Going in for sclerotherapy
Most of the stuff I’ve had has been underneath the skin so you don’t come out with a wound. You always see your doctor before you go in, it’s usually a day surgery thing. They’re injecting a sclerosing agent to collapse things… It’s something that I think is better done with some local anesthetic or some general anesthesia if you’re going to have a lot of areas. When you do it under general anesthesia, when you come out you’re sore and the areas that are treated have like a residual burning, but again you don’t generally have wounds that are weeping and I find that that burning discomfort sensation only lasts for a couple of days, at least in my experience. I certainly feel like that’s a much better way to go, and for me it has made a huge difference, because they’ve treated the lymph and veins and that’s prevented me from getting as serious of infections as I had before. Superficially it can definitely help treat things that are constantly leaking or oozing.

Sarah, young adult, Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome

 

Sclerotherapy every two months
For the past two years now I’ve been having sclerotherapy done about every two months. That helps reduce the swelling and get the cysts down. Sometimes I’m able to leave the same day I have sclerotherapy, but most times I stay for a night or two just to make sure everything’s going as planned.

Ashley, teenager, Lymphatic malformation

 

The treatment does come with pain, but not a lot
Ashley: The treatment does come with pain, but not a lot and after a couple of days it goes down. I’m not able to eat a lot for the first couple days, and slowly I’ll be able to go back to a normal diet.

Mom: And that’s just because they’re injecting in her tongue, they place an NG tube just in case. With the swelling, she’s not able to get any liquids down.

Ashley: I’ve never had to use it for—

Mom: Right. For a period of time. And sometimes it can cause blistering, but she’s never had an issue with that either.

Ashley, teenager, and mother, Lymphatic malformation

 

It’s trickier
The sclerotherapy, they inject something that basically kills the lining of the vein and it doesn’t swell anymore with blood. The problem with this diagnosis is it’s not like in a large area that’s outside of the bone and the tissue and the nerve that they can just kill. It’s sort of woven in so they’d have to be careful not to do nerve damage or anything like that, so it’s trickier.

Katherine, adult, Venous malformation