I just had surgery for varicose veins in my left leg, which is going to set me back a month in training. That’s why I’m not doing any early season races.
Surgery went well, and is much less pain than I experience after my races! The worst part is I have to sit on my duff and can’t run for a month. I should be able to bike and swim after 2 weeks. I’ll have to ease into the running.
The good news is that now that my bad veins are fixed, my leg won’t swell all the time (esp when i run), my foot won’t ache every night when I am trying to sleep, and healing in that side of my lower body will no longer take three times longer.
I am going crazy not being able to work out. 🙁
Update 4/10/07 (1 week post-op): Okay, I take back what I said about this being less pain than I experience after my races. The pain got worse as the week wore on, and it’s not yet subsiding. At least sore muscles heal in a few days! The Vicoden they gave me helps me sleep at night, and ibuprofen gets me thru the days.
Not being able to work out is REALLY driving me crazy 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
Update 4/15/07: Last Wednesday, I slathered my surgical incisions with liquid bandage, slapped a waterproof bandaid on top of that, and went swimming. I swam for an hour and a half, and it was extremely refreshing. My leg felt great that night, and even better the next day. I went swimming again on Friday, and once again, everything felt great. On Saturday, I ventured out for a short bike ride. A short ride for me is 2 hours.? I wore a support stocking on the bad leg to help counteract the force of gravity. The weather was sunny and warm, I had no pain in my leg, and I felt really strong on the bike after a 2 week haitus. Later that day, tho, my leg really started to ache. Today is Sunday (two days after the ride) and my leg is still killing me. I will stick with the swimming, and not do any more gravity-based workouts for a bit. I’m really bummed that I can’t bike, because I really love biking more than anything in the whole world!
I can empathize on the not working out. Can you do pulling drills in the pool?
I didn’t know varicose veins caused those problems–I have them in one leg, but my GP told me not to worry about them, they won’t affect me. Obviously your experience is different (although I do have swollen feet, and sore legs, etc. that may just be attributable to running). Did your physician recommend you get them fixed?