Varicose Vein Ablation Advice please 🙏🏼

[WishIOwnedAYellowMini]

Hi lovely hive mind, I have varicose veins on my legs - they don’t bother me at all until I wear shorts. I saw a private doctor and they qualify for treatment being of a diameter in excess of 7mm so he recommended laser ablation with multiple avulsions. All fine and dandy as this will be covered by my health insurance (but I can’t postpone (again!) or will lose the coverage for this procedure). Thank you for still reading! My dilemma is - 1 I’m scared of the recovery (I run EVERY DAY normally) and 2 I’m scared of the operation and 3 I’m just a gigantic wuss and not sure why I should put myself through this. So am desperately seeking feedback from anyone who has been through this op - positive and negative. 🫶🏻

I’ve had this done three times. I’ve probably got one summer with my legs looking a bit better and then they pop out again. I had it done under local the last two times and that was unpleasant and painful at times. Recovery fine though. I won’t be having it done again though as I just don’t think it’s worth it for a short term result.

I had both legs done at the same time. 2 years ago and still fine. Very glad I got it done and wish I’d got it done before it got so bad. The bad leg took about 3 weeks to stop aching but the other leg was about a week. You have to walk a lot in the first week….it was all fine and I’m a real wuss for pain.

I had laser ablation about 8 years ago and it was the best thing.
they haven’t come back and my legs are still looking good.

Thank you all 😀. How painful were the local anaesthetic injections please and how long did you take off work? I have an office job and was hoping to go in next day? Thanks muchly!!!!!

The problem with going in ot work is that you can't sit for too long and shouldn't sit with your legs bent - they should really be up. I had a stool under my desk and kept my legs up and moved around a lot as well - but I'd taken a couple of days off so I wasn't straight back at work. But was fine pain wise. You also can't fly for a while afterwards either. Basically anything where you are just sitting isn't great for a number of days afterwards.

You also have to wear compression stockings for a week that you can't take off - so you have to shower in them too....

The injections aren't painful - and I have a really low pain threshold.

https://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/health-information/varicose-veins/recovery-after-treatment-varicose-veins