He threaded a catheter through the vein under local anesthetic and placed it where the deep and superficial veins meet, watching it all under ultrasound. Once he was in the right place, he used the catheter to deliver radiofrequency to heat and collapse the great saphenous vein. As the catheter's withdrawn, it shrinks the collagen, which contracts the vessel, and destroys the lining so that it seals and scars shut. It then remains behind where it becomes, over time, undetectable from other tissue.

Throughout the procedure, Arbuckle was awake. That's important, Jensen said, because an unconscious patient can't tell you if you're moving too fast or heating tissue too much, which can cause pain. If an alert patient says it's hot, the physician can improve the insulation, created by a diluted anesthetic fluid that's injected in the area around the vein so the heat produced by the radiofrequency doesn't injure surrounding tissue. That also minimizes pain later. Most patients, post-procedure, need only over-the-counter, non-steroidal agents like Ibuprofen or Tylenol.

When the vein is collapsed, the blood naturally redirects to healthy veins. There's a chance that, down the road, a similar problem will occur elsewhere.

After, Arbuckle was given compression hose and scheduled for follow-up and a procedure on her second leg. Jensen told her it's hard to predict how her body will react as it heals. "Some people feel great and are hanging Christmas lights. For others, there's a little pulling and tugging; it may feel like a pulled muscle."

Three weeks out from the procedure on her first leg, Arbuckle said she was still recuperating, but feeling better. She's still wearing her compression stockings "and once in a while, I can feel it." If she doesn't wear the stockings, she feels it more, something Jensen warned her might happen for a while. But when earlier this week she left them off for a day, she was pleasantly surprised to find that while it hurt a little, her legs weren't swollen.

"Hopefully, by summer it will be all better," she said, adding she cannot yet do heavy exercise, but that, too, is coming.

Three months out from having the procedure on her first leg and two out from the second leg, Trujillo recently took a run in the mountains with her dog. "I can't believe the difference," she said.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com