I am a 45 yr old female. I work in a freezer environment everyday. I just started working in the cold temperatures in the past 3 months. I get very winded with simply lifting an occasional heavy box and I have to catch my breath. Also, I have always worked on my feet but recently my legs from the knee down have been swelling after 10 hrs of work. My blood pressure is 115/59, should I be alarmed with heart trouble?
Thanks for your question on Chat Doctor. There are many causes for shortness of breath with bilateral pedal edema. The common ones are1. Cardiac cause (heart failure)2. Low serum protien3. Low hemoglobin4. Varicose veins (you are standing more at your work)5. Postural edemas I advise you to get done1. ECG2. 2D Echo, to rule out cardiac cause. If both are normal than no need to worry about cardiac cause. Get done CBC (Complete Blood Count) and protein level to rule out anemia and Hypoprotienemia respectively. If all these are normal than mostly you are having positional edema.