varicose veins

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Dear Barbell Medicine,
I would like to ask you for advice.

I am 23 old and I have had small varicose veins on my left calf since I was very small. My father and older brother have the same varicose vein on the left calf too. So I assume these varicose veins are mostly inherited from my father. I have never had any trouble with them when I was young. But after 3-4 years of lifting the left calf started to bother me (pain, swelling…). I agreed with the doctor that I would go to surgery to get rid of these varicose veins on my left calf. The doctor found out that these bad (varicose) veins were just in the superficial vein system (not in the deep vein system). The doctor also found out that also v. saphena in the inner thigh is not working properly. So I went to surgery and the doctor used laser to destroy v. saphena in my inner thigh and he pull out varicose veins in my left calf. It is two months after surgery but I still feel that the left leg is not 100%. The left calf is still covered in hematoma, bruises. I can walk and do all normal things. I mostly bodyweight squat and started deadlifting again (work up to 100 kg sumo deadlift). I tried squats with barbell but the left leg hurts afterwards…
My questions are :

  1. Do you have any experiences with this topic - lifting after varicose veins surgery or my problem- man after surgery (after varicose veins) lifting heavy (squats, deadlifts…) ?
  2. Do you think that my left leg will fully recover ? If yes how long do you think it will take to recover? Would I be able to squat and deadlift heavy again?
  3. What do you think I should do in my training ?

Thank you very much!!!
RORO

2

I’m not one of the docs, but I’ll start the conversation by saying that, yes we’ve had experience with this as I have had 3 out of 4 of these superficial veins removed. This was maybe 5 years ago? I took the required 2 weeks of from lower body training, but kept pressing and benching. I went right back to training after the 2 weeks, and I have absolutely no trouble squatting and pulling. I had plenty of discoloration after the procedure, but that’s normal and it takes time for all of that to go away given the procedure.

So I think you should resume a normal training program. :slight_smile:

3

Thank you for your reply! What the doctors say please :slight_smile: ?