Vein Procedure

Did you know that your vein could be heated up to 250 degrees? Well, that's just what my doctor did to help fix my veinous reflux (which basically means your blood flows the wrong way and causes pain). Hopefully this procedure works!

My right leg before surgery...The start of gross varicose veins. Thank dad for that gene!

Friday morning started out by getting measured for compression socks. I can't tell you how much I hate those things! Oh well, I'll be stuck in one for two weeks. Then I went into the outpatient surgery room for pre-op instructions. After I got dressed into a gown my doctor (Dr. Smith) came in with Dr. Chamberlain. They were both going to be in with me the whole time. They sterilized my leg and got to work. This is a rundown of the happenings:

1. Ultrasound. They needed to "map" out the vein with reflux. He started pushing a hard plastic straw thing all along my vein and watched it compress in the ultrasound. He pushed and twisted it hard enough to leave little circles on my skin. Anyone with reflux in their veins knows it hurts to even push on the vein so to push and twist on it with something hard hurt! I was thinking, "What did I get myself into!"
2. Drawing it out. He marked each red circle on my leg with a marker then drew the length of the vein with the marker.
3. Bee stings. Next Dr. Smith had to numb my vein. He started out by the knee. He said it would feel like a bee sting then a burn. I've never been stung by a bee but now I think I have the general idea! I had 8 "bee stings". Ouchie.
4. Catheter. I remember him saying, "Hand me the scalpel." Oh boy, here we go. He had to thread a catheter through the vein from my knee to the junction point near my groin. I couldn't look the entire time. (Trust me it's probably better that I didn't!) They had to do this in order to pull my vein farther away from my skin so I wouldn't feel the heat when they injected it. All I can say is that it felt gross when he pulled the catheter out!
5. Bring on the heat! The actual heating process took less than 2 minutes. It was just the prep work that took awhile. I felt a jolt when they first started. Not too pleasant. They did it 3 or 4 times while the doc pushed my vein down in different spots.
6. Yea, I'm done! They cleaned me up and the nurse helped me put on my compression sock. The whole procedure took 2 hours. I got scheduled for an ultrasound next Tuesday to see if the vein closed properly. I'll probably be getting my left leg done the end of June. I'll be glad when it's over!!

This picture was taken the day after my surgery. It looks gross. You can see where he drew my vein line and I don't know why it looks rashy. It also looks gross just being that white. I'll blame it on the flash.