Varicose vein treatment during the summer is sometimes scary to people. They may shy away from needed evaluation and treatment. The usual excuses I hear are:
“I don’t want to wear my compression hose when it’s hot”
“I want to go swimming”
“I don’t want my legs to look beat up in the summer”
These are all valid thoughts but are mostly overstated. The truth is everyone’s legs and treatment plans are different. Almost all insurances require at least a 3 month conservative treatment time documenting you have tried wearing compression hose, to see if it helps your symptoms. Now, there are no ‘hose police’ out there, but rules are rules when it comes to insurance. So don’t wait till you want to start treatment and find out you have to wait 3 more months before you can!
Patients ready for vein treatment have a process that they must also follow. The bigger procedures with catheters and lasers are very minimally invasive, have little to no bruising, and no stitches involved. You are able to return to work that same day and most of your normal activities within a day. So, you can have a big vein treated and be exercising the next day if you wish, or swimming and water skiing within a few days.
Sclerotherapy for smaller veins or spider veins involves very small needle injections. If this is part of your treatment plan, especially if insurance is involved, you might have to wait 4-6 weeks after the large treatments to get started with this type of treatment. Side effects from this can involve some staining or browning effect on the skin afterwards. The moral of the story here is, if it is summer, get your bigger veins done, wait the required 6 weeks after and do the sclerotherapy when fall comes around. You will be wearing jeans and slacks covering up any discoloration while you are healing at that time. By spring, you will be ready to show off your fabulous legs!
Dr Barbieri