When we think of varicose veins, it is easy to picture thick knotted rope-like substances in the legs of very old people, but that is only part of the story. Varicose veins can be treated at a vein clinic San Diego, but a doctor needs to be able to carry out an examination and identify them fully. It does tend to be older people who get them, but not only them, as there can be some people in their 20s or 30s who get them. It is often younger people who claim to suffer from them these days and there are a few ways that they can arise. Apart from the obvious aging and wear and tear, there is:
- Pregnancy –It will not normally be the first couple that are the problem, but if there is a third or more, the damage will start to occur. The slight ones that appear in the first pregnancy will fade, but by later pregnancies too much damage has been done.
- Obesity –The heavier you are, the more pressure there is placed on the valves in the veins and the more likely they are to malfunction. Losing weight will not totally reverse the process, but it can slow it down a great deal, and can delay the time that you do need to have them dealt with.
- Standing –People who have jobs that require them to be on their feet for a long period of time will find that the valves start to become weak and no longer function as they should do. Changing jobs is not always an option, so other actions must be looked at to make it less of a problem,
- Gender –Even taking pregnancy out of the equation, women are a lot more likely to suffer from varicose veins than men are.
- Family background –There is a fair chance that if your parents or grandparents suffered from varices, then you are going to run the risk that they will appear. That is the down side, but there is also an upside as you can live a lifestyle that limits the chances. You also have time to research the clinic you want to treat you and the form of treatment you are going to undergo.
Now that you know how they occur you need to know what to expect if you do notice them arising. Sometimes you will be lucky, and they will be quite small spider veins. But, there is the risk that your spider veins are going to be bigger and need more detailed treatment. Chronic venous insufficiency can lead to a difficult course of surgical treatment, but is a more invasive procedure that will not be tried until all the others have been given a chance to work.
If they don’t, harsher procedures have to be tried as there are a few times when they improve on their own. They also advance with regards to the symptoms. It is no longer just the veins that appear to be sticking out under the skin, but there can be discoloration of the skin, pooling of blood around the ankles and if left untreated, there can be venous ulceration. Once they have got to this stage there is definitely the need to contact a vein clinic San Diego and ask them about the form of treatment they think will be best for you.
A spider vein tends to stay a normal shade of red rather than turning deep red or purple like varicose veins can. When they are seen, it is likely that there are also feeder veins that you will not have been aware of. They do not change from the blue of veins, but once they are there, spider veins follow then sadly the fully erupted varicose veins. By this stage you will have to visit a vein clinic San Diego, and there will be offered a number of treatments, one of which will be sclerotherapy.
It is important that the vein clinic San Diego does a thorough test and does not just start to treat varicose veins as there could be other issues that they need to be aware of. A spider vein can also be a sign that there is chronic venous insufficiency and when they are in the thighs and ankles, it is likely that the saphenous vein is the cause of their appearance. The exact cause can be determined by undergoing an ultrasound exam, and whatever is discovered will determine what the vascular doctor at the vein clinic San Diego will do.
Management and Self-Care
The main reason for undergoing treatment will be to give you a better quality of life. The vein clinic San Diego will have a doctor like Dr. Billy Schoenfeld who wants to stop any pain that is felt and ensure that things do not get worse. Their third option will be to make the legs look better and although that may be a leader for the patient, it is often of less importance to the doctor–medical care first them cosmetic later. The way you live can give relief from pain, but will not make them go away. There are several things you can do before you have a treatment such as sclerotherapy at a vein clinic San Diego. You could:
- Try to alter sitting and standing through the day. When the blood is always on the move, the veins work better and when they are getting sluggish, you can try walking if you sit a lot and sitting for a while if you are normally in your feet. Flex your feet from time to time and shift balance from the heels to the toes as any form of motion is better than nothing.
- Although getting the legs to do more work may not seem sensible, exercise is good as it causes the blood to pump around the body a lot. Depending on your interests, you could go swimming, cycling or walking and none of them are too energetic. Even if you are not going to do a lot, check with your San Diego doctor that you are going to be okay to do it. They should be able to tell you about the exercises that are best suited for you and how long you should spend on them each session.
- Losing weight will be ideal for a few reasons and not just improving your conditions when it comes to varicose veins. Every 1 lb that you are overweight puts pressure on the valves and make it more likely that you will have to find a vein clinic San Diego.
- Try elevating your legs from time to time. Put them up whenever you can and even in work you could ask if there is something that you could be provided with that will allow you to do it. It will help deal with the pain and will also play its part when it comes to stopping the legs swelling up.
- Compression stockings will not get you any points when it comes to the fashion stakes, but they can work wonders for your varicose veins. They gently squeeze the legs and the veins become compressed meaning that it becomes much harder for the blood to return to the feet. This is the big problem with varicose veins and if it can be dealt with you will feel so much better. You need to get medical stockings and move up the grades or there will not be a lot of benefit felt. Over the counter items is not what you need, so you have to get your vein clinic San Diego doctor to sort them out for you.
Vein Procedures
Once it has been decided that this is not something that you can sort out at home, you will make a further appointment at a vein clinic San Diego and see what the next step will be. Sclerotherapy is bound to be an option, but it may not be the first one. When you make your first appointment you should be given a thorough examination before the choices are given to you. The doctor at the vein clinic San Diego will need to know how severe the problem is, what has already been tried and how suitable a candidate you will be for sclerotherapy and other forms of treatment.
Sclerotherapy Treatment
When they are identified as spider veins, it is likely that the vein clinic San Diego will decide that sclerotherapy is going to be the best treatment for you. It is not a difficult vein treatment and should not be painful. With sclerotherapy there is not a great deal of invasion and you will be able to go through the procedure with your legs being numbed rather than having to be put out.
Sclerotherapy is a fairly simple but effective procedure. The vein will be identified, and a needle will be placed into it. Through this, medication will be administered, and it will lead to the vein collapsing. When this happens there is no way that blood can pass through it again, so there will be nothing reaching the valves and being sent back down towards the ankles.
With sclerotherapy the veins will not be taken out of the legs but will slowly fade and eventually not be seen any more. It is a well tried and successful procedure; so, there is no need to worry that you are being used as a guinea pig for something that is not established. When you go to a clinic you will find that this is the treatment you are likely to be offered due to the veins that are a little different to spider veins. Feeder veins can also be present, and they are not always as easy to treat as spider veins even if you are visiting the best vein clinic San Diego.
There is a laser treatment that can be used but this is not as effective as sclerolising therapy and even when you do get treated with it, you could need to visit the vein clinic San Diego for more than one appointment. This does not mean that there has been a failure during the first treatment, just that it is better to undergo a couple of general ones rather than an excessively heavy one. In order to get the best results and for the doctor to be sure that the technique has worked, you could require to visit up to 5 times.
Foam Sclerotherapy
With this form of sclerotherapy, it is foam rather than a liquid that is injected into the damaged varicose veins. A small needle is used, and this passes the foam into the vein and right away it will start to shut down. There is no need to worry about the use of foam as it is perfectly safe and is effective when it comes to closing up the vein. Again, there will be no need to operate as the body will absorb the vein and the blood that would have used it will find another way to get back to the heart – this will be via an adjacent vein.
It is safe to say that foam sclerotherapy is a well-tested procedure and has been used around the world for decades. If there was anything to worry about then it would have been picked up by now. Again, it is likely that there will have to be a few sessions before the veins are completely gone, but once you have finished and see the final results you will realist that it was totally worth it.
Understanding what is involved with sclerotherapy should take a lot of the trepidation out of finding those first few varicose veins. It is not going to be the most pleasant experience you go through, and you must take note of what the a specialist like Dr. Schoenfeld tells you about recovery. As long as you do this there should be a quick recovery and while new veins may become varicose, the ones that have been treated will never be able to come back again. Once they are gone they are gone for good.