One Month Post-Surgery

I thought I would share one final update on my leg for anyone who might be considering going down this same road. I wore compression the full 4 weeks after vein surgery. If I skipped it in the morning (after 3 full weeks), I would put them on after lunch before I worked out. I was a little nervous (and excited) to ditch them altogether for a workout. 

Exactly 4 weeks post-surgery, I thought I would try running without them, even though it was my hard run day of the week. Easy pace felt okay, but as soon as I started doing strides, my leg started bothering me. So I put my tights on for the rest of the run since I was starting threshold work. When I wear the tights, running hard doesn’t bother it at all. While most of the visible bruising was gone at that point already, there were superficial clots that were lurking under the surface. They were hard, tender spots, and even a lengthy hard section in my thigh that was where the vein used to be. My calf was mostly good (one smaller clot), but my whole thigh had them. The dark lines/areas on my leg were the spots that had clots under the surface. When I pressed down on my skin, you can also see the long line of clot in my thigh.

I started rubbing frankincense, lavender, and deep blue oils on the clotted areas at night to try to massage/loosen it up in hopes that they would dissolve faster. My friend warned me that I may need to keep wearing compression for my threshold runs for another month, as the clots were what was causing the discomfort. Fortunately, on my lifting days, I felt okay without compression. Even box jumps (higher impact) were okay. Week 5 hit, and I thought I would test out strides without compression before putting them on before threshold work. I was in luck! I was able to run without the tights, with only minor/tolerable discomfort. The clots are still there, but hopefully with the massaging and oils, they are beginning to dissolve. One month post-surgery, and I would say that my leg no longer looks “ugly”. Even more important, I am back to 100%!