A Vein Specialist in Flower Mound Explains Why Swollen Legs and Ankles Can Hold You Back In Life

If you are one of the millions of people who suffer from chronically swollen legs and ankles, you already know that they’re a real nuisance. You want to go out and enjoy yourself – or just walk to the corner market to get some groceries – but all you really feel like doing is sitting on the couch moaning “My legs hurt.”

Not being able to get around easily is bad enough in itself, but according to Dr. Robert A. Handley, one of the best vein doctors in Texas, that may be the least of your problems. Swollen legs and ankles can be a symptom of vein disease, which can affect your overall health and your ability to enjoy your life in much more serious ways.

How can swollen legs and ankles hold Flower Mound residents back in life?

Swollen legs and ankles are often accompanied by pain and soreness, which can affect not only your ability to walk to the market, but also your ability to do your job. The longer you stand, the worse the swelling gets, and the worse the pain gets. If your profession requires you to stand all day or be on your feet a lot, this pain may make your job intolerable, and force you to work shorter shifts, or have to choose another profession entirely. Even if you don’t stand all day, if you have constantly swollen legs and ankles that can make even commuting such a painful experience that you begin to miss work.

But that’s still just the effect, not the cause. If your swollen legs and ankles are the result of vein disease, well, that’s a very real disease, with very real implications. A common cause of swollen legs and ankles is chronic venous insufficiency, or CVI. This is a condition in which your veins become too weak or damaged to pump deoxygenated blood back to the heart. As a result the veins begin to “leak,” and your blood flows backwards, pooling in the veins and causing them to become enlarged and discolored and visible on the surface of the skin as varicose veins or spider veins.

Left untreated, CVI can lead to even more serious complications, such as skin discoloration, swollen and toughened veins, and bloody, non-healing sores called leg ulcers. If you thought swollen legs and ankles were bad, imagine living with this condition, and all of the personal and professional goals it would keep you from realizing. And that’s still not the biggest problem. The swelling in your legs, ankles, and feet may be the result of more serious vein problems like deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which can cause blood clots to form and possibly travel through your veins to the lungs or brain, causing pulmonary embolism or stroke.

So what can I do to get rid of these swollen legs and ankles?

Your first step to ridding yourself of this problem could be should be to see a vascular doctor in Flower Mound and get a venous health screening.  These screenings usually take less than an hour, and are completely non-invasive and painless. If vein disease is found to be the cause of your problem, Dr. Robert A. Handley and his caring staff can treat the condition using state-of-the-art treatment methodologies right in the comfort of our Flower Mound office. No anesthesia or hospitalization is required and there is no recovery period needed.

There is no need to live with the discomfort of swollen legs and ankles, and no reason to risk the more serious conditions they could be symptoms of. Just call our offices at 972-410-5757 to schedule an appointment for a screening. For more information, visit our website at: flowermoundveins.com/

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