that expensive,
and it comes in a big long roll.
You can buy it by the foot,
or you can buy a whole roll.
And it's a tubigrip because it's just that,
It's a tube
- And it grips.
- Yeah it grips.
You can actually use it on your arms.
I've used it with patients on their arms or legs.
Let's say you have swelling from your Knee on down.
What we need to get is something
about 15 to 20 millimeters of pressure.
That's how they measure it,
and you can ask tubigrip comes in different sizes.
It's known by letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
You do have to look that up.
The girth of your leg versus the size of this.
A therapist or you buy it,
they should have specifications on it.
If you do have chronic swelling.
Bob, you mentioned this before.
You're not going to wanna do this.
- Unless you got it okayed with your physician.
- Get it okayed with your doctor.
Because if you bring the swelling out of your legs too fast.
It can overwhelm the heart. - Yes
- It can be a very critical situation.
- Yes, and so your physician will guide you
as to whether or not something like this is even advisable.
- Exactly
- We should explain Brad that,
when there's fluid in the leg like this,
for it to go out of the leg,
it doesn't seep out of the toes.
(laughing)
It's got to go back up into your body.
- Right. - Into the abdomen.
Where it's processed,
and then you pee it out basically.
- Right, exactly.
- So you got to have it,
so that basically is trying to encourage
the fluid to go this way.
- Right.
But if it's too tight,
the fluid, the lymphedema is just under the skin.
And that's why if you have too tight,
it actually collapses the pathways.
And it gets stuck in there in there.
And then you know, if this is too tight.
I've seen people with this too tight.
And all of a sudden,
and they always recommend not having the toes up.
It gets swollen up toes and foot here,
it creates like a tourniquet here.
- So instead of helping,
it actually makes it worse.
- Right.
- It absolutely can.
You're gonna show the tourniquet effect too, weren't you?
- Right, exactly.
And actually, I'll do one more thing before that.
One thing I've learned is
if you get two fingers under there easily.
- Oh yes.
- you know, if you gotta fight
to get your fingers under there,
it's too tight.
So that's one little thing.
- So again, it's encouraging it,
to push it up into the body there.
- Right.
Lizz you may wanna zoom in on this.
A lot of times, especially with the tubigrip.
You have to be careful, rolls down like this.
And you can see that'll create,
what we call a tourniquet effect.
Right around here.
Now, if you have a lot of fluid.
and that's on there for like a half an hour,
and you roll this down.
You'll see a noticeable indent.
- Yeah.
- Right around the skin. - Crease
- Yep, all the way around.
And that's a tourniquet.
It will not allow the fluid to come forward.
It's actually causing harm.
- I've seen on TED stockings a lot too.
- Oh, sure yeah.
- The white stockings that you see.
And people you pull them down and like they got,
a big line there - The ring.
- It's like those things aren't helping them.
- Yeah exactly.
So tubigrip's really good way.
Particularly for short term.
they do to make compression stacks.
And actually this is kind of a sporty looking one.
People who are runners and athletes,
they actually use us for better circulation.
- Yeah they are starting to use them too for now.
- Yeah. - Right.
- There's some studies showing that's beneficial.
You can use them.
I got one for my mother.
Now, these are more difficult to put on than the tubigrips.
- Yes they are.
- Both my mother and father.
They didn't like these,
'cause they were too hard for them to get on.
But I got one on this leg.
Now these are like 20 millimeters of pressure down here,
and it actually releases
and gets looser up here which is good.
- Right.
- Helps that flow going up.
And these got a nice,
the materials nice up here.
So it doesn't turn wanna tourniquet.
- Sure. - Yeah exactly.
- And the thing is,
you can get custom socks too. - Yeah
- That they actually take measurements
at your ankle calf - Right.
- and all that - Exactly
- Then they fit you out.
But they also are difficult to put on.
- Right.
- And people always have trouble with it.
- Exactly, so it depends on the person.
If you're elderly,
or you have problems reaching down to do that,
you may need some help.
- You may have to have someone
that puts them on for you every morning.
- Right. So again, if you're young and healthy,
and you got an ankle sprain.
You know, you may not probably won't need
a doctor's prescription to do some of these things.
It's more of the people that have compromised problems
with their heart.
Usually elderly people is pretty common with.
- And you wanna get it checked out.
- Exactly. Also, if you have skin.
Open wounds, any skin problems.
You gotta be really careful with that.
- And the problem is,
sometimes swelling creates open wounds.
viability of the skin becomes less.
- Exactly.
- You get weeping.
- It's crazy how much water you get on the leg?
- Yeah, I mean both.
We've seen where people get so much fluid,
the skin is tight.
The hair actually falls off.
It's shiny. - Yeah.
- If you're at that level you need to see a doctor.
- Yeah, you need some guidance.
- You do.
- Some professional guidance.
- Because that fluid can actually go right through the skin,
and it gets wet and it's not healthy at all.
We do have one more option Bob.
I want to bring up is.
- You wanna bring it over to you.
- Yeah, well bring it out.
Now, this is something.
If you're not too seriously involved,
or you get the okay from your doctor or therapist.
You can just put your foot in this foot massager.
The neat thing about this foot massager,
it blows up and it puts compression on,
while it massages .
So it gives you the same benefits
that the compression stockings or the tubigrip does.
Plus it offers massage to the bottom of the foot.
So it feels good.
- Yep, feels really good. - Yeah
- It's got different settings.
I would say if you have a size foot bigger
than 12 larger than 12. - Yeah
- It's probably too won't fit in here,
mine's at 12 and I'm pretty much to the limit.
If I think 13 would be too much.
- We've we've used this on a number of patients.
- Yeah.
- And they've ended up wanting one for at home.
- Yeah, I haven't found anybody yet
that doesn't loved this thing.
I mean, seriously,
but I'm sure the day's gonna come.
- Sure.
You know it's adjustable.
It's how much pressure and how much massage goes on there.
- Works well for neuropathy too.
- Sure, sure. - I mean
my office manager loves it for that.
- Make sure that you know,
the doctor is fine with you using
some compression garment or like this.
If they're fine with the compression garment.
They should be fine with this.
- Right, It's good thing.
You know, we're getting a little bit off on a tangent here,
but it's actually good just for foot pain too.
- Sure, yeah.
- Just works so well for that.
- Good for circulation.
- Wooshy squeezing.
- Be careful Bob.
Alright Bob.
Once again we continue to,
now this is related to the heart, you know.
- We can fix just about anything.
- Except for a broken heart.
- There you go.
- But we'll try to fix it. - Yeah, I don't know.
These socks, well, we'll see it.
Look at that baby, you can stretch it out.
- Yeah.
- All right, take care, thank you.
(bubbling music)