INDIANAPOLIS — After years of hiding his legs, it's back to shorts for 61-year-old Jeff Latham.
He's been avoiding them for the past six years to help cover a darkened, bulging varicose vein inside his left knee.
"It was just progressively getting worse, varicosities, getting larger and more painful," Latham said.
Doctors recommend compression, elevation, and exercise to help alleviate the pain but stress that doesn't address the underlying problem.
"The vein valves never start working again, so once they've failed, they've failed for good and so it is a progressive problem," said Dr. Rick Chitwood MD, a vascular surgeon at Ascension St. Vincent.
Chitwood consulted with Latham before performing a radio frequency ablation – sealing off Latham's veins.
"We treat them when they are causing enough discomfort and disability in your activities to justify treating them," Chitwood said.
The outpatient procedure took less than an hour, and Latham now wonders why he didn't get it done sooner.
"I think it looks fantastic, yeah, I mean it was a piece of cake overall, I missed basically a half day of work. I had it done Friday afternoon and I was back to work on Monday," Latham said.
Chitwood said that's a common conversation with patients who have delayed having a consultation to explore treatment options.
"It's interesting because you'll have people come in with varicose veins. For years they've been bothering them. They'll have surgery, they'll understand how simple it is to recover from the surgery, and they'll wonder why they didn't pursue treatment five or 10 years before," Chitwood said.
If you or a loved one has throbbing pain, and you'd like to learn more about varicose vein treatment options, you may register for a free Check Up 13 vein consultation at Ascension St. Vincent on June 13, 2023.