September is Falls Prevention Month as well as Healthy Aging Month, and vein disease sits closer to falls than most people realize. Legs that ache and swell change how you walk before you consciously notice it, and swelling around the ankles makes it harder to feel exactly where the ground is under your feet.
There’s a nighttime connection too. Fluid your veins failed to move during the day returns to your circulation as soon as you lie flat, so your kidneys spend the night catching up and you’re out of bed two or three times before morning. A dark hallway at 2 a.m. is where a great many falls happen.
What a clinic visit actually involves
A duplex ultrasound takes about twenty minutes. It’s painless, you stay dressed except for the leg being scanned, and it shows us which valves are working, which aren’t, and how that compares with your previous study if we have one on file. For a fair number of patients the answer is that everything looks stable and the symptoms have another cause, which is worth knowing on its own. If something does need treating, it bears no resemblance to the vein stripping many of our patients watched a mother or an aunt go through. Current treatment happens in the office through a needle stick under local anesthetic, usually in under an hour. There’s no hospital stay and no general anesthesia. You walk out on your own legs, and most people are back to their normal routine the following day.
About cost
Medicare and most commercial plans cover both the evaluation and the treatment of venous disease when symptoms are documented. Many plans also require a trial period wearing compression stockings before they’ll approve treatment, which is one more reason not to sit on it, since that clock has to start eventually. Our staff handles the paperwork and will tell you exactly what your plan requires before you commit to anything.
You don’t need a referral to come see us. Call (210) 622-8000 or reply to this email and we’ll find a time that works for you.
Warmly,
The team at Medical Vein Clinic