I just had high ligation of my greater saphenous vein in my left leg 5 nights ago. I had a huge varicose going from my calf, over my knee, and onto my inner thigh. It has been a challenging past week, keeping my legs elevated most of the time. Still a fair amount of pain when I stand up but yesterday I managed to walk around the block before heading back inside. My follow up appointment with the surgeon isn't for another 5 weeks. I wish the healing process was a bit more detailed because I dont even know if I should still wear compression. Before the operation I was wearing a thigh high 30-40mmg stocking. Anyways this has been a tough situation to face and I had been avoiding it for years and years. I'm 31 years old and I really hope I can wear shorts again this summer. Its a slow recovery but I'll post again in a month or so and let everyone know my status.
Hi Jamie, The advice I was given was to wear the compression stockings night and day for the first week post op and then day only for the next 3 weeks. I have also read that the more you walk the better although this may cause some pain but will help the healing process. Again the advice I was given was to try and kep the leg elevated when resting but not to rest for than 1 hour at a time. I am now 5 weeks post op and am feeling great. I will certainly be wearing shorts this summer - good luck, I hope you will feel the same soon!
Hi, just wondering if you had your procedure on the nhs, i also have a very similar problem.
Hope you've made a good recovery and would like to know if the op was sucessful.
Hi Claire, I am in Canada so we don't have the NHS here. It's been a few months since surgery. I've been off work this whole time, on Employment Insurance! The remaining bulging vein on my knee has gone away and the vein left in was hard and lumpy but it has slowly been shrinking. I had a follow up with my Surgeon and he said that it can take up to a year for the remaining "dead" vein to disappear. I still have a few small varicose veins on my lower leg but the big ugly one is gone and I'm really happy that it's finally gone. I went on a trip to Hawaii and wore shorts the whole time! I've also been wearing shorts recently and plan to for the summer. This is the first time I've been able to wear shorts in over ten years. The surgery was a difficult reality to face but I'm so happy I had it done. Suffering from Varicose really does suck and in my experience, although I procrastinated, it was totally worth it to get proper surgery. Good luck to you!