Recovery from vein surgery... slow and painful

Hello,

I had the endovenous laser ablation to my right great saphenous vein today and found the experience to be very unpleasant. I truly had no idea what the procedure involved and was greatly unprepared for the discomfort. Don't get me wrong, it was not excruciating, but it was unconfortable, and it just creeped me out is about the only way I can explain it.

The procedure involved numerous lidocaine injections, all up and down the leg and a small incision. I could feel the catheter being inserted, and at times it was uncomfortable. Then when the catheret was pulled out, it felt unconfortable several times, enough so that I was edgey and tense throughout the entire procedure. I had to calm myself by breathing deeply and attempting to meditate. However, the doctor and his assistant were having a gay old time laughing it up, so I ended up just listening to their banter, in an attempt to disassociate myself from the procedure.

The way my doctor goes about it is to do six ablations in three weeks in three veins on both legs - the right leg one day and the left leg the next day. Each week, a different vein is targeted in both legs on different days.

I'm not a baby, and my pain tolerance is usually quite high, but for some reason or another, I don't know why, I felt tense through out the entire procedure, expecting pain at every moment.  

There was no sedation or medication to help me relax, but after they saw tears streaming silently down my face and noticed I was trembling, they offered to call a prescription for Zanax to my pharmacy to help me out on tomorrow's procedure, because I was so anxious and upset. They had offered it to me on my last pre-op appointment and I declined, never realizing how unpleasant the experience was going to be, so I relented. Tomorrow I'm going to take the medication IF I can bring myself to endure the experience again... I'm not sure I will be able to do this.

I think a person should be sedated for this experience, so they don't know what's going on and feel the discomfort.

It was disturbing enough to me enough that I looked up the procedure to find others' opinions, and that is how I came to find this forum.

Lord, I thought the worst part was over. It looks as though the recovery could be unpleasant, as well.

If I find I can pull myself to the doctor's office for the procedure tomorrow, I will, but I will definitely cancel my other FOUR appointments until I see how the recovery goes on this one, or possibly two, veins...

My crying during the experience was very embarrassing. I've never in my life had any reaction like this. I'm usually a tough cookie. When I go (maybe) for the procedure tomorrow, I wiil feel as though they think I'm a nut case, unfortunately, and I'm sure they probably already do. It was so, so, so VERY embarrassing...

I feel your pain. I also was very unprepared for the procedure. Unlike you the procedure was not extremely painful except for the injections. However the recovery is still going on. It is 4 months since I had my procedure on evlt of the right leg. I suffered nerve damage. Which I later learned is a complication of the procedure the doctor told me it could take 9 months to 1-year for the nerves to repair themselves. I am hoping he is right. Right now I get a burning and numbness in certain parts of my leg. My biggest issue is my ankle has very large veins which protrude which I did not have prior to the surgery. I am hoping for the best. I will not have any future procedure done on this. They are telling me I should have a phlebotomy which basically removes the veins that are no longer functioning. I read up on the procedure and have no desire to do this. I am only concerned that my leg returns to normal. I was better off not doing anything but was told there was insufficient blood flow to my heart. I did not do it for cosmetic reasons. Hope you have a speedy recovery

I have been doing vein laser ablation, microplebectomy, and saline injections for the last 6 weeks. I went in for spider veins,LOL. The procedures were not fun but not actually painful. If i did experience pain it was short lived. Ive been wrapped in gauze with ace bandages,I looked like the Michelin man, and stuffed into compression stockings, all in the Summer heat. NOT one of my better moves. At this point I have no nerve damage or pain.Tomo and the week after are my second and third round of saline injections to clear up the cosmetic aesthetic ,now that the blood insufficeny has been eliminated. It seems I have many areas of browning on my legs from the iron in my blood leaking into the surrounding tissues. I was assured this would go away. If not, I showed my cosmetic dermotogist and she can laser them out.

My legs need more work and are far from pristine. My surgeon told me when he is finished I will be very happy. I better be for all this. Truthfully I had no idea what I was getting into but Ive had a great surgeon and no major issues, other than severe bruising, being annoyed at myself for not waiting until after the summer,

Hi Guys,

By vein stripping you are removing the veins. Just think about this, You are having 10 veins to circulate the blood 1 gets damaged and you are removing it. Rest 9 will be circulating the same amount of blood which 10 veins used to circulate. this will result in the gradually damaging the remaining 9 veins.

I am following naturopathy, the main thing in this treatment is your diet. I am seeing considerable improvement.I have gone to a hospital in Kerala, India. Hospital name is Hygeinecure in Kozhikode. Hope someone finds it useful.  

After reading this forum I was terrified of having vascular surgery, however here to share my very positive experience even though this post is old

Backround- After I had 2 children I started having varicose veins in major superficial veins along with thrombophlebitis in both legs. I'm in my mid 30's and active- I go to gym 4x wk.

It took me 4 years and 3 drs to find the one I felt most qualified- I went with the chief vascular surgeon at a major hospital in NYC.

1st set of surgeries were in June and were VNUS where they just collapse the vein and do not remove it. Surgery took 30 minutes under local anesthesia- recovery was 24 hours and back in gym after 6 days.

Unfortunately that did not solve the problem. In Nov, I had my second set of surgeries where the removed a large vein in each leg through tiny insisions that ran from mid thigh to ankle. Entire procedure was 1 hour and I was driving the next day. Recovery for this procedure took me 48-60 hours until I was able to walk around freely without any pain or throbbing. Back in the gym after 7 days and varicose veins are gone!

Just left with some very light bruising and scars which will fade over time. Very happy I waited to find the right doctor because I think that definetly helped.

For those considering the procedure, wish you a speedy recovery and for those who had a tough time with surgery/ recovery, I hope you found relief.

I share your pain, quite literally. It has been over three-and-a-half months since I had the greater saphenous vein in my left leg ablated, and over two months since the lesser vein in the same leg was ablated (per a vein doctor's recommendation), and I have been in unbridled agony ever since. If I had done as the doctor suggested - and had the veins in my right leg ablated as well (yes, he suggested all four) - I would not be able to walk. As I type right now, my left leg is in throbbing pain. It starts hurting shortly after I wake up and gets progressively worse throughout the day. The area around my greater saphenous vein has remained bruised, and is hard to the touch. I now look forward to sleep as it is the only time I am not hurting. I believe some doctors are just farming people, if their insurance covers the procedure. 

M-You can enhance healing while speeding it up and predict wound healing down to the week using a microcirculation booster called non invasive Transdermal CO2 therapy. I will be wishing for your speedy recovery!

It is so saddening to read so many traumatic experiences. Isn't time that the medical guys at least do something about setting the expectations right on post-op for EVLT?

?Sure, it is in their vested interest not to scare folks by saying it would be way too traumatic, but they should at least convey that everthing would be hunky dory within a week!