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Hello all. I am interested in finding information about varicose veins as I have recently begun the process of trying to get my condition eliminated. If anyone can answer one, some or all of my questions I would greatly appreciate it.

1) Has anyone undergone the EVLT procedure? If so, could you share your experience with it good or bad, please?

2) How readily do vascular surgeons treat varicose vein problems that are not deemed medically necessary? Will a vascular surgeon possibly perform the procedure if I can afford it but it's not medically necessary or do I have to seek out a cosmetic surgeon for these purposes?

3) I have been warned against ever having slerotherapy performed. Has anyone had this procedure done? Do you agree or disagree with these statements? What was your experience?

4) Has anyone out here had VNUS closure? How was your experience?

5) Has anyone had success with natural remedies? What was the extent of your success? Was it elimination of pain or elimination of the cosmetic problem or both? If there was an elimination of the cosmetic problem what was the extent (did you get rid of the bulges?, did you get rid of the visibility of the blue veins that were not bulging?, did you get rid of the appearance of the vein completely?)

bear with me---im not sure of all the terms of the procedures i had done, but ive had alot done! i got vericose veins from pregnacy, then worsened from my job which requires standing all day. it took me years to find a doc to perform anything on me. i had several dopler tests--all came back that my blood was flowing in the right direction, and not being blocked from my veins. as far as listening and helping me------they did nothing! told me they arent that bad, and the pain was something fierce, they told me to wear support hose. i had 4 veins in the back of my leg, but one which went all the way up my leg into groin area! they were big and painful. i wore support hose---drove me CRAZY, give me a break, in the summer!! finally i went to a doc that listened, he performed a surgery which tied my veins off, he made tiny incisions all over my legs. wrapped them and im telling you, they havent came back, and i dont have any pain!!! i have 2 places i have pretty bad spider veins(ugly) i had those injections done 3 times. insurance will not cover that, its considered cosmetic. anywayz 3 treatments later $750, they faded MAYBE A LITTLE----but still there. this affected my life, im only 31, had this done almost 3 years ago. im just happy someone listened, and i no longer have pain. the downfall is, they can come back---especially with another pregnacy. so far so good though. good luck to you. this has got to be common amongst ALOT of women. :wave:

I wonder what the average costs of some of these procedures are. I have been told that the following reflects the average cost per leg for varicose vein procedures:

Stripping $3000-4000 per leg
Endovenous Laser Therapy or EVLT $2500 per leg
VNUS Closure $2000-2500 per leg
Sclerotherapy $100-200 per session (usually three to eight sessions per vein network

Is this accurate? If you have any ideas or information to add, let me know, please! I really need to have something done to my veins.

Also, if anyone has undergone any of these procedures and has any input for good or ill, please share.

Hi,
I've also been looking for the best preventions for my varicose veins. My legs are bad right now. I'm really nevous too on getting pregnant, I don't want mine to get worse than what they are. My doctor also stated that I should wait until after having my kids to do anything. Otherwise, I take Vitamin E, C, take fatthy acids, wear support knee highs, sleep with pillow's under my legs, walk every night, use a stool under my desk. I've been also looking into the best treatments for my varicose veins too. Mine hurt a lot but, I don't want to make more problems with the injections, that's why I'm going to wait until after I have my children to get them done. I've read something where the British are trying to pass something called Varisolve, it's a certain new type of injection foam that's supposed to be better then the normal surgeries that are out there today, but it doesn't look like it'll be passed until by the FDA anytime soon...hopefully 2007 they've stated. :wave:

Oop, I forgot to mention, I've read that EVLT is supposed to be a better procedure than the old stripping...longer lasting and better cosmetically. If I ever have to have anything done, I think I'd go with EVLT...unless they come out with a better procedure soon.

I'm praying :angel:

I've read somewhere that you're not supposed to where the full pantyhose support stockings, it can make your veins worse. I was wearing these full pantyhose for about 3 months and I noticed that my veins above my knees were getting worse and worse really quickly, now, I wear the knee high support Medi, and the veins seem to have stopped from getting worse, atleast for the time.

I have also read very promising things about the use of aortic glycosaminoglycans or aortic GAG's. However, I would discuss the use of this supplement combination with your doctor before using it.

I'm 16 and pretty young to have a varicose vein, but it started to appear and go down my leg last year. In December I had the Closure* procedure done. (I dunno if thats the VNUS thing or not, but that sounded familiar) I was walking around right after surgery and I was able to go christmas shopping the next day. It took care or my vein and I'm glad I had it done. There's a hardly noticable cut they made, (sort of like a cat scratch) and I have have to wear a support wrap for 2 months on my leg, but thats it! Our insurance covered my surgery, so it was only about $500 for us. I would look into it though, it's so worth it! lol, I sound like a sales ad, but I was really happy with it.

My 14 year old daughter had surgery for varicose veins on Dec 23. She had an ambulatory phlebotomy. They were all on her left leg from right above the knee down. She has 9 very, very tiny marks on her leg they look like tiny scratches barely visible. No swelling but alot of fading bruising(its only been 1 1/2 weeks).
She says that here leg already feels better than before the surgery. She has to wear a support bandage for 2 weeks. I hope this takes care of her problem. We were told by the vascular surgeon that the injections would not help her.

I'm 16 and pretty young to have a varicose vein, but it started to appear and go down my leg last year. In December I had the Closure* procedure done. (I dunno if thats the VNUS thing or not, but that sounded familiar) I was walking around right after surgery and I was able to go christmas shopping the next day. It took care or my vein and I'm glad I had it done. There's a hardly noticable cut they made, (sort of like a cat scratch) and I have have to wear a support wrap for 2 months on my leg, but thats it! Our insurance covered my surgery, so it was only about $500 for us. I would look into it though, it's so worth it! lol, I sound like a sales ad, but I was really happy with it.

I wonder if you might be willing to answer a few questions about your experience. How extensive were your varicose veins? How much did they bulge? How painful were they? If you don't mind my asking, is your weight what is supposed to be? Do you know why your insurance company was willing to pay for so much of the procedure?

I'm 16 and pretty young to have a varicose vein, but it started to appear and go down my leg last year. In December I had the Closure* procedure done. (I dunno if thats the VNUS thing or not, but that sounded familiar) I was walking around right after surgery and I was able to go christmas shopping the next day. It took care or my vein and I'm glad I had it done. There's a hardly noticable cut they made, (sort of like a cat scratch) and I have have to wear a support wrap for 2 months on my leg, but thats it! Our insurance covered my surgery, so it was only about $500 for us. I would look into it though, it's so worth it! lol, I sound like a sales ad, but I was really happy with it.

Oh, I had another question if you don't mind my asking. What is the likelihood of recurrence given to you by your doctor? Also, what concerns had he about your having children in the future and pregnancy possibly causing varicose veins at that time? Please let me know, if you can.

My 14 year old daughter had surgery for varicose veins on Dec 23. She had an ambulatory phlebotomy. They were all on her left leg from right above the knee down. She has 9 very, very tiny marks on her leg they look like tiny scratches barely visible. No swelling but alot of fading bruising(its only been 1 1/2 weeks).
She says that here leg already feels better than before the surgery. She has to wear a support bandage for 2 weeks. I hope this takes care of her problem. We were told by the vascular surgeon that the injections would not help her.

I am sorry but if you have the chance I have a few more questions. What is the prognosis? How likely is your daughter to suffer recurrences of varicose veins if she does not have children? How likely is she to suffer recurrences of varicose veins if she does ever become pregnant? Please let me know, if you don't mind.

I've also been looking into different types of treatments for myself, but pretty much everyone tells me to wait until after I have children to have anything done. The only thing that most doctors wanted to do was the injections, but I'm to nervous to get that done, hoping they'll come out with a better kind of injection for varicose veins than the solution they're using now.

I agree 100%, almost all doctors don't listen to people regarding their varicose veins, MOST...atleast from my own experiance think they're a cosmetic problem. Between them and insurance companies thinking this way, I don't know who's worse...I'd say they both are horrible. They have to stop thinking that varicose veins are mostly cosmetic. The pain that I have in my legs surely don't seem to be a cosmetic problem, I get pain when sitting in a car to long, standing, when I get my period especially, ect...so if you ask me, no mine aren't cosmetic. However, my doctors want to wait until after I have all my children to do any kind of surgery. I defintely got the run around like you wouldn't believe just to find someone that would do something for my veins, no luck though.

Hi Pfunk,

How bad are your veins? Have you had anything done to your veins yet? What have you done to try and prevent them from getting worse? I'm also trying to see if anything has helped anyone with their varicose veins. Thanks!!

Hi gypsy704,

I just wanted to say that I hope your daughter feels better soon, keep us updated on her. :angel:

Hi Pfunk,
I forgot to ask you earlier...does anything seem to be helping you now with preventions that you've tried or are trying? Have you had any procedures done to you legs? I'm only 28 years old and I'm wondering how bad my veins are going to have to get before any doctors would or will do anything for my veins. I understand that most doctors want to wait until women have all their children before doing anything to their veins, is this true? Thanks!!

Hi Airees. I have posted about the methods I have employed, I believe in response to one of your posts under this thread. I have tried lots of stuff. I don't know how to tell how much it is working. I don't know where they would be if I hadn't done anything, but I do know that I continue to see varicosities forming. However, it primarily seems to be extensions of varicose veins that were once only noticeable in my thigh, then a little further down around my knee and now I can see them although only faintly and deeper under the surface of the skin all the way down around my ankles. Also, however, I wonder if I were even more active if that would help even more but I try everything and they still continue to a certain extent and its so discouraging that I get so depressed.
The part that is awful is that in natural light the veins are not as noticeable as they are in stronger lights, as someone else had mentioned, but under the fluorescent lights at the gym or the halogen or incandescent lights in my home they look so horrible that I am convinced that something is terribly wrong with me and I become panicked.
Lets face it most medical allopathic doctors know nothing about this condition. Its a very poorly understood condition and the conventional doctors see varicose veins as a random harmless phenomenon rather than a potentially life threatening condition that can indicate much more deeply rooted cardiovascular problems such as coronary heart disease, abdominal tumors (be they malignant or benign), pelvic congestion syndrome that can destroy a woman's fertility and a host of other difficulties. Have you had these other possibilities ruled out?
I am not here to tell you what to do or what not to do and I certainly don't want to take responsibility for your decision because I don't even know what to do about my own condition but all the literature I have read says "NO" emphatically to having sclerotherapy performed. My doctor said only lasers or stripping! Another Doctor said that sclerotherapy whether traditional or ultrasound guided is an outdated primative procedure that should not be performed on superficial varicosities. I have read literature from other medical sources that say that the rate of recurrence is so high for sclerotherapy because it tends to treat the cosmetic symptoms rather than the causative factors. They close random segments of veins that can very easily reopen and become worse if the sclerotherapy is not done with the utmost expertise and in a systematic manner treating both the problem veins and the veins that feed the problem veins. I would not even consider sclerotherapy that does not involve ultrasound guidance because the doctor would have no way of actually knowing if he only closed a segment of a vein or the whole vein or if he has closed the junctions between bad veins and the problem veins feeding the bad veins. Finally, I have heard so many stories from patients (victims) of sclerotherapy about how it either didn't work, was so painful it was not worth it, or it caused the veins to become worse both in terms of aesthetics and pain.
I can't tell you for sure the best advice about pregnancy but all the information and risks associated with not doing something about it before becoming pregnant seems to make a hell of a lot more sense than the information that says to wait until after you have kids but that is a whole other post.

Thanks so much for your advise and you knowledge, it's so funny, I've been speaking to people on this healthboards and I'm learning and understanding varicose veins more than any vascular doctor has ever explained to me and I've seen many. I think as long as I speak with people like you, I'll learn to understand this disease more. I also get really depressed over my veins too, I look at them all the time and feel like I'm backed up against a wall with no where to go :confused:

I feel that if we sit back and don't complain enough, that no doctor or insurance company will ever understand what it's like to have this disease. This disease is not a cosmetic problem...it MUCH more than that.

I also have been trying a lot of different things to prevent them from coming or getting worse, nothing seems to help me. I'm taking everything they pretty much recommend for varicose veins from vitamin C, E, fish oil to enzymes that the body may be lacking, I also walk every night for about 45 minutes, I sleep with pillows under my legs, I work with a stool under my desk at work and I try to get up as much as possible to walk around, I also eat a very high fiber diet, I wear knee high support stockings, I guess it all comes down to our genes, my grandfather, mother, father, sister and brothers (2) all have them. Is there anyone in you family that also has this problem? It's so nice speaking with someone like you, I hope you don't mind that I'm chewing you ear off. If there's anything else that you can tell me, I'd greatly appreciate it. Do you have any children? I'm really, really scared to get pregnant. I'm planning on staying home when I do get pregnant to stay off my feet as much as possible. I really don't know what else to do.

Hi again pfunk,

I forgot to ask you, how many years have you had a problem with your varicose veins?

I don't have children. I have never been married. I am scared to death to have a baby. If my legs get much worse sometimes I think there may not be anyone interested in having a baby with me!

Hi Pfunk,

You're a BEAUTIFUL person, you will get married regardless of varicose veins. I also am scared too for getting pregnant, my husband and I are talking about getting pregnant next year, I used to be really excited and thought that getting pregnant me being exciting for me, now I really try not to think about it because I know I'm going to be in more pain than I'm in now. I definitely am thinking of staying home after 5 months of being pregnant to keep my feet up as much as possible. Do you think the insurance companies will ever really understand how important it is to have a procedure done if your veins are bad? Also, do you think that someone will come out with an easier procedure for varicose veins like an injection, not the saline kind that's out there now but, a better injection that will last longer and have less side effects. I guess I'm always praying and hoping there will be a better thing out there, so we wont have to think about it like this. :angel:
Thanks again for all your help and for being so kind to talk with me! :)

Thanks for asking. She is now 2 weeks post op. The area behind her knee has developed a large hematoma. It looks like a golf ball on the back of her knee. She went today for the doctor to try to draw some of the blood off and she was able of only get 2-3cc's. She has to go back in a week for the same thing. She says this is very unusual but it will probably take her body 2-3 months to absorb it. She will have to keep her leg wrapped in a special ace wrap for a while and no P.E. at school. The other incisions are barely visible though.

Hi Gypsy704,
I'm sorry to here that she developed a large hematoma, I hope everythine gets better soon for her. Did they get rid of all the veins that were there? I really hope she feels better soon. :angel:

Hi Pfunk,

I just did a search on the internet and found ELVes, that also looks promising. I wonder how much a this treatment will cost. If you had to get any procedure done would what kind would you do?

Pfunk,

Thanks so much for your help!!
I'm so nervous, every time I look at my legs I seem to be getting another veins in another area...it doesn't ever seem to want to stop. I'm scared that if I keep getting veins that are all over they're never going to be able to do surgery on all the veins, that I'm going to have no choice but to get some injections in those veins and surgery for the others. I am overweight, do you think that if I started walking and working out my legs more and loosing some weight that some of the veins will get a little better looking and feel better too? The last time I went to a vascular doctor he told me that the veins will only look worse once I loose weight, do you think this is true?
Thanks :angel:

Thanks so much pfunk,
I guess that if I loose weight and walk as much as possible maybe the veins that are already sticking out will go in a little and maybe it'll do some good. I hope this works for me. I'm willing to try anything at this point to help my veins with pain and apperance. If you have any other ideas, I'd be willing to try anything at this point :wave:

Does anyone who has had VNUS had their condition since a young age. I started showing symptoms when I was 5 and was diangosed with a venous malformation. I am now 42 and have been finally told that I have venous reflux disease and that the VNUS procedure will help. My concern is that if I cut my leg in any way, I bleed profusely. Has anyone had the VNUS procedure and had a bleeding complications during the procedure? I also have stains on my leg from the blood leaking out. Does anyone have that?:confused:

I have really bad varicose veins and broken blood vessels all over my legs. The problem is I've had them since I was 14 or 15 and I'm now 21 and am even more embarrassed about it now. Do you think that it could be deemed medically necessary since they started so young? What is the criteria?

Kelly

I had schlerotherapy done last week for spider veins. I have a few varicose veins, but the doctor refused to touch them because I smoke. Said something about them becoming infected??? The spider veins are slowly going away, thank goodness. I am very pleased. Total cost was $200.00. He told me I need to come back one more time. Also, with regard to the varicose veins, he told me that I could go see another doc about making a small incision in my groin area and the cost is around $3 grand. Insurance may or may not pay. No thanks.