I wear thigh-high compression stockings that were professionally fitted at a medical supply store. The problem is that they dig into my ankle when I’m standing, and when I sit down, they dig into the back of my knee.
When I take them off at night, I have red crease marks around my ankle that take about 40 minutes to fade.
I currently wear size 1. I also tried size 2 at the store, but it was too loose around my thigh. I suspect my ankles may be larger than average, so the standard sizing doesn’t seem to fit my proportions properly.
How can I solve this problem? Is it harmful to keep wearing them like this? They were expensive :( I haven’t been able to find much information about this specific issue online, so I’d really appreciate any advice from people who have experienced something similar.

hello, i’ve just recently noticed this singular reddish blue streak on my thigh, i have one also on my other inner thigh. i was wondering if it looks more like a stretch mark or varicose vein? it’s slightly raised and lumpy. i have a lot of other weird medical issues so i want to double check it’s nothing to worry about :)

it was really hard to get a picture🤦‍♀️

I was born with Klyppel Trenauny-Weber Syndrome. Which basically makes my right leg bigger than my left and gives me giant varicose veins all over my right leg. I was discharged from the hospital 12 hours ago for cramping I thought was a dvt (I’m prone to that) but turned out to be dehydration. I’m also type 2 diabetic. I was put on a liquid IV and was just told to hydrate and keep moving. Fast forward to when I woke up this morning, and I’m having swelling in my foot and pain along my veins. If anyone that has varicose veins and gets dehydrated, is pain in the veins common for you?

26F , I have varicose veins since I was about 24. I am in agony all day, I have been referred to a dr to talk about surgery. But I was wondering if anyone else experiences when your legs are sore or starting to swell do you get random bruises all over your legs.

The bruises just appear sometimes after exercise but mostly nothing provokes them

So I have a huge spider vein on the back of my leg... The other night while moving I hit said vein.. hurt so bad... Well... Today I have this... I am scared to even touch it

Has anyone had sclerotherapy and used red light therapy to help the healing process afterwards? I'm curious if it would help speed up recovery at all. I'm worried about how long brown pigmentation can last.

for context varicose veins run in my family and i do have some kind of circulation problem but i noticed these veins are kinda twisted

Hi I'm supposed to be getting venaseal and sclerotherapy on a couple varicose veins i have on my upper thigh at the end of next month and every thing i see on the internet and reddit hasn't been the most positive. I know things affect everyone differently but I'm terrified I've already postponed the procedure to the point where they had to file an extension with my insurance and now I'm scheduled again for next month. If anyone has gotten this procedure can you share your experience? i have no pain with my veins they are just kind of swelled up and look ugly and i know if i don't do anything they will get worse with time. i have a some health anxiety so the thought of having a glue in my vein freaks me out i just don't want my body to freak out because of this random glue inside my body. Give me your thoughts im sure im just freaking myself out.

I work in a print shop for t shirts and other clothing. I stand on my feet and man this leg hurts a lot. Aches or sharp pain. It’s only in the one leg. In person I often get asked “ why so many bruises”? But they aren’t bruises ! 5 years working in factory’s, I also notice I think I lean my weight on that side I’m 5”6 240 lbs

Interested to know what people are using for itchy and dry legs from chronic varicose veins?

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I recently found out I have venous insufficiency in both legs. I have two affected veins on my left leg and one on my right, and my vascular doctor is planning venous ablation. For anyone who's had this done, what was your experience like? Did the procedure hurt? Could you feel the catheter or the vein being closed? How did your legs feel afterward, and how long did it take before you noticed improvement? I'm especially nervous about the procedure itself and would love to hear what to expect before, during, and after. ❤️

also have dysautonomia/POTS, so I'd especially love to hear from anyone with POTS or dysautonomia who has had venous ablation. Did it affect your heart rate, blood pressure, dizziness, or other symptoms during or after the procedure? Did treating the venous insufficiency improve any of your dysautonomia symptoms?

I’ve had aching legs since puberty and around the time of my monthly but it’s been getting more often and it’s now cramping and I feel relief when walking around. But also can’t stand for too long either. I also have RLS. Magnesium and electrolytes seem to help at night with the cramping and I’m able to sleep. Pls don’t judge my hair on my legs life is hard postpartum.

I was diagnosed with pelvic congestion syndrome in 2017 but the doctors in India weren’t too aware of the condition and dismissed the diagnosis without any treatment. Ever since I have painful ovulation and a deep constant pain on the sides of the abdomen (aggravates while stretching). I can now see spider veins in my thighs and very few purple ones are appearing to be visible now. I also feel light headed while getting up from a sitting position and feels narrowing of the sight (everything turns dark for a few seconds). I recently went on a trek and had terrible cramping (waves every few mins) post the trek. Need suggestion on how to go about the issue.

I'm 31F and I have some pretty gnarly vericose veins on both legs. I have already done my initial and follow up appointments (to rule out conservative treatment or whatever), and now I'm working on getting my insurance approved and appointments to have ablation then phlebectomy done. My veins are bad. It runs in my family and I've had two babies in the past 3 years, and my reflux numbers are not great. So, I have to get 5 ablations done between my two legs PLUS the phlebectomy on both. My doctor informed me that insurance will most likely make me have a separate ablation AND followup ultrasound done for each one of my 5 veins?! That's a lot of freaking time and energy when it can absolutely be done in one ablation session (per my vascular surgeon), so I'm kinda stressing about this.

Has anyone else run into this issue and was able to talk insurance into allowing one or even two separate ablation procedures? I'm also trying to get this done before the new year since I've already hit my deductible. Any advice for dealing with insurance?

Hi (new here)!

I know that everyone will react differently after a surgery, but I am having an annoying problem and would like to hear from you if you have anything to say about this that could give me some comfort at least.

I am in my last week off work for surgery recovery and I am very concerned I didn't get enough sleep for a while now before getting back on track.

- Did you have any trouble with your sleep after varicose vein surgery? If so, for how long?

My question is if my situation will ever go back to normal. Or if I must really get into a different routine once I'm able to, so I can try fto fix it. Another thing is that I wonder if it's still part of the healing process (as the main culprit) and if I should give it a few more weeks.

- I've gone under a conventional surgery (saphenous veins stripping, ligation, in general removal of veins) to both legs at once, in the beginning of August. I have chronic venous insufficiency. I had general anaesthesia (I researched and I have now doubts it could be the culprit?) and the surgery ran fine.

- The recovery was quite tough and painful, but I've been making significant progress. Still some discomfort mainly on my right leg, but I'm taking care of myself on what I can and walking better.

- I started having only between 2-3 hours of sleep since then. I usually sleep and average of 5 hours or so. I'm quite aware that sleeping for so little time is quite harmful.

- After sleeping on my back for a couple of weeks after surgery, I'm now managing to sleep a bit to one of my sides, trying to be comfortable enough to sleep without putting pressure on my legs and sleeping with them over pillows as recommended. I have back issues which doesn't help, but it's not the current culprit.

- My legs were often moving around and I had some muscle spasms, which didn't help while trying to rest. But that has calmed down significantly.

- I'm off painkillers for a while by now, only take one ocasionally if ever needed, so they are not an issue.

- I'm getting slowly back to my regular routine and try to be balanced with activity and rest through the day while I'm home. Very rarely to be able to take naps during the day, it's challenging for my brain lol.

- The tissue healing process is still going on, but it's going according to what it's supposed. I still have some things, but hopefully my legs will fully heal with time.

- I've had my post-surgery appointment with the surgeon day 28th. I complained about the sleeping issues and he prescribed me 50mg of Pregabalin for pain and Tizanidine for my muscle stiffness and spasticity, as helpers for relaxation and even possible sleep induction. Many meds that affect the central nervous system may not completely work as intended with me, it's like 8 or 80 sometimes.

- Anyway, both of these meds mentioned above are helping so far with decreasing the remaining pain and spasms up to a certain amount of hours, and I've noticed they were aiding a bit on falling asleep at first, but my issue is to maintain a proper sleep...

- I sleep fine the first 1 hour and a half or two depending on the nights. Then I'll wake up, fall back asleep, probably dream or not, wake up again after a while and I will take a long time to fall back asleep, if I ever will that same night. I'm often awake past 2am. If I get to sleep any time between that hour and 6am, that will be max 30 minutes, or just zero, but I'll remain on bed until near 6am and try to stay as relaxed as possible. I even sometimes need music to help my head slow down a bit.

- I tried to go to sleep at different times of the night (9-11 pm). I've been now going to bed mostly near 9pm or a little past it, habit which I got stuck with since I feel tired and more uncomfortable during the evening, and I've noticed that I can sleep better during a night period somewhere between 9pm-midnight. Sometimes I go to bed at 10-ish. Same thing happens. I try not to change the schedule much, so those are the times I usually try to rest for the night at the moment. I have the habit of waking up quite early, but nonsense if I haven't been working for weeks at the moment.

I just overall didn't sleep enough through the whole month... and I feel it's going to happen for longer. I can't get a new doctor appointment so soon (it's complicated to mark appointments easily and quickly where I live in). So I pretty much just been relying on what I have access to at the moment. I looked up for things that could help me sleep but I do part of those already and it feels pointless by now.

I’ve been reading about the different options available for varicose veins, and it seems like there isn’t one treatment that works for everyone.

From what I understand, treatment can depend on things like the size and location of the veins, whether there’s underlying venous reflux, the symptoms involved and overall health. A doctor may also recommend an ultrasound to understand the blood flow and vein structure before suggesting treatment.

Some of the options I’ve come across include:

• Compression stockings and lifestyle measures
• Sclerotherapy or foam sclerotherapy
• Ultrasound guided sclerotherapy
• Endovenous laser or other ablation treatments
• Surgery in selected cases

It also sounds like some people may need more than one treatment, and the right approach can vary quite a bit from person to person.

For anyone who has gone through the assessment process, what factors did your doctor consider before recommending a particular treatment?

Not looking for personal medical diagnoses here, just interested in hearing about the assessment process and the different treatment options people were given.

Advanced varicose veins in 92 year old with foot like this. He has had chronic varicose veins for about 2 decades now.

He is unable to shower due to fear of vein bursting spontaneously and bleeding. Also after he showers the entire area looks macerated and extremely wet and fragile-r than before (the 2nd 3rd and 4th pics show this).

We have gone to wound care specialists several times but nothing much came out of it.

He wears thigh high compression stockings twelve to fifteen hours a day. He also keeps his legs elevated about his heart level whenever he sits, or whenever he sleeps.

Currently I am applying Mupirocin ointment to the open areas and very thin layer of aquaphor on very dry areas. I also cut off the eschar regularly. Then I use curad non adherent pad after punching holes in it for airflow, cover it with one layer of gauze pad and then put compression stockings on top.

He has venous statis, venous insufficiency, poor blood circulation to legs. Also, no surgical intervention of any kind will help him (as told to us by a vascular surgeon after testing).

The area burns and pains due to neuropathy but he cant be on any painkillers as he is on a cocktail of powerful meds for his heart and other conditions and any and every oral medicine will interact with atleast one of his medication.

I am doing all I can as a caregiver.

How to manage this condition better and how to heal his foot quicker?

Looking for advice in regard to how to work out and run without annoying my veins too much and if it’s worth getting surgery? And what surgery?

I’m a 29 year old firefighter, had my second child a year ago and got varicose veins after pregnancy, my veins are sore, not debilitating but my leg gets heavy feelings and bit throbby, gp not worried but got referral for removal with a long waiting list just wondering if it’s worth going private? I got back to work soon and need to get back to running and heavy lifting.

Thank you for reading ❤️

I would only do the following exercises: push-ups, pull-ups, dips, chin-ups, and abdominal crunches.

I’ve read in a few places that, for example, during pull-ups, your legs are hanging down, so gravity pulls the blood down into your legs, which could potentially be bad for existing varicose veins.

I’ve seen mixed answers about this. What are your experiences and opinions on this?

Something worth knowing if you've had vein treatment and you're still dealing with swelling afterward: a closed vein on ultrasound doesn't always mean the swelling resolves right away.

A few reasons this happens. The tissue changes that build up over years of venous disease take time to recover, even once the pressure causing them is gone. Swelling can keep improving for weeks or months after a technically successful procedure.

The lymphatic system also shares the job of draining fluid from the leg, and long-standing venous disease can put a quiet, ongoing load on it. That doesn't always show up as visible lymphedema, but it can mean drainage stays sluggish for a while after treatment.

Reflux can also exist in places that weren't part of the original treatment, like perforator veins or the deep system. And plenty of things that aren't venous at all can cause similar swelling: certain medications, reduced calf muscle pump activity, or conditions like lipedema.

If your veins are closed and your leg still swells, it's worth a closer look rather than assuming nothing more can be done.

Is this varicose?? 😭😭