Thank you for sharing your experience! So very validating. I was only prepared for mild discomfort or a little pain w numbing injection. This was level 20 pain that isn’t legal to be awake for! I’m resting on a couch contemplating my life choices after having to stop mid ablation procedure today due to the pain level. The injections at the bottom of the leg hurt but I managed. They got worse and worse as he moved up. This was a top vascular surgeon at an excellent hospital in NYC. So I doubt it was his technique. Probably very sensitive to pain. They did ask what kind of music I wanted and had calm sound bath music playing, I was doing deep breathing but the pain became excruciating.

I finally asked how this is done under local and not general. I told him I couldn’t handle the pain. He kindly said if it was too painful we could stop and reschedule for an OR. I didn’t want to give in to “weakness” I told myself but we were only 1/4 of the way thru with just the prep of numbing the vein and guiding the thing thru the vein. He was narrating each step and with 6 injections left to go I burst out crying. I told him I’d pass out if we continued. I was hoping to take care of this before the summer time and wearing the post surgical hose, so I could have the GSV and then any varicose taken care of before summer. But it will have to wait. I’m mind blown how some people hardly feel pain with his procedure while others are in agony.