DaveQ24

I decided not to push my luck and ride this week.

This was my 8th and hopefully final procedure to deal with bad veins in my legs. Had this done Monday - still really swollen to about twice normal and painful. None of the rest have been like this. Dr warned me - he saved this for last, some very superficial/surface veins that he said were close to nerve endings, this one would hurt more. He was right .

More swollen, more painful but much less bruising than prior procedures - go figure. This is normal post-procedure stuff, just a little more significant than average.

I can't recall all of them, but I think it was 4 ablations and 4 microsurgeries. Done!

Anyone considering this for medical reasons - not fun but hardly the worst thing. But well worth it. I had veins bad enough some were ulcerated and bled. Good relief from that, pain, itching, swelling

DaveQ24

Carbon fiber with trendy paint and decals?

peterws

You talkin' 'bout varicose veins, then? Surely it's an older cyclist's badge of honour. And if you're a New Zealander, you won't feel the pain . . . .(London Olympics, velodrome crash)
I told my granddaughters they were the latest tattoos . . . .

DaveQ24

Only this very last procedure. Most of them, about 90%, were deeper veins, primarily the saphenous veins. I guess, technically, these all qualify as "varicose veins" because they are part of the "superficial" venous system, as opposed to the "deep" venous system ( iliac, femoral, popliteal, and tibial veins).

I guess you could consider it a "badge of honor" as long as it doesn't get the point an ulcerated vein bleeds and won't stop - not fun having to drain the blood out of your shoe every 20 minutes, which I've done at the ER/Urgent Care. This wasn't cosmetic - I posted this (there was originally a picture) to try to encourage people to consider this as a treatment option if it would help them.

For some unknown reason, I seem to have this desire to live, even when everything tells me otherwise. This is part of that.

doctor j

I did not realize the vein thing could get that bad. Thanks for posting. Additional evidence that aging is not for the faint of heart.

rumrunn6

feel better soon

BobbyG

I'm sorry, I accidentally posted something non-pertinent in your thread. I have deleted it. I meant to wish you a speedy recovery to good health, and the best of success with your final procedure. I am embarrassed and remorseful as it must have appeared I was trying to hijack your thread. And that certainly wasn't my intent. I simply had too many tabs open at once and started a new thread in the wrong box.

Again, I add my best wishes for a speedy recovery.

DaveQ24

De nada ... actually I thought it was a tangential, but interesting, question. The vascular system is (sort of) the equivalent of the cables - ok, well, no, the cables on a bike are the nerves that transmit messages from brain to the far ends of the beast.

Besides, without my semi-gory original photo of a purple, swollen back of my calf covered with little X-shaped incisions every inch, this is boring... the mods thought it too gory so zapped it. They really wouldn't like the photos I took of my bleed-out a few years ago.

Thanks for the good thoughts. It's better today than it was. I have an office job - moving it is the best thing for it, glad it's the weekend. I'm going to try to do 25-30 miles in the morning to losen it up.

BobbyG

No, not boring. The older I get, the more I relate to age-related illness and other conditions. After all, I do hang out in the "Fifty Plus Medical Issues" forum. Anyway, if you can joke about it as you have, that's good.

qcpmsame 

Man, that just seems to be cringe worthy as I read your description of the procedure. Hopefully this will let the leg circulation return to normal. How in the world did you manage to ride with those conditions and the pain? Let me know how you are getting on.

Bill

ColonelSanders

Do you have any pics that you can share, as someone with bad varicose veins, I am curious to see what your veins look like.

DaveQ24

Sure, but I will have to PM them - mods said photo was too graphic. I don't have a before/after unfortunately, but can send photos of post-surgical status - a lot of bruising, a little bleeding pretty swollen etc.

As long as you aren't bothered by slightly gory images. Let me know if you wsnt to see that.

ColonelSanders

Heh, the more gore, the better.

NewATBikeComute

True.

DaveQ24

Good, I have a couple of good ones. I'm really time-pressed today, tonight later I'll upload some to photobucket and provide a link. You will like my surgical bleed-out photos. I should have taken photos of my ulcerative bleed out didn't. I document medical stuff because I have an RN, a clinical microbiologist and a physical therapist in the immediate family.

In the interim, this medline article.

Venous Insufficiency: Background, Anatomy, Pathophysiology

About 75% of the way down the page is a " before and after" that is about what I experienced. I had a nasty cluster on my left knee like that guy's. I still have the brown stain from stasis dermatitis. Prior to the treatments, I had lost all of the hair below my knee - it grew back on the front of my legs from knee to ankle, albeit sparse compared to my teens/20s when it was pretty thick.

My life intent in posting this thread wasn't sympathy, it's a medical PSA. I've seen some guys at my gym with really severe stasis dermatisis and edema, tried to convince a couple to check it out but seemed too squeamish

DaveQ24

OK, sorry but make that tomorrow on the photos to photobucket. Mr. Genius here still doesn't have the hang of something as simple as using a photo hosting site. For a guy with a net 10 years of college, I'm dumber than a box of rocks with some of this stuff. It's a miracle I can ride a bike and use Map My Ride at the same time. Must be bad blood.