The patients who stopped putting it off.
Their stories.

I’d been wearing compression stockings every summer for twelve years because the alternative was too embarrassing to think about. The heaviness by evening had become something I planned around – no long evenings out, no long flights. What pushed me to book was a day when the vein on my right calf became inflamed and painful. The ecocolordoppler showed the extent of the reflux for the first time. Three sessions of foam sclerotherapy over four months. By the following summer I owned a pair of linen trousers for the first time in a decade.

My GP had told me to keep wearing stockings and come back if it got worse. It took seven years for me to decide that ‘worse’ had arrived. The examination included an ecocolordoppler that nobody had ever offered me before – it showed that the main trunk feeding the visible veins hadn’t been closing properly for years. Foam sclerotherapy treated it in two sessions. I went back to walking without the feeling that my legs were filling with fluid by midday.

I have a job that keeps me standing for most of the day and the varicose veins had progressed every year since my second pregnancy. By the time I booked at Palazzo Manzoni the heaviness was affecting my sleep. The specialist did the ecocolordoppler in the same appointment and explained exactly what was feeding what – I hadn’t understood until then that the visible vein was just the surface of something larger. Two rounds of foam sclerotherapy. By the third month I stopped dreading the end of a shift.

I run four times a week and the varicose vein on my left leg had stopped being something I could train through. The pain after long runs had become a reason to cut sessions short. The ecocolordoppler showed significant saphenous reflux – foam alone wasn’t the right approach for this one. Endovenous laser treated it in a single session. I was back running within two weeks. The vein closed, the leg felt different immediately.

My mother had varicose vein surgery in her forties and spent two weeks recovering in bed. That memory had kept me away from every specialist for fifteen years. The consultation changed my picture of what treatment looks like now. Endovenous laser, no cuts, walked out the same afternoon. The contrast to what I’d expected was so complete that I kept waiting for the recovery to start. It didn’t.

I’d developed a network of spider veins during my pregnancy that hadn’t faded two years later. I’d been told they were ‘just cosmetic’ and given no further guidance. The consultation revealed that some of the larger reticular veins underneath were feeding the visible ones – which is why they kept coming back. Two sessions of cryosclerotherapy targeting the underlying network and one transdermal laser session for the surface ones. The legs look the way they did before the pregnancy.

I’d been self-conscious about capillaries on my thighs since my late twenties and had tried two rounds of treatment at other clinics that made no lasting difference. The difference at Palazzo Manzoni was that they started with the ecocolordoppler and found a reticular network that nobody had mapped before. The previous treatments had addressed the surface without touching what was feeding it. After the correct sequence of sclerotherapy sessions, the result held.

I’m a personal trainer and my legs are visible every day at work. The capillaries that spread after a long period of standing had become something I was aware of every session. I’d assumed this kind of treatment was complicated or required a long recovery. The consultation was quick and the ecocolordoppler was done in the same visit. Two sessions of liquid sclerotherapy later I stopped thinking about it. No downtime, back to training the same day.

I’d been managing hemorrhoids for years with topical treatments that helped less over time. The bleeding had become frequent enough that I finally booked a proctological consultation – which I’d been putting off because I assumed it meant surgery. The specialist assessed the grade and proposed foam endosclerosis. Two sessions. The bleeding stopped after the first. I understood afterwards that what had kept me away – the fear of the procedure – was based on an outdated picture of what treatment looks like.

Hemorrhoids were something I’d never spoken to a doctor about. It took a conversation with a friend who’d had treatment to make me book. I went in expecting to be told I needed surgery. Instead the proctological consultation showed a grade that was suitable for radiofrequency. The session was twenty minutes, ambulatory, no recovery period. I came out wondering why I’d spent two years managing something that could be resolved in an afternoon.

I’d been to nutritionists, changed my diet more times than I can count, tried every kind of exercise, and nothing changed the proportions of my legs. Doctors had attributed it to weight for years. Dr. Guedes made the diagnosis in the first appointment. The combination of the clinical signs, the disproportion, the pain when I pressed the skin – it all pointed to the same thing. Having a name for it didn’t change what my legs looked like overnight, but it changed how I approached it. The conservative pathway and carbossiterapia have made a measurable difference to how the legs feel.

I’d been aware since my early twenties that my legs didn’t respond to anything I did. I’d blamed myself for years. The consultation changed the frame completely. The lipedema diagnosis explained the disproportion, the tenderness, the bruising I’d always dismissed. I’m still at the beginning of the pathway but already the approach feels different – it’s structured, monitored, and actually aimed at the condition I have.

I came in expecting to be told I was too old to treat and sent away with stockings. The consultation started with the ecocolordoppler and the specialist went through the images in detail. The varicose veins were treatable – my age hadn’t changed that. Two sessions of foam sclerotherapy. I spent the second half of the year walking without the dull ache I’d accepted as part of getting older. I should have gone earlier and not let age be the reason I didn’t.

My wife had been telling me to see someone about my legs for two years. I kept saying they didn’t hurt enough to bother with. The ecocolordoppler told a different story – significant reflux that hadn’t caused pain yet but had reached a stage worth treating. I appreciated that the specialist was direct about what the imaging showed without being alarmist. Two sessions of endovenous laser and foam sclerotherapy for the residual vessels. The legs feel lighter than they have in years.