Re: Poor Circulation? (kinda lengthy)

[Guest guest]

> Anyone here get blisters/sores on their shins? One's that have a

> very hard time healing? I'm assuming they are from poor

> circulation. They don't hurt, but take weeks/months to heal, and

> even then not completely. Are they serious?

>

> ph

Hi ph -

What you are describing may very well be venous stasis which is a

common comorbidity for the morbidly obese.

Basically, the veins lose their function. The good news is that it

usually can be handled by injections into the affected veins. The

procedure is (almost) painless. Mr. Low Tolerance for Pain here is

able to take it easily. The injection may or may not sting. The

sites are usually covered by a cotton ball taped to your leg. The

leg is then wrapped with something close to an Ace bandage. After a

few hours the bandage can be removed and the cotton balls and tape

taken off. You then have to rewrap your legs during the day for

about a week.

The injections basically cause your veins to collapse and the

interior walls tick together, thus cutting off the blood supply. The

veins are then assimilated. We have so many small veins that will

almost immediately grow larger and take over the the function that

the old veins should have been performing (they weren't - that's the

cause of the problems). Your legs may have a dark tinge at the site

of the injections which may or may not disappear entirely.

Nevertheless, it keeps the circulation in your legs in much, much

better condition.

This is but one treatment. Some of the other ones involve surgery.

However, because of our size, I was told that the surgery is not a

great option for us due to the enormous likelihood of some rather bad

complications.

Sometimes the first serious symptom is a small scaly thing that looks

a bit like a wart. I was in the doctor's office having it checked.

The idiot didn't recognize what it was and started picking at it.

The resulting hemorrage (sp?) squirted across the room. He ran away

in panic and found another doctor who knew what to do. Meanwhile I

was in the room alone trying to figure out how to stop the bleeding.

This requires followup treatments every few months basically

forever. This is the same treatment women get to remove " unsightly

vericose veins. " For them, it is cosmetic. For me, it stopped the

little buggers from spontaneously rupturing and scaring the crapola

out of everyone, including myself. Try that on Amtrak like I did!

They tried to put me off the train. They even called the paramedics

to meet us at the next station. Even the paramedics told the

conductor that there was no problem. Sure did mess up their train,

though. Please be assured that the spontaneous rupture thing is

very, very rare. Most people have basically what you describe.

Should you ever have a ruptured vein, all you have to do is place

your finger over the site and apply a tiny amount of pressure and

elevate your leg above your heart (try that while in the sitting

position on a train. That stops it immediately. In about 20 min.

your body will cause the entire thing to stop bleeding. It is

absolutely necessary, IMHO, that you have your legs checked by a

doctor.

I hope that this will disappear when I lose weight after WLS.

Best-

Nick in Sage