Varicose veins – beatingcowdens

Keeping focus

Published on January 4, 2015January 4, 2015 by beatingcowdens1 Comment

It’s 2015 and the first surgery of the year has been scheduled. February 18th. This year it’s my turn to have surgery over the February break. It seems each year one of us takes a turn.

So while my friends are returning to school tomorrow, counting the days to the February week, I am not quite as excited.

It’s only a vein. A large, painful, varicose vein to be stripped out of my right leg. Large enough that it requires an operating room. But it’s far from the first. My veins are crap. This is almost certainly connected to the PTEN mutation that caused our Cowden’s Syndrome. My veins seem to be a generation less severe than my girl’s AVM.

I had the first one stripped in my early 20s. Before I knew of Cowden’s. Before there was Meghan. The next 2 were done in the years that led into my early 30s. Then 4 years ago I had 5 done through an in office procedure at NYU. There they were just “closed” and not removed.

Maybe they are sped along by a life that requires so many hours on my feet. Maybe genetics have sealed their fate already. Not a single doctor I have seen has ever claimed to know for sure. And that’s better. I hate when they guess.

I sometimes wonder when I will run out. I wonder how many they can close off or take out before…

They just keep telling me the ones they are taking out are already broken. Backflowing. Not doing their job anyway.

Doesn’t keep me from wondering why they keep breaking. At 41 I do wonder how this bodes for the future. But, it’s one of the things I have consciously chosen not to research too much. Because I can’t control it.

I have tried compression stockings, and I wear them when the pain and pulsing gets really bad. But, I hate them. And a religious stint of wearing them a few years back saved me nothing, and caused me to be very angry. All the time.

They are not nearly this glamorous. Trust me.

So for now, it’s the last thing I feel before I close my eyes at night. It is the first thing I feel when I open them in the morning. It is the reason I often keep moving, because the resting makes me more aware of them.

The pain, the pulsing, the aching is maddening. But it certainly reminds you you’re alive. And, as cliché as it sounds – it reminds you that it could be worse. Much worse.

Our vascular issues in this house, (although Meghan’s still terrify me,) have been confined to lower extremities. And I flash to our friends in Australia whose 20-year-old fights vascular malformations in her brain. Over and over and over, with a resilience in mother and daughter I marvel at.

Perspective. It’s all about perspective.

Meghan has 2 appointments coming. One is a follow-up for her vascular surgery in November. The other is with her endocrinologist to try to tease out the continuously unbalanced thyroid hormone levels. I have three in February – before the surgery.

It’ll be a busy winter.

So glad we chose to distract ourselves from ourselves with the “Jeans for Rare Genes” fundraiser. Always good to keep it focused somewhere else.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beating-cowdens-first-annual-jeans-for-rare-genes-fundraiser-tickets-14130024283

Good lessons that I teach my daughter. Good lessons I will remind myself repeatedly when I am tempted to rant about another stint in the operating room.

Better me than my girl. And it could always be worse.

Maybe we’ll have a different countdown to the February break. Maybe we will count down until February 15th – the date we hope to raise enough money to make a difference in some lives. The rest of the week… we’ll skip that for now.

Vascular Road Maps and other Cowden’s adventures…

Published on October 3, 2014 by beatingcowdens3 Comments

I sometimes hate the saying that things work out the way they are supposed to. Sometimes I just don’t buy it. But, then there are other times.

I have suffered with varicose veins since I was in my early 20s. I had 2 stripped surgically before I was 30 I had 5 VNUS closure procedures in 2011.

Over the years I have tried compression stockings, switching to comfortable shoes, losing almost 40 pounds, and the veins just keep on bulging.

It gets to the point that the throbbing in my legs is the last thing I feel before I close my eyes, and the first thing I feel when I wake up in the morning. During the day I get distracted. And when I get home at night to take off my shoes and switch to pajamas, the size of my legs is noticeably larger. The swelling is evident. The blue veins bulge.

Although this is far more than a cosmetic issue, the ugliness and the irony doesn’t help. Last summer I bought shorts. In a size 2.

This is not my leg - but a close comparison... — This is not my leg – but a close comparison…

This summer I barely ever wore a pair, and despite having a pool at home, I never put a bathing suit on.

As Meghan has battled with her AVM (Arteriovenous Malformation) in her right knee since around 2009, I have learned more about the vascular malformations that can be associated with the PTEN mutation that causes Cowden’s Syndrome. It seems the connection is documented, but small sample sizes make it hard to study the specifics of this rare disease and all its variations in detail. See there are differences even within the PTEN mutations that link us all. Some are germline mutations, some are frameshift, some are missense, others nonsense. AND, there are further specific differences too complicated for me to process. It seems, in layman’s terms, that each mutation manifests slightly differently, although there are major criteria that link us together.

And, it seems that the frameshift mutation Meghan inherited from me, is likely at the root of our vascular problems.

Another symptom I have dealt with for years, explained, but not gone after this PTEN diagnosis.

I had an appointment with a highly recommended vascular surgeon on Tuesday. I expected what I have come to expect.

There was the sonogram. The attempt at settling out the roadmap of veins, so many of which have already been treated. It is no easy task, and I leave them at a disadvantage because I have had my vascular work done in several different facilities. (You can read that as difficult to please.) Though for the first time I was told that the deep veins in my left calf are so dilated that they are at great risk for blood clotting. The blood sits stagnant there. That apparently is not the most intense of my issues.

Then there was the visit with the doctor. A young, bright eyed, refreshingly competent doctor who was very interested in my Cowden’s Syndrome, and my previous abdominal surgeries.

He asked if things got worse with the vein in my leg after the tubal ligation in 2011.

“You mean the hysterectomy?”

“No, that was the following year.” He was reading from a sheet I had given him. He was right.

I guess somehow I had blocked the tubal ligation which had become unnecessary less than 12 months later when Cowden’s and a uterine polyp (post breast cancer) necessitated a full hysterectomy.

“I’m not sure, why?”

“I am wondering what is causing these veins to turn. And I have to look at every possibility.” As he places his hand on my abdomen.

“How long had that pulsing been there?”

“Um… I don’t know. (Feeling incredibly dumb for ignoring my body) Why?”

“Well, I won’t even consider surgery without some major tests. First I want a full abdominal CT to check for vascular malformations.”

Now truth be told I wasn’t shocked to hear this. I had a nagging, behind the ear voice telling me to get that pulsing checked out. But I had met with a vascular surgeon in July and that turned train wreck. So I was a bit delayed. I also I guess didn’t really like the fact that he could feel the pulsing too. I thought, well I thought that was just mine….

So I left with a script for the CT, waiting for authorization, and a script for blood to assess my kidney’s capability to handle the CT dye.

And as I tried to process that, I thought of everything. I ran the gamut from aneurysm to AVM.

As I washed my hair the next morning (I do my best thinking in the shower) I had one more thought.

MY SPLEEN!

I had never mentioned my spleen. The hamartomas/lymphangiomas/masses on my spleen, the largest of which are 4 cm round. I was told they are vascular. I have been watching them with periodic MRIs and I was told as long as they stayed stable I could keep my spleen.

I really hope they aren’t misbehaving.

I like my spleen.

I also like that this doctor cares enough to check everything out first.

Pain in the butt? Absolutely. Life-changing? Maybe.

The other doctor was ready to take the vein out in the office with no prior testing. This guy told me I need an ER and tons of pretesting. You know what? At least he takes things seriously.

So now I wait. For authorization. For testing. For a whole host of inconvenient to schedules to processes.

And fortunately there isn’t much time to waste on worry.

Life is busy. We squeeze what we need to into the crevices.

We can’t let Cowden’s Syndrome distract us from this life that needs living.

This one is a favorite of a dear internet friend :-) — This one is a favorite of a dear internet friend 🙂

My Young Teacher

Published on June 15, 2013June 15, 2013 by beatingcowdens2 Comments

As I was getting ready to say goodnight to Meghan a few days ago, she was visibly upset.

During our conversation I learned that she felt the cleaner I had just given her for her face had made the small bumps she has (courtesy of Cowden’s Syndrome) more noticeable than before.

I didn’t see it.

I look and I see my beautiful daughter – radiant inside and out.

Cowden’s affects the skin, and sometimes we get these obnoxious small bumps in all places you would never want them. Dermatologists with little experience with the syndrome don’t recognize that each one is in fact a tiny benign tumor, in the hair follicle, causing inflammation.

She is almost 10. She is 5 feet tall. She has fantastic hair and a great attitude about life. But, like any girl in this society she gets self conscious about her appearance at times.

So, in my effort to reassure her that her “bumps” were most noticeable to her, I showed her my legs.

Both legs are riddled with bulging, pulsating, colorful varicose veins. I have had 7 surgeries to keep them under control and eliminate the pain that goes along with them. I have over the last 2 years lost about 35 pounds. They just don’t let up.

I told her how self conscious I am about my legs. I told her how hard it is to wear a bathing suit, or shorts. I told her that I have only bought my first shorts in over 10 years in the last 2.

I know now what I didn’t know then – that these relentless varicose veins are likely a credit to my Cowden’s Syndrome, and the same path that led Meghan to that pesky AVM in her knee – a generation earlier presents as these veins in me.

She looked at me, pointing out my own insecurities, and she said Mom, you have to understand – it looks worse to you. And you have to remember, “Some people only wish they had legs… or legs that work.”

And there it was. My girl again.

“Sometimes your blessings come through raindrops, sometimes your healing comes through tears…” – Laura Story