As you lose weight, lots of veins on your legs???

Hi all - quick poll here...I thought I knew the physical transformation my body would go through after RNY but I keep getting little surprises :)  The hair loss is happening (I was prepared) and the skin is sagging (I am working out like it's my job to try to tone).  But now I also see that my knees and legs are getting REALLY veiny.  As in, one leg almost looks bruised from a few feet away.  I know with less fat, my veins will be closer to the skin but is anyone else experiencing SUPER veiny legs???  Sigh...

Super veiny legs AND forearms.  Seriously, I am a phlebotomist's dream needle stick - lol!  No idea if this is accurate but someone said they were told that as obese people our veins stretched out to accommodate increased blood volume  Once we lose weight, our blood volume starts to decrease...but the veins take awhile to retract and stay enlarged.  Which is why some people get dizzy because when we're sitting or laying down the blood can pool in your lower limbs and it takes longer to get pumped up to your head.  

Not sure if that's why they are more visible, but it'll be interesting to see if they are less obvious as time goes by.  

Hi Tracy - keep me posted!  I guess I am glad I am not some freak of nature.  So far my forearms are ok.  Just another thing to look forward to ;)

I had some serious vein problems in both legs. Reflux is the term they used. Besides looking like hamburger, circulation was terrible. They can check your veins with a simple ultrasound.

Veins have valves that allow blood to return to the heart, but the valves keep blood from flowing backward toward the feet. My valves were shot, hence the reflux. My blood pressure was really low, partly because of this.

They did EVLT on both legs. Basically, they inject a hundred shots of a local along your veins, then insert a laser at your ankle, and seal the inside of the veins with the laser. Then they do a phlebectomy. They went in with a little crochet hook and yanked out the disused veins.

At a later appointment they performed sclerotherapy, injecting some smaller veins to make them close up. The body will eventually absorb those small dead veins.

I could post a before picture if you like, but it really wasn't pretty. I don't have an after picture, but could take one. It really looks pretty normal now. But most important, it has helped my circulation, and I haven't passed out from low blood pressure since I had it done.

Whoa, thanks for all of the information, Grim.  I tried googling it, but veins after RNY is a pretty specific topic.  I love knowing that someone else has gone through this (though I wouldn't wi**** on anyone).  I don't know - I never realized this would be an issue.  I just have to ask - was it super painful to have the procedure?  Having veins pulled out via a crochet hook...ummm...makes me feel like I might throw up!  I am glad to hear you look pretty normal now :)  

I have low blood pressure, and just last week in the middle of a personal training session I suddenly couldn't hear and felt light-headed and sat down, but I blamed it on not having a protein snack before the gym.  Hmmm now I wonder if it was vein related.

Yet another reason to be irritated with myself for letting my weight get as high as it was!  And even more so, another reason to be so grateful to have this chance at changing my life and another reason to stay committed and stay on plan!  You are seriously a huge inspiration to me...I know you're a man and it's not like we had the same starting weight, but you have been so so so successful and lost such a big amount of weight and still eat the protein-forward diet - you're kind of my idol :)

It's simple to check. They just do an ultrasound and can tell if your veins are working OK or not. The EVLT wasn't too bad. It was a bit time consuming, three hours or so, but most of that was the local being injected all the way up the length of the large vein. The laser part was quick and pretty painless. The vein hook was not at all pleasant.

This was an unexpected part of the whole process for me too. But I have no one to blame but myself.

Let me know what you find out about yours.

I will keep you posted.  Perhaps I will wait a few months to get the ultrasound.  I think it will likely be worse as I lose weight but a small part of me hopes that the veins are just taking a little while to get to a normal size.  Denial - not just a river in Egypt ;)

You know, I'm not grossed out by much (my reaction to the recent "Blood Eagle" episode of Vikings notwithstanding.) But after reading this...I'm gagging.

Gagging.

Probably because I already know my leg vein valves are shot and I may be looking at needing to have this done at some point.

Thanks, Grim. 

only if I get too low in iron ir Vit K.. 

Thanks, Hala!  I am not taking iron so perhaps I should do some labs :)