Varicose veins/ulcers, advice please.

[crispandfruity]

My husband has had a varicose vein in his leg for a while. Despite nagging from me he's just ignored it. He's now developed ulcers on his ankle.

I dragged him to the Drs last week, he was referred straight to the nurses for a dressing.

The dressing was changed today, it was pretty foul. Anyway, he has had bloods taken for testing and we see the GP for results next week and to discuss a referral to a vascular surgeon.

In the meantime he'll be seeing the nurses every Monday for a dressing change, and I'll be doing a dressing change at home every Thursday.

His mum had dreadful varicose veins and we worked out that she was younger than he is now when she first had her veins stripped - we think it's the varicose veins that are causing the leg ulcers.

I just wondered whether this had happened to anyone else.

Unlikely to be related. And many NHS refuse to strip VVs now as it's generally considered cosmetic.

Our, probably crap, research leads us to think that he's got a problem with the valves in his leg veins, leading to the varicose veins, leading to the ulcer.

He's slim, fit - he can cycle 20 miles plus with no pain. The thought of it being something other than the varicose veins concerns me.

I guess Monday will tell us more.

By the way, his mum had her veins stripped in 1982 - I'm guessing vascular surgery/care has moved on since then. And the vascular referral was mentioned by GP last week. We aren't asking for his leg to be made pretty!!

And for further information DH is in his early 40's, and we keep being told he's far too young for this. Sorry if I sound snippy, I'm tired and worried.

You don't sound snippy! I hope the appointment provides some answers and a treatment plan.

DH suffers from similar although not to the point of ulcers. He has a few varicose veins in the lower legs and foot which cause varicose eczema around the points closer to the skin. I imagine if he didn't treat them with cream they'd turn to ulcers.

DH is late thirties and his only came to our attention as one of the veins close to the skin and a patch of eczema burst as he was getting out of the bath. There was blood everywhere and took a long time to stop the bleeding.

His is managed at the moment with cream but if it gets worse or another one bursts he'll be refered for surgery.

DH has also just gone to the GP today about what we assume are varicose veins in his foot. His veins there have been prominent for ages, & he has discolouration of the skin, but over the past week they've also been really aching & looking knotted, lumpy & swollen. He's also early 40s, slim & fit.

GP has asked him to come back in a couple of weeks & has mentioned support stockings, to DH's horror. He also apparently said that it "wasn't serious but wasn't trivial either", whatever that means!

Fatima, what cream does your DH use? GP hasn't suggested anything for DH to do in the next couple of weeks, but he'd like to take some action if possible!

crisp, hope your DH gets some help & concrete suggestions at his appointment. I've had a cursory look online, & ulceration is definitely a potential complication of varicose veins, as are superficial blood clots. In a worst case scenario, it sounds like the latter can spread to deeper blood vessels too. I always thought varicose veins were mainly cosmetic so it is worrying to find out that they can cause all these problems.

Loonvan He started with Daktacort as they thought the eczema had a bit of fungal infection in it too from his minging cricket playing toes but it didn't go down. He's now got betnovate for when it flares up and is itchy. I think it's to do with the varicose veins being leaky and causing a higher pressure in the surrounding tissue which causes the eczema.

Since the original vein bursting episode he's got more patches of eczema and what looks like more varicose veins coming, although the cream seems to keep on top of it

Thanks, Fatima - I didn't really get the connection between the veins & skin reaction.

Thanks for the replies, he got his blood test results today, and despite having the ankle of an 80 year old he is really healthy. So it looks like the varicose veins are the issue.

He's now got a compression stocking - attractive, over the dressing and will be having twice weekly dressings. He's being referred to a wound clinic and then when the ulcers improve he'll see the vascular team to sort out the vein.

Of course he has to now spend lots of time sitting with his feet up

It was such a relief when his test results came back clear. I might sleep properly tonight!

Loonvan, GP today said that blood pooling causes fluid leakage which makes the skin breakdown. I hope your DH is ok.

Fatima, I hope your DH gets sorted out soon.

Fatima, I hope your DH gets sorted out soon.

You can still get them stripped if they are bad enough. I had a full bilateral groin to calf strip of 5 veins in each leg at the age of 34. Mine were causing terrible pain, they itched awfully and the vascular surgeon said I had legs of a woman twice my age.

Varicose veins can be an early indicator of venous insufficiency which can lead to venous ulcers.

Stripping may not be appropriate, it's likely that he will benefit from compression hosiery and cautious skin care.

An assessment from the vascular team is always a good thing, even if it means that he's on their radar! Hope his compression bandaging heals him quickly

Lonecat and shedding - how long did it take for you to recover?

Two weeks off work and then I went back full on calving cows, wrestling with bullocks etc.

That's reassuring, thanks!