Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Ultrasound for Me!

Normally, this would be an excellent post title, especially if it were on my wife's blog. However, not the case this time. In early January, when I started working out again, I started having a dull pain in my lower left leg. A swelling of sorts was there, and I just figured a pulled muscle or had a muscle spasm.

Over time, this has gotten worse, and I realized I was getting varicose veins in my left leg. Ugh! Luckily, it's really hard to see on me. It's not very common in guys my age, so I went to the doctor after I started feeling some burning and sharp pain, as well as some tingling feelings.

The doctor is sending me to get a vascular ultrasound today to check everything out. Should everything check out okay, and it is nothing more than varicose veins, then I will probably be sent to have the vein closed, so that the blood is routed to deeper veins (as it should be).

Varicose veins are basically the veins swelling, allowing blood to pool, restricting blood flow. This increases potential circulation complications. Normally, varicose veins are purely cosmetic blemishes, but since I was feeling some sharp pains, I decided to get them checked out. The doctor will have results on the ultrasound in a few days.

To close the vein, if that is what it comes to, they will insert a catheter of sorts that emits radio waves. When the vein shuts down, blood will be routed to deeper veins.

Will update when I find out what it is! Best to fix this early than have more serious complications later on in life!