My Health Experience: ‘I was sceptical about the new treatment but it was painless’

I was only 16 when I had my first varicose vein surgery. It’s unusual to have varicose veins so young, but both my mom and my grandmother on my dad’s side had them so it was hereditary in my case.

As a teenager, I was very conscious of my veins. I had one very bad vein that ran down the front of my right leg and wrapped around the back of my calf. I was in the National Performing Arts School and I did a lot of dancing and sport which I’m told would not have caused my vein problem, but certainly would have aggravated it.

My leg started to get painful and weak when I was dancing or playing sport, so I went to my GP who explained that I had a varicose vein and that was the cause of the pain and weakness. He referred me to a consultant at St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin who recommended that I have a procedure known as “stripping” to remove the vein.

My mum was a bit concerned about the idea of me undergoing surgery so young, and some doctors recommend that you wait until after childbirth, but I really wanted to have it done. Modelling was always a passion of mine and I was really keen to pursue a career in modelling.

Risks

The nurses and other patients on the ward were surprised at how young I was. I was a bit nervous but blissfully unaware of the risks of going under general anaesthetic or having an operation.

The surgery was very invasive although not as bad as it was for my mom who had 40 or 50 stitches when she had her vein stripped. There were a number of incisions, around my knee and at the very top of my leg and they basically just pulled the vein out. My leg was black and blue for weeks afterwards and I had stitches around my kneecap and the back of my calf. I was kept in hospital for five days and it took me quite some time to recover. I went back to school after two and a half weeks on crutches.

My consultant told me that because I was still so young, had not had any children and it was in my family, it was highly likely I would have problems with my veins again.

He was right. Last year, I developed a varicose vein in my left leg. I went in to Prof Austin Leahy, a vascular surgeon at Beaumont Hospital, intending to ask him to do the stripping operation again.

I had no faith in laser or any of the newer treatments I had heard about because I felt I was such a bad case and so young. However, he ran through my options with me and explained that there was a new treatment called radiofrequency ablation that I could have done with a local anaesthetic as a day case.

The stripping treatment, although extremely invasive and painful, had actually worked.

Cosmetic purposes

Prof Leahy gave me sclerotherapy injections, first into the smaller veins around the incompetent or varicose vein to shrivel them up for cosmetic purposes. I was very sceptical going in for the main procedure that it would work for me, but the difference between it and my first surgery was unbelievable.

The procedure, which I had done last summer, involved having a heated probe passed through the vein to destroy it. It was totally painless and I was able to walk out of the hospital that day. I had one small incision in the back of my calf and was back in the gym within two weeks. The only awkward part was having to wear an elastic stocking on my leg for six weeks afterwards.

I will more than likely continue to suffer with varicose veins in the future, particularly when it comes to starting a family, and my consultant has warned me to start wearing elastic stockings the minute I discover I am pregnant to try to avoid my veins getting too bad but at least I know I will never have to go through a stripping procedure again.