Question: Hello,

About a week ago, I noticed my left ankle was swollen, and a bit
red(looked like sunburn). No real pain, just a little tender to the touch.
Last Tuesday I went into a clinic and the provider there concluded I
had Cellulitis(based on physical exam and xray) and put me on a 10 day
regimen of Cephalexin.3 days later I went to a hospital emergency room,
primarily because my ankle was looking slightly worse(still very little pain, though),
and I was starting to doubt the diagnosis of Cellulitis. The doctor did his own
physical exam, and also ordered an xray, a CBC and CMP. All results were completely
normal. The doctor then told me I do not have an infection(nor Gout, which was
another possibility). He said it was 'dependent edema' and prescribed me a diuretic
and advised me to put a compression wrap on it daily. But, after thinking about
the former provider said, I don't want to risk not taking the antibiotics and allowing
this to spread to sepsis, if it does turn out to be an infection. So I've continued with
the antibiotics. But I really want to stop these if I can, because I know they cause
damage to the digestive and immune system. Can you please provide me your opinion
on what you feel this is(Cellulitis, dependent edema, or something else)? I know you
are at a disadvantage because you cannot see my ankle in person, so I will add some
additional facts to try to help:

- the area does NOT feel warm(which I've heard is one of the symptoms of Cellulitis)

- there are no signs of improvement even after taking antibiotics for 5 days now

- the swelling(but not the redness) is completely gone when I first wake up in the
morning, and gradually increases throughout the day)

- the only time it actually hurts(and only a little) is after lying down for a while.
I can walk with no pain.

- after wearing a compression wrap on the area for about 6 hours, the result
was that the ankle area was far less swollen, and less red. However, the areas
directly outside where the wrap was became red and swollen, and they weren't before.

- the last few months I've had lots of redness, and a little swelling, throughout
my body. Any kind of contact will cause this redness, and will usually fade away
in about 15-20 minutes. I'm wondering if the redness in my ankle area is more from
this condition than an infection.

I look forward to hearing your advice.

Thank you very much,
XXXXXXX