Sugar Land – Restless, swelling, and achy legs could be signs you have vein disease.
Take a moment and think about how you feel in the morning and also at night. Do your legs ever feel heavy or achy? Well get this, as many as 17% of men and 40% of women may have vein disease and unfortunately only a small fraction of those affected seek treatment.
Vietnam veteran Sam Stone used to work as an engineer. He’s now retired. However, a medical issue was getting in the way of him enjoying days playing golf and hiking with his wife Lee. “It all started with a cyst on my leg, a cyst that wouldn’t go away,” Stone told Houston Life correspondent Melanie Camp.
Even after Stone had the cyst removed it just was not healing. After yet another appointment with yet another doctor, Stone had a lucky break. “The doctor was on vacation, so I got to talk to his nurse, and his nurse told me you have a vein problem. And you need to go see somebody.”
That somebody was Dr. Tonie Reincke who is a Vascular & an Interventional Radiology Specialist who offers walk in, walk out treatments at Reincke Vein Center in Sugar Land.
Blanca Burgos is the Medical Assistant at Reincke Vein Center, and she is the first point of call.
“So you first schedule your free consultation,” explained Burgos adding that if you do end up being a candidate for treatment you will, “...walk out of here with a full treatment plan.” Stone, who is on Medicare, said his procedure was fully covered. “We do take Medicare, Medicaid, and most commercial insurances as well. But you’re always more than welcome to call us and we can always double check that for you,” Burgos told Houston Life.
After his initial consultation, Stone learned he had a form of vein disease called venous insufficiency. While his cyst was unrelated, his vein disease may have been impacting his healing. “Something with vein disease, is there’s so much backward blood flow and high pressure in the tissues that if there’s any kind of a wound, it probably delays wound healing,” explained Dr. Reincke.
What Stone did discover though, was there were other issues he had that were related to his vein health.
“We were looking at my leg being really swollen, and then she asked me, ‘do you have other issues such as restless legs?’ And I said, ‘Oh, yes, it keeps me awake.’” Stone had no idea there was a treatment that could help ease his restless leg syndrome until he met with Dr. Reincke at her clinic in Sugar Land. Stone said it only took three procedures to have his restless legs go away. Beyond this, his swelling has reduced and an ache he had in his upper left leg if he sat too long, has also gone.
”We’re going to set expectations which is this, the procedures that I do treat vein disease, but they don’t cure it. So any patient that has a vein disease we let them know, you may need other procedures in the future,” explained Dr. Reincke.
Treatment is minimally invasive and patients are back to their normal activities the same day, “there’s no downtime,” said Dr. Reincke said of the procedure which is performed in around ten minutes with local and deeper numbing. “Patients don’t describe the procedure itself as painful it might be a little discomfort, a pressure sensation while I’m doing the procedure,” said Dr. Reincke.
Smith said it is all pretty easy, “And, I was amazed how fast it is.”
“I’ll see guys on canes with really swollen legs and everything and I’ll tell them my story and I say, you know, you may want to go see Dr. Reincke. Because, I have a hunch. She can help you with all of that,” said Stone.
If you would like a free consultation give the team at Reincke Vein Center a call tell them you saw the story on Houston Life, the number is 281-394-4446.
Watch Sam Stone’s story on Houston Life in the video above.