Recently, when meeting a new patient at our vein clinic in New Orleans, we couldn’t help but notice how many varicose veins she had, and how large they were, and asked her why she had delayed so long before seeking treatment for them. She replied, “Well, both my mother and my grandmother had varicose veins, and when I asked them about varicose veins they told me they were no big deal, and that I should just ‘live with them’. So I tried to do that. But what they didn’t tell me was how painful it would be to try to live with them. That’s why I’m here.”
We explained to our patient that the advice she received from her mother and grandmother was probably based on what medical science was like during their era. Back then, in the “bad old days” of vein disease treatment, the only way to eliminate varicose veins was a surgical procedure called “vein stripping” that was as awful as it sounds. The surgeon had to make incisions along the entire length of the affected veins and then literally scrape them away with a scalpel. So given this as their only treatment choice, ‘living with’ varicose veins was probably considered a valid choice, even if they were occasionally painful.
Fortunately, times have changed, so modern vein doctors can eliminate varicose veins – and their pain – quickly and easily
Modern vein treatment in New Orleans is based on new breakthroughs in the field of medical visualization and interventional radiology (IR). These days, vein doctors don’t have to make incisions to diagnose or treat varicose veins. Instead, they can examine the veins non-invasively using ultrasound, and they can treat and eliminate varicose veins using minimally-invasive IR procedures that are as gentle as they are effective. Instead of making deep incisions, the expert Louisiana vein doctors at our vein clinic, La Bella Vita Laser and Vein Center, introduce a tiny needle into the affected veins, guide it into place using ultrasound, and use heat or medications to close the diseased veins permanently. The treated veins then collapse and are absorbed into surrounding tissue, restoring the beauty of our patients’ legs within a very short time.
More important, when the diseased veins are gone, so is the pain
Pain associated with varicose veins is caused by two factors. One is that the swollen veins become increasingly sensitive, sometimes causing the skin that covers them to become brittle and susceptible to injury. Thus, small scrapes you would never have noticed before can become extremely painful, and can easily turn into open, bleeding leg ulcers that refuse to heal. The second factor that causes pain is that the underlying disease that causes the varicose veins is crippling your circulatory system and causing your legs and ankles to swell. This swelling can sometimes become so painful that patients trying to ‘live with’ their varicose veins can barely walk.
The good news is that all of this pain is unnecessary
You don’t have to ‘live with’ your varicose veins and the pain they cause. You can have them removed painlessly and easily in about an hour, and in the comfort of our Mandeville vein clinic. So yes, we really can eliminate those ugly varicose veins, but more important, we can also eliminate the pain and discomfort that comes with them.
Here we discuss about how to exercise safely if you already have vein disease or are at risk of it.
Learn more about our specialized varicose veins treatment.
