“At times, my legs felt like cement blocks.”
HealthEast Vascular Center patient Deirdre Bombeck

“You would think, as active as I am, that exercise would have been good for my varicose veins,” said Deirdre Bombeck. “But as much as I love tennis, I could tell that the pounding on the court was taking a toll on my legs.” Deirdre’s varicose veins in her thighs had started giving her problems in her late 20s; her pregnancies in her 30s made the pain even worse. “I kept waiting and putting the procedure off, because it’s just one of those things where moms say, ‘Oh, it hurts, but it’s fine.’”

Eventually, Deirdre’s tolerance for the pain reached its limit. “There were times when I could run and my legs wouldn’t bother me a bit. Other times, it would be so painful right behind my knees, and it would fatigue my legs so badly that when I would go up stairs, my legs felt like cement blocks.”

Deirdre decided to check out whether she would be a good candidate for vein ablation, a minimally invasive technique that permanently closes off varicose veins. “I had a lot of questions: I asked the doctor if there would be pain and how long it would take to recover. I wasn’t doing this for cosmetic reasons — I just didn’t want my legs to become worse and have bigger problems in the future. And when he said it would be better for me to do the ablation now versus later, I decided to do it,” recalls Deirdre. “Two weeks later, I went into the doctor’s office to have my first leg done. In under an hour, you’re done, and I could see a difference right away.”

Deirdre returned to have the veins in her second leg ablated a week later, and again felt results immediately. “It’s just phenomenal that you don’t have to spend time in the hospital or laid up in bed at home. I just relaxed afterwards for a couple of days each time, then resumed my normal activities very quickly.” And her tennis game? “I’m back on the court and my mind’s back on the game — instead of worrying about my legs hurting. I’m so happy with my results.”