I have a very large, bulging vein on my left leg. It gets achy if I stand or sit too long. It's pretty unsightly, besides causing pain. I decided that this was the year to talk to someone about this. I fb and emailed a couple of friends that I knew had some varicose vein work done in the past, but unfortunately both of their referrals were not in our network for insurance. So I had to go to my mom, she is my go to person when I need to know about Dr in the area (because she schedules surgeries at the local hospital). So she referred someone that she knew did lots of cases. I made my appointment, but the receptionist was very adamant that I get a referral because at their office they do lots of ultrasounds to see what the veins are doing inside and it can get costly. So a short dr visit later (to my family dr) just to get a referral, and a call to my OB because she was the one that I had talked to the most about this issue (I asked if they would send any notes they had about my condition, which they did). Then I was able to make an appointment...whew! That was a lot of work just to see the vein doctor, but if it makes it covered by insurance then so worth it.
So I had the ultrasound done, found out that my deep veins looked great, varicose free, it was just the bulging one that they needed to work on.
I went in 3 weeks later and had Sclerotherapy done on my leg. You can read all about it on Web MD http://www.webmd.com/healthy-beauty/sclerotherapy-for-varicose-veins here if you want, but the short story is, they injected a solution into my vein to clog it. It didn't hurt while they injected, but after it was very achy and burning. Not so bad that I couldn't walk, I actually taught a photo class that night, but by the end of the night I was ready to go to bed. Now a week later, there is still some bruising, I am super curious if the vein is going to disappear completely. I will keep you posted. This picture was taken the day after the procedure.
