Brief Answer:
residual breakdown products of blood vs. venostasis vs. cellulitis

Detailed Answer:
Good afternoon. Thank you for your question. You've not said anything about whether or not you suffer from being overweight. These types of vascular symptoms are seen more often than not in patients who are at least modestly overweight or obese and come about from venostasis. They represent restriction to blood and lymphatic fluid flow mainly due to mechanical pressures and obstruction to the venous and lymph channels in the distal most parts of the lower extremities. If the extremities are not warm to the touch or tight in appearance, painful to the touch, and there is no sloughing of the skin then, I an infectious process may be less likely and especially since it affects both legs.

Nonetheless, I believe the possibility still exists that one could have an infectious problem such as cellulitis without the typical symptoms of bacterial invasion or infection. This is especially true in patients with immunocompromised situations such as MS being treated with immunodulatory drugs.

If, however, the reddened areas, as you say, developed following bruising in the lower extremities then, I believe it is possible that as a result of ecchymoses from either the ibuprofen or Tecfidera effects that the subcutaneous bruising has now converted into metabolic products to include hemosiderin and other pigmented metabolites giving your lower calves and legs the type of hue you mention along with the swelling.

One way to resolve this question would be to see a vascular medicine doctor and have a Doppler of the lower extremities performed in order to document blood flow and also to rule out any slight chance that a blood clot could be present (highly unlikely given your presentation but still worth looking at if go to the trouble of setting the study up).

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This query has utilized a total of 48 minutes of professional time in research, review, and synthesis for the purpose of formulating a return statement.

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