i have a varicose vein treatment scheduled for next week and I was curious if anyone else here has veinous insufficiency issues and if they have had any treatment for it? I am having it done because I have itchy/swollen legs sometimes and visible discoloration at the ankles due to poor flow / pooling.
My vein issues are hereditary but I’ve seen these peripheral veins closed up via treatment with great success. I am thinking it would be an early hedge against clots with high platelets and poor flow..
just curious
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dbus1417
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Hi dbus1417 - I do not know if my story will help but I felt I should tell you.
In 2019 I developed a large thrombosis in a leg vein (have had varicose veins since pregnancies, now 80 yo). My doctor suggested having sclerotherapy which had to be done privately because of long waiting times. I had this done in February 2020 just before lockdown. One week later I suffered a pulmonary embolus and landed in hospital. Luckily clot was just a small one.
At that time I did not know I had ET. My doctor knew that I had raised platelets for some time but did nothing about it - even after the clots!!!!! I had two more pulmonary emboli - one in each lung in August 2020 and only after that was ET diagnosed in May 2021.
I believe it is rare to have a clot following varicose vein treatment and I am sure mine was the result of undiagnosed ET. However, if you are already on a blood thinner I am sure you will be OK. If not I should tread carefully.
None of this may apply to you but I would not feel right not telling you.
I am on 2x aspirin daily. Platelets are at 900-1M. My hemo and cardiologist say as long as I’m on the aspirin I should be alright.
I was nervous about it, but I am relatively young (39) no history of thrombosis and have the most favorable mutation as it relates to thrombosis (CALR).
I think I’m going to proceed with it, my legs are pretty itchy and my ankle discoloration is bugging me 😬
Good to see you are being backed by your haemo and cardio. I was actually on one aspirin daily (for migraine prevention) and my platelets were only 500x550 but of course I was a lot older than you . My platelets have never gone very high like some others.I wish you well and that you get the relief you need👍👍
I am 56 and had my varicose veins done successfully last year. I was PV diagnosed 6 years ago so they gave me extra anti clotting meds self administered into tummy, post op. They monitored me closely with follow up calls. The most important thing is keeping moving as they advise
I was a bit nervous but they took PV into account as we talked through risks etc - I felt more relaxed
I had a radio frequency ablation on my greater saphenous veins (main superficial vein system) and my distal perforator veins (connecting veins between deep and superficial.)
Essentially they stick a catheter in your vein and then insert a tiny metal wire and heat it up to roughly 100-130 degrees C. The heat closes the enlarged vein and diverts blood to healthy veins. My legs not only look better but feel better too. My restless legs have improved, my skin has improved and so on. It was worth it for me as I’m only 39 years old and was starting to have vascular issues combined with high platelets.
As it happens, [kind of like the Hair Club for men ads], I'm not only the person who spearheaded our radiology group's entry into varicose vein treatment, I was also a patient in the practice. Although we use the term venous insufficiency partly for insurance reasons, and partly to use a more accurate description of the actual problem.
Some basic anatomy will perhaps be helpful- I hope that we all know that veins are meant return deoxygenated blood from the body to the heart and then the lungs for re-oxygenation and recirculation.
What not everyone knows is that veins are also meant to be capacitant vessels, in that they are meant to be able to expand to hold more blood at times in order to keep from overloading the heart and lungs. That's part of why nearly everyone's feet [and their legs, although most people aren't aware of it] are 'larger' by the end of the day, than they were first thing in the morning. This effect is massively 'enhanced' in people with venous insufficiency.
Venous insufficiency refers to the valve in the venous no longer being able to keep blood from settling downwards against the push of the arterial blood coming in through the capillary beds of the lower body. The valves are meant to be like the steps on a ladder, so that each pulse of blood in from the capillaries pushes the venous blood up another step [valve] which closes to hold it at that level awaiting the next push upwards. See this graphic: desertveinspecialists.com/s....
The valves can start out weaker than normal due to heredity, be damaged by life events like pregnancy [when the mom's body's blood volume almost doubles, and then the big gravid uterus pushes on the veins, causing back pressure that can disrupt the valves. In addition the hormonal changes associated with pregnancy can also cause dilation and valve weakening, so each pregnancy is at least a double whammy, and the changes are cumulative.
Surgery can also predispose one to venous insufficiency, which was the case for me- I had a chondrosarcoma in my left femur, just above my knee, for which the recommended curative treatment [which hasn't changed much in the 40+ years since then] was a high amputation above the knee [think above the middle of the femur], which was not something my orthopedic surgeon was happy about. Thus, he took my imaging to several international oncology conferences to seek out a less definitive treatment plan, which still offered a reasonable chance of presenting recurrence or progression. This turned out to be basically removing about 1/3 of the cross-section of the femur, about 20 CM long, along with all of the soft tissues lying above it- muscles, tendons, ligaments, and skin to avoid local recurrence, and then reconstructing the removed tissues using bone graft, and re-attaching the remaining quadriceps muscles and tendons. I was also closely monitored by frequent bone scans- 40+ years later I'm still [bone] cancer-free!
However, the extensive post-operative changes, including, but not limited to a fracture at the graft site, along with multiple occupations that had me on my feet all day long led to severe venous insufficiency- with pain in my feet and lower legs as the day progressed, staining with iron deposits in my feet and ankles from the breakdown of leaked blood, and the itching, burning, and skin changes that DBus mentioned.
So, when my radiology group decided to follow the cutting edge and get into treating venous insufficiency using the same interventional radiology techniques we used to access and open [with balloons and stents], and/or close [with coils, thrombogenic foam, and other techniques] malformations [aneurysms, stenosis, and fistulae] of any vein or artery except the ones that the cardiologists had already laid claim to, I was all for it.
Our preferred treatment for the large veins was/is Endo-Venous Laser Therapy [EVLT], wherein we catheterized the greater saphenous vein [the biggest superficial vein, which is most often the cause of the problem] at the ankle and then injected diluted local anesthetic around the outside of the vein using Ultrasound to guide the process, which provided all the anesthesia needed, and also collapsed the vein tightly around the catheter, then inserted a fiber optic laser guide through the catheter and fired it as it was slowly pulled out, heating the vein's walls and any residual blood or tissue fluid to 'cook the vein' causing it to scar closed, over the next 7-10 days. which required wearing a thigh-high compression stocking for that time frame.
I had that done in 2006, and it worked the trick- I had no residual vein problems and didn't need stocking any longer.
Unfortunately, I needed to have my knee replaced in 2010, which got complicated by infection, and as a result, my other [superficial] veins got damaged. and my venous insufficiency recurred in full force.
Fortunately, that required me to wear compression stocking and take aspirin daily to avoid getting clots, which likely prevented any thromboses, which would have made my PV get diagnosed long before it became evident earlier this year.
BTW, there are now a number of other vein closure procedures, most of which are pretty reliable and offer long-term relief, the only one that I would strictly avoid is the very old school surgical technique called vein ligation and stripping, which had significantly increased complication rates, including DVT's. You can look and see some of them here: desertveinspecialists.com/
Note: This is not a recommendation for any specific procedure or provider- I found the site by 'googling" for "vein valves".
Hm… what kind of treatment are you having? I use wonderful compression knee highs with a gently band at the top and they don’t squeeze my toes. I even wear them when I’m in Greece and it 40C, but open toe in the summer
I asked about getting the veins treated (stripping, etc.) and 2 vein specialists said that it’s dangerous with my ET. Clotting is apparently what they’re afraid of. Didn’t speak to my Haemotologist about this .
the Pfizer vaccine was a huge problem. My veins went haywire and I had terrible memory problems. When I got vaccinated, I was wearing 70 Den, now 140. I had even greater water retention, lot of swelling, pain, awful brown/red discolouration.
Even taking blood from my veins felt like a pencil was being jabbed up my arm. I was screaming in pain during the whole procedure, no matter how delicate they were. After I had treatment to get the spike proteins out of the body the pain in my legs and veins went away, but not the vein damage or discolourations. 😑 Memory has slowly returned. I’m still working on that.
just finished the procedure. So far so good! Follow up venous ultrasound on the 3rd. Like physassist mentioned I had a radio frequency ablation on my greater saphenous veins. I will update this thread to provide more info in case anyone else needs this or wants to read about experience.
Thank you for all the information and insight physassist.
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