Unexpectedly I have slipped down another health related rabbit hole. Unless we work on the patient care side of health care, most of us know very little about how the body functions and there is a reason medical school is so difficult to get into and get through; it’s complicated! The body systems include the following: respiratory, digestive/excretory, cardiovascular/circulatory, renal/urinary, endocrine, nervous, musculoskeletal, exocrine, lymphatic/immune and reproductive. If you read my column, you know that I’ve been knocking around the musculoskeletal system with my recent lumbar surgery and have inadvertently jumped into the cardiovascular/circulatory system. Yikes!
The cardiovascular/circulatory system moves oxygen, nutrients, hormones and waste products around the body through the heart, arteries and veins. It takes only about a minute for this high speed system to circulate the whole body’s entire blood volume. I’ve had pain on the inner-side of my left knee/calf both before and after my lumbar surgery and it’s getting worse, especially at night adding to my sleep challenges. It also worsens after walking and PT sessions, thus discouraging compliance with my surgical rehab program. This complaint is added to a large worsening varicose vein in the same area, sore sometimes swollen calves/quads and restless leg syndrome. In addition, my Physical Therapist thinks my complaint is coming from saphenous nerve/vein pain so given all of this and after reading about the risks of worsening varicose veins, I decided to schedule a visit at a vein clinic.
Not knowing what to expect during my first visit, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a poster in the office highlighting the saphenous vein; I was obviously in the right place. I was surprised by the depth of the assessment, especially the extensive ultrasound that captures functioning of some 70 vein points in each leg. It was quickly determined I have venous reflux of the saphenous vein which means blood is not returning to my heart properly causing blood pooling in the leg that leads to worsening varicose veins and possibly some of my other leg symptoms. The fix is a minimally invasive procedure called “saphenous vein ablation” which seals this secondary vein allowing blood flow to improve in other veins thus reducing inflammation and pain. It’s a one hour outpatient procedure requiring a small incision in the lower leg through which a small tube is inserted into the saphenous vein and threaded up to the top of the vein in the upper thigh and then slowly removed while ablating/sealing off the vein with heat. They say pain from the procedure is minimal and recovery is a breeze. I’m really not ready for more procedures after the lumbar surgery but feel I must give it a try so I can properly continue my rehab program. There are only 8 other body systems to visit; oh joy!