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Living with PAD
Living with PADFollowing your treatment plan can go a long way to reducing your symptoms and helping you regain thefreedom you enjoyed before PAD. There are things you can do daily, in addition to your treatment plan, thatwill help you further reduce your pain and prevent long-term complications.Take special care of your legs and feet each day.Make sure to keep them clean and dry.Reduced blood flow to the lower legs and feet can make cuts and sores slow to heal and eventually, if leftuntreated, these minor sores can become serious complications.Check your feet daily for sores or injuries and treat them right away. Contact your healthcare provider if a cutdoes not seem to be healing.Keep your toenails trimmed. Wear properly fitting footwear at all times. That includes slippers.Everyday work to improve your circulation.Get up and move. Leave your work desk and walk around the office often. On long flights, walk the aisles.Maintain a healthy weight. If you are overweight, losing even 5-10% of your body weight can help reduce thesymptoms of PAD, help prevent the long-term complications of PAD and benefit your overall health in thefuture. Work with your healthcare provider to lose weight safely.And meet with your healthcare provider on a regular basis to ensure your medications are working to improveyour health and reduce your symptoms.To properly monitor the progression of PAD, your healthcare provider may perform an Ankle Brachial Testperiodically. Based on these results and other tests your medications may need to be adjusted.Make sure to attend all of your scheduled appointments, get your blood work done regularly, and monitor yourprogress.For some patients, your healthcare provider may recommend a procedure to help widen the arteries andrestore blood flow.“They found out that my arteries were all clogged up in my legs. So what they suggested on doing was to doangioplasty to try to put a stent in my right leg first.”One procedure is called angioplasty. It involves inserting a tiny balloon into the blocked artery and inflating it.The balloon presses the plaque against the artery walls, widening the artery so that blood flows easily again.The balloon is then removed.During this procedure, a small metal device, called a stent may be inserted.This stent will stay in place permanently, acting like a scaffold to keep the artery propped open, reducing therisk that it will narrow again.This program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.PRG10193B EN LivingWithPAD.pdf© The Wellness NetworkPage 1 of 2Living with PADFemoral artery bypass surgery is another procedure that may be recommended. Here, a healthy vessel takenfrom the leg or arm, or an artificial vessel, is grafted onto the artery above and below the narrowed, or blockedportion. This new pathway bypasses the blockage, restoring blood flow to that part of the body.Whatever treatment you and your healthcare provider decide is best for you; it is time to take PAD seriously.Find ways every day to reduce your symptoms and prevent long-term complications.Eventually you will be able to do many of the activities you once enjoyed living with PAD.This program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.PRG10193B EN LivingWithPAD.pdf© The Wellness NetworkPage 2 of 2
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