Answers
Q’S & A’S
Q- What should I expect on my first visit to the Fort Lauderdale Varicose and Spider Vein Clinic?
A) You will be met by our medical staff and will be requested to fill out a quick medical form. It will ask general question’s about you and your family’s health background. Dr. Galati will then introduce himself and review this information. He may request additional information such as number of children you have had or familial history of varicose veins. Remember, this condition often runs in families. Whether your condition is just a few simple spider veins or severe varicose veins, the good doctor is going to be thorough
Q- What happens next?
A) Dr. Galati will have you stand up on a bench. He will then examine your legs and thighs thoroughly. He will carefully feel for bulging veins, muscle thickness and anything else that he feels necessary to be relevant to your particular case. If you have visible varicose veins, he will start to gently tap on them with one hand and feel where the vein travels with the other hand. This is called percussion and palpation. It is painless and gives the doctor a good idea of the extent of the condition. If nothing serious is found, your spider veins can be treated with simple sclerotherapy. If however he discovers severe varicosities he will then recommend you to go through sonogram testing and have the severe veins mapped out. This information will be used to set up a treatment regime suited to your condition. At this point all fees and number of approximate treatments shall be discussed. Dr. Galati has a 95% success rate using this form of treatment and it is not surgical!
Q- Why did the doctor decide to treat these conditions?
A) He began to encounter many patients in his practice that asked, “can anything be done for these veins I have all over my legs”? Being a physician sympathetic to the needs of his patients, he began investigating what treatment modalities were available at that time. This is how he became involved in the treatment of these venous conditions. What started out as a simple spider vein clinic has evolved into an advanced setting treating veins of all sizes, not just the simple little veins doctors treat occasionally.
Q- Why do I have veins and my brothers and sisters do not have them?
A) It is known that veins are commonly inherited in families. Sometimes the trait was passed on to you and skipped your siblings. Many times we find many family members to have had the trait passed to them too. It really is a case of genetic luck.
Q- Does insurance cover the testing and/or treatments?
A) The clinic does not accept insurance as payment for treatment of small veins. Almost all companies consider this type of treatment to be cosmetic. Only in the most severe cases of pain and disability from large bulging veins is it sometimes covered by insurance. If the insurance company agrees to pay for treatment we will accept the insurance towards your treatment costs. Otherwise, we can fill out insurance forms and supply medical records to help you recover the costs.
Q- What does it cost to treat this condition of varicose and spider veins?
A) The clinic offers a free vein examination that takes about ten minutes. This will give Dr. Galati a chance to evaluate the severity of your condition and determine what will be the costs. He gets people asking over the phone every day “what does it cost”? His response is always the same…please come in for our free exam. Many future clients do not understand vein
care. Its simplicity or severity cannot possibly be judged over the phone. Dr. Galati once said “How can I give you an idea of the costs if I cannot see your legs”? If you stop and think about it, this is true. This is the reason for the free exam. It gives both doctor and patient a chance to meet and a preliminary diagnosis to be given and a fee estimate to be determined.
Q- Does he charge by the number of injections or area treated?
A) He charges by the time spent with the patient. The average time spent with a patient is between 20 and 45 minutes. This depends on what has to be done.
Q- How much pain will I feel?
A) With the quality and extremely small size of the needle, little or no pain is experienced. However, surface Intense Pulsed Light treatment is available for those who are afraid of needles.
Q- How long will the results last?
A) We have had people visit our office that have had vein stripping surgery on other clinics. They had great results for ten years and then suddenly many new veins began to appear. Other patients have had sclerotherapy and in a few years the vein reoccurred. Dr. Galati feels very strongly about this subject. If you are a compliant patient and follow all instructions after treatment the good results should last for a long time. Remember one thing, varicose and spider veins are a progressive condition and may need maintenance from time to time. If you follow post treatment recommendations, come in for yearly checkups and continue a maintenance program, your legs will look much better and be healthier for years to come!