well yesterday I went on to stage 2 in this process, the mini phlebectomy it was awful. Even though the dr. had said this procedure would not be as invasive or as hard as the laser treatments, I felt in my heart it would be worse, and it was. I was giving local anastisia by injections. Then he made little nicks with a blade in the area at the top and bottom of the veins he wanted to remove, and he pulled them out, and he had to pull hard. At first all I felt was the tugging but just the sensation of him tugging hard on my veins was nerve wracking, but then he came upon some areas that were not numb, so I felt like I was being sliced with a knife, so I started yelling for him to stop, which he did, and he numbed me more, then it was OK for a while until he moved to the second leg where the worst of the knotted veins were, I think perhaps it was to deep to get numb, so then I really started screaming and crying so he finally stopped. He said he thinks he got the majority out and the rest he can get with the injections when he does the spider veins. I drove home and drank half a bottle of wine to drown out the memory:D Now I have a break and return in a week to have the injection portion of the treatment. That will consist of lots of little needle pin pricks, not fun but it will not be nearly as bad as yesterday

In hind sight I think next time I will drink the wine prior to the appointment:D. I did tell him that I really think for that procedure I should have been given something in addition to the local, something that would have put me semi to sleep.

Yikes... certainly sounds painful !!

Donna, sounds like a nightmare and maybe something that should be done under general anesthesia! Ouch! I'm glad it is over for you. Hope you don't have any pain tonight or tomorrow. Stock up on the wine.

thanks guys, I have no pain at all, just a little bit of bruising. I just took off the bandages and had a shower, the good news is I do see some results already.

A friend of mine in NY sent me a link to the place in NY she has gotten her legs done at, although she was lucky and did not need the procedure I had yesterday. I found a video on that site that shows what I had yesterday, I could only watch a little of it, I found out they use a hook to pull the vein out, looks sort of like a crochet hook:eek: I do think if I ever have to do this again I will be looking into some form of anesthesia

you can read about the procedure here, but only look at the video if slightly gory medical stuff does not bother you.
Mini-Phlebectomy | The Vein Treatment Center