Hayley’s experience with MOCA (Clarivein®):
Pre-Treatment: All pre-treatment information was great, accessible and easy to read/understand. Felt relieved at the ease of the process and less risk in comparison to laser. Wasn’t nervous or concerned with the procedure.
Thursday: Treatment 1:30pm – My nerves kicked in as I lay on the bed, mainly due to the initial introduction of the catheter. Words like spasm, aneurism and the fact I needed to sit up a little to put more pressure on the vein made it seem like my body was not helping the cause. Only seems bad to the untrained ear though. All I felt was the standard prick of a needle while the local anaesthetic was being introduced and discomfort/pressure while the catheter was being placed correctly. I felt slight tingling and little spasms in my muscles but I feel like that was probably due to the position I had to lay in and me focusing on keeping still. The probe got stuck/snagged on an area just above my knee which was slightly sore nothing major though. Once the probe was in position the buzzing didn’t faze me and it wasn’t uncomfortable, it didn’t really feel like it was in my leg. Drawing the probe back from the vein junction to the insertion point was over in an instant, I was really surprised at how quick this was. My leg was dressed and I was fitted with the stocking, I was out of the treatment room in 45minutes, pretty amazing. All people in the treatment room (Dr Fris, Dr McIntyre, Judy and one other) were lovely and made me feel at ease by continually asking how I was and advising on what was happening during treatment. I had watched a video of the full Clarivein treatment before having the procedure which actually made me feel ill as I normally don’t enjoy injections and seeing blood, having had the treatment done it was quicker than anticipated and less painful then I imagined.
After treatment (same day): It felt slightly uncomfortable after treatment when walking as if I didn’t want to put too much pressure on it, no dizziness or anything like that. Went for the 10 minute walk fine kind of felt like a rubber band stretching and shortening again – not painful though. I lay on the couch for the rest of the afternoon by 5:00pm it started to get quite sore an aching kind of pain. Sore once I put pressure on and off (like a toothache – when you clench down the pain goes away but comes back worse when you relieve it). Because of this I ended up with a wee bit of a limp around the house. 5:30pm I decided to take Nurofen and felt better once it kicked in, went to bed feeling fine a little sore around the insertion point below my knee but slept no qualms.
Friday: Woke up as though nothing really happened, took the day off work as precaution as I do tend to stand often. I stayed in bed till mid-morning, only feeling a dull ache. I went out for lunch, walked freely still felt achy but not painful. After sometime of sitting my leg felt tired went home to rest before dinner and a movie. Sitting upright again for a period of time was uncomfortable and caused slight throbbing, felt like I should of had it elevated but again not painful.
Saturday: Same sort of feeling today, took the morning easy and went out for shopping during the day, so a bit of walking around. Felt the same kind of ache totally bearable though. Finding showering with the stocking the most frustrating thing as glad-wrapping or blow drying takes some time but worth it in the grand scheme of things. I pulled down the stocking (but didn’t take it entirely off) as I wanted to see what was happening under there, there is some bruising around the insertion point leading towards the side of my knee, some by where I think the probe got stuck and also up at where the junction of the vein would be or where the Clarivein treatment started.
Monday: First day back at work today, still the same feeling getting little spasms and, tingling and that stretching rubber band feeling. Sitting at my desk seemed to make it sore as opposed to standing. My leg felt quite tired by the end of the day, glad to be home and have it elevated.
Wednesday: Starting to feel more normal and probably like I could train again but not sure what intensity, have stayed away from any form of training other than walking. Took stocking off for a shower, saw my affected area (pooling) was still there, felt a little disappointed as you expect it to be gone straight away unfortunately it doesn’t happen like that. Dr Fris did say treatment is to the trunk of the vein and naturally gravity should take care of the lower area he also had said they may have to inject the lower leg upon follow up, so not to worry. My leg hairs are looking pretty gross maybe I shouldn’t have shaved so close to treatment as the stockings restrict their growth, not sure how that affects treatment as far as the injections go.