Jodi's Phlebectomy Surgery

My phlebectomy went really well. It was much more painful than I had expected--both during the procedure as well as after. I had a large and painful varicose vein removed from my leg that extended from my pelvis to half way down my calf. The doctor used just local anethesetic and made 34 small incisions about a half inch apart down the whole length of my vein. He then used a crochet hook-type tool to pull out small segments of the vein at a time.

At this same time as my phlebectomy, I also had a sclerosant foam injected into this same vein in my pelvis to seal off the vein higher up. These were the second procedures to try to relieve all my symptoms--the first being my ovarian vein embolization at the first part of November. All these vein problems have been due to the trauma of three pregnancies on my body. I'm thrilled now to have a new leg! I'm hoping that I will now be able to sit and stand without so much pain, and who knows... maybe even tolerate a future pregnancy.

Here are some before and after pictures. The red dots are obviously blood under the steri-strips, and once all the incisions are healed, my leg should look completely normal.

Before

24 Hours After

One week later