Tag Archives: vein stripping

Vein Stripping: A Final Report

Today I worked my core with my  43.  I did X-crunches!!!  

Start on the floor in an X – 

start
start (best part!!)

Crunch  – bringing opposite hand and foot together –

lift
lift
finish the rep
finish the rep

I counted a right and left crunch as 1 so it was really 86 total crunches to complete this 43.

Today was 6 am boot camp – it was full of lunging, kicking, punching, twisting!!  Everyone should feel it through-out their entire core by tomorrow!!!

And it was muggy – I literally looked (and felt) like I had just gotten out of the lake by the time we finished!!  Screen shot 2013-07-10 at 7.23.31 AMOh – wrong kind of muggy!!!

I decided to let boot camp be my only workout today!!  I’m gearing up for a huge day on Saturday – I will just say that Friday is my 300th consecutive day of 43s so that means it’s time for another LONG run!!!

It has been 11 weeks since I had vein surgery.  Monday I had another follow-up appointment with the DR who did the procedure.  I had a few questions for her – like “Why do I get a purple mark right above my knee cap every time I run or do any exercising?”  (standard response – it’s normal)

Basically, the whole appointment lasted less than 3 minutes and she said that everything is fine.  I still have this bruise on my right inner thigh (and it is still lumpy) – 

right inner thigh
right inner thigh

My right calf still has a bruise and every time I run or do any plyo (so pretty much every day!!) – I have a burning sensation in it.

right calf
right calf

And my left ankle is still bruised, hard to the touch and stays swollen about 90% of the time.

left ankle - hard to see the bruise
left ankle 

She said that some people take up to 6 months for everything to heal and that I’m one of those lucky people!!

I told her that the bruises don’t really bother me but my legs hurt 10x more now than they ever did before the surgery.  Her response to that – an odd look and then she said well they look a lot better than the last time I saw you.  Yes, but they hurt and I’m an athlete and don’t need another reason for my legs to hurt!!!

So, I’m still not really happy that I had the procedure done.  And – I still have another step to finish treating the veins – Sclerotherapy.Screen shot 2013-07-10 at 7.43.56 AM(not my leg or doctor)

Ummm….not sure that I’m in on having multiple injections all over my legs while I’m awake!!!  She said we would wait until October for this – I told her no way would October work because I’M RUNNING A 50 MILE RACE!!!  (another odd look from her – what’s up with all the looks?!)

So, in November I will have a needle stuck into my legs numerous times to finish treating the veins (unless I back out and decide to just live with them!!!).

Clearly my legs are better than the last  follow-up I did on the surgery.  But, even though I can do all of my normal activities, they still aren’t completely healed and they truly do hurt much more now than before I started all of this.  So, my thoughts/opinions still haven’t really improved – if I had to go back in time to April, I would not go through with the surgery.

Lesson Learned (the hard way!!)!!

What lessons have you learned the hard way?

Happy Wednesday!

Kim