Swollen and Achy legs? You May Be Experiencing Vein Disease

Swollen and Achy legs? You May Be Experiencing Vein Disease

After years of suffering with undiagnosed symptoms of vein disease, Sarah learned the truth and discovered a minimally invasive treatment to banish her symptoms!

 

Dr.Mark Zuzga, D.O., Vein Specialist

The symptoms of exhaustion, swelling, edema, and achiness in her lower legs begain long before Sarah retired from her career in IT several years ago. Aside from gardening, her hobbies, such as bird watching, reading and staying active with gardening, which all kept her sitting for long amounts of time and she began to notice her legs were always very tired by the end of the day. Even when not at work.

“I would have trouble sleeping at night and my legs felt waterlogged and heavy though I had not been swimming.” – said Sarah.

She did not have any visible veins, so it never occurred to her that the problem could be vein related. She had other health problems, so she kept believing that her symptoms were related to some of her other health issues.

After doing some research online and googling her symptoms. She scheduled an appointment to have her legs looked at by a vein doctor.  She underwent venous insufficiency ultrasound examination, and then sat down with her vein specialist to discuss the ultrasound findings and treatment options.

After all these years Sarah finally learned that a very real and potentially serious vein disease was the cause of her swollen and achy legs. Most importantly, she realized that she didn’t have to continue to live with it.

Veins are blood vessels designed to pump and carry blood back toward the heart. Inside the veins are a series of one-way valves that open and close with the rhythm of muscle contractions. Healthy valves close tightly, keeping blood moving upward toward the heart.

With vein disease, the valves become insufficient and damaged the do not close properly. This allows blood to backflow down the legs and pool in the veins. This pooled blood can lead to bothersome symptoms such as swollen, achy legs or leg cramping, and other signs of progressive venous disease such as varicose veins, and skin changes that can lead to bleeding veins and leg ulcers. These complications, Dr. Zuzga, D.O. emphasizes, are signals that vein disease is present.
Symptoms and signs of venous disease are numerous. Varicose and spider veins are the most common indicator of vein disease. They are the easiest to diagnose. But in the absence of spider or varicose veins and in the presence of other symptoms such as heaviness, achiness, nighttime leg cramps and nighttime urination, a physician should consider the possibility of underlying venous disease. If you have varicose veins, you most likely have venous insufficiency, but someone can have venous insufficiency without presenting varicose veins.

The investigation of venous disease with ultrasound is accurate and noninvasive that it makes sense to be proactive rather than waiting for the disease to progress or for the complications of the disease to develop.

Patients are simply unaware that a disease process is causing their symptoms and, further, that the disease can be treated. More often, patients tend to accept the way their legs feel and attribute the achiness, cramps, swelling, etc. to the normal result of aging, heredity or being on their feet all day.

The turning point was learning that what she was experiencing were not normal aging and instead was a totally treatable disease.

“Do not overlook the fact that your ankles or legs swell and you have dull, aching pain or cramping at night or interrupted sleep.

 

If you are experiencing any signs and symptoms of venous insufficiency, don’t wait to get a vein evaluation. www.westfloridaveincenter.com