in the middle of Endovenous Ablation
 

which is laser surgery to remove varicose veins. I have to have two per leg to get rid of the deep veins, then I will be having Micro Phelbectomy on both legs to get rid of the smaller knotty type veins and then on to the Sclerotherapy to get rid of the blue spider veins. Many more visits to the doctor than I thought would be involved. I just had the second of the first four laser treatments. So far it has not been to bad, my first leg is extremely bruised and quite tender along the line of the vein but not unbearable. The second surgery was done today so I assume that leg will also be quite bruised. I have to wear heavy weight elastic stockings now and for two weeks following the last procedure so I am assuming I will be in these things for at least three weeks, I can take them off to sleep and shower but they are a pain. I inherited the varicose veins from my mom. She has them very bad and had two of the old fashioned vein stripping operations when she was younger, but her legs are still almost solid purple from her calves to the to top of her feet so I guess I am lucky mine are not nearly as bad.

So has anyone had these procedures? I am actually more nervous about the next step since it involves small incisions but the doctor keeps assuring me it will be easier than the laser treatments

BTW I have had sclerotherapy, it was about 4 years ago, that doc wanted to remove the deep veins at the time but he did not use the laser procedure so I put him off. He did say that the spider veins would come back if I did not get rid of the main veins and he was right. I HATE my legs, between the veins and the freckles they are fugly:( My sister said the same thing about hers, we have tried to use cover up crème in the past but when your legs are freckled it makes using it hard since it is hard to blend it in. If you have no v. veins and no freckles you are lucky:)

I love my freckles!!!!!

well all right all right then:thumbup: If I did not have the V veins it would not bother me as much, however I still long for those smooth olive skinned legs like my friends with mediterranean heritage have.

But then I guess I should be grateful I have legs that work OK, watching Dancing with the stars and one of the contestants has two prostatic legs:(

Yeah I've learned in the last few years that you can live without certain body parts and be okay... It's not fun, people stare and whisper but I just figure it's because they haven't had to worry about cancer or other illnesses that threaten to take those body parts.

If I had a choice between freckles and boobs, I'd choose to have boobs!

Spray tan ! Them you will have those color legs ;)

Hon . . You look great just the way you are. Everyone wants with the other has. I hated my legs. Thought they were fat. Never wore shorts. . . .now . . . I wear shorts. Could not care less. I saw a larger sized woman in the mall wearing shorts. I figured if she is comfortable walking around with them. Why shouldn't it. And anyway, I really don't care anymore what others think lol

Varicose veins are painful, aren't they? My dad has one in the leg he broke the ankle on years ago. I'm not sure if the pain is from the vein or the old fracture. He has talked about having something done about the vein, but never followed up.

I am fascinated by these procedures, so I will be interested to hear how it goes for you. The old-fashioned stripping I never understood. How do they take out leg veins and have the body/skin still work??

My maternal grandmother has legs that look like roadmaps. I take after dad's side of the family and have arm veins that pop out when I am hot. I've had a little spider webbbing appear on my legs when I'm not getting the right nutrients, but they go away.

I don't have any experience with varicose veins, it doesn't sound like fun at all. I hope your remaining procedures go without too much pain and with no complications.

A lot of varicose veins are painful. But some aren't...I have one in my right leg that I've had for years - and oddly it's never bothered me a bit...maybe bc I'm a runner so I get good circulation in my legs..? I dunno.

As far as removing them and why it's okay -- when our veins lose function, we build what are called "collateral veins" - little offshoots that then function to move blood...so that's why it's okay to remove the nonfunctioning guys.

My wrist / lower arm veins pop too! It's so weird looking, but kinda cool too bc it's kind of fascinating. It'll sometimes happen when I'm hot or when I'm dehydrated (which makes no sense to me, that one).

yes Ann is right,

the first doc was weird and never explained things well so I did not want him to work on the Saphenous veins. I was nervous about having that vein removed because I heard if you ever need a bypass they use that vein. This time I choose a doc that is a cardio vascular surgeon so not only does he do vein surgery he also treats cardiac patients. He explained to me that my saphenous veins would NEVER be used for bypass because they are in bad of shape and the outcome would be good if they were used, he said no decent cardiac surgeon would use them. Once I understood that I felt better about having them shut down. The do not actually take them out, the laser renders them useless so they close down and eventually the body absorbs them.

Varicose veins occur when the vein walls loose elasticity and they stretch, then the valves that open and close to allow you blood to flow from you lower body back to you heart start to malfunction and keeps the blood from flowing easily back to the heart. This causes pooling of blood in the lower part of your leg which is why so often the areas below your knee and especially around your ankles have the most visible blue veins.

These elastic stocking are the worst part of the whole thing, and I am pretty sure I have three more weeks to wear them:(

Thank you Ann and Donna for the explanation.

Donna, the elastic stockings would drive me nuts too! I had to wear the knee highs once, and those were enough.

I have no varicose veins but my Mother did, suppose my daughter might some day?:(

I am intrigued by the process you are going through, best of luck with it all.

today at 4 I will have the third laser treatment, I am still going to the gym every morning which the doctor said is OK. Thank God for good insurance. I checked with Blue Cross to make sure that it was covered like the doc said it was. Thankfully it was, but the charges so far made me wince. The first appointment with the ultrasound was close to $600.00 my co pay was $25.00. Each laser treatment which I will have 4 of is $2600.00 and there is no copay. So before I have the mini phelbectomy and the spider vein therapy it will have cost over $10,000:eek:. Over the 24 years I have had this insurance I have never spent much so to me this is huge amount

Good luck. I hope everything goes well today

So that you needed to go thru that painful surgery, hope the healing process goes well!

Take care my friend !

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