Updates Finally!

I haven’t updated recently, for that I apologize. I’m really a TERRIBLE blogger. No, really, I am. I’ve pretty much just been out living my life. Since losing a chunk of weight, I’ve been a lot more active. That means getting out and doing more.

The first part of July, my best friend in the whole wide world had a VSG! I went to Ohio and spent a week there, so I could be there for her surgery. It was great getting to see her and spend time with her and her family. When it was time to come home I was really sad but now that we know it’s not too expensive for me to travel there, I may get to see her more often.

I had my one year follow up at my surgeon’s office yesterday. My one year isn’t until the 18th but I had an issue I wanted looked at now. I’ve been having some swelling in my legs, especially the right leg, some edema, the skin on top of my shins is reddened (more pink than red but still a color change) and there’s some intermittent achy pain, again mainly in the right leg. I admit, my first thought was the possibility of DVT so I wanted my surgeon to look at it. No, I did not go to the ER – don’t judge me. Seriously, just don’t.

My appointment went really well. I’ve lost a total of 60% of my excess weight and, even though I’ve been on a six month plateau, my weight is right where they ‘wanted’ me at this stage. They were really encouraging about the plateau, too, and I’ll be seeing my nutritionist on Friday to discuss it and see if there’s anything we can change. I still need to do my one year labs, but they’ll call me if there are any issues with them.

About the leg… 

After some poking and prodding and some fairly detailed questions, they said they honestly did not believe I had a blood clot, but they would send me to get a doppler scan done, for my peace of mind. Plus, I DID have edema and there are things with the veins in the legs that can cause it.

So I went this morning to the vein clinic. The good news is, definitely not a blood clot (and if I’d looked a lot closer at the symptoms I would have known it was not, but better safe than sorry I always say). BUT, I do have an issue that will be treated. I have venous reflux disease (or venous insufficiency).

“Venous reflux or venous insufficiency develops when the valves that usually keep blood flowing out of your legs become diseased and don’t function as one-way valves. The blood ‘refluxes’ back into the legs. In essence, it is like gastroesophageal reflux disease when acid in the stomach goes the wrong way – instead of moving down into the small intestine, it refluxes into the esophagus, causing acid reflux symptoms – epigastric discomfort, esophageal stricture and esophageal ulceration. Venous reflux is venous blood being pushed back into the legs, instead of it moving towards the heart and lungs for proper oxygenation.” (description source here)

I’ll be having a radio frequency ablation done on September 2 (pending insurance) on my right leg. The left leg is very mild and they said that can wait a bit, plus because of how mild it is, they aren’t sure insurance will cover it. I don’t have varicose veins but, apparently this can lead to them. The ablation is pretty simple, a catheter inserted into the vein that emits radio frequency and heats up the vein. The vein reacts by collapsing, the blood is then forced to go to other, healthier veins.

Nice to finally have my edema (which has slowly been getting worse after VAST improvement after my VSG) explained.