San Diego Access Care / Vein Center of Del Mar

I live out of town so I came to see Dr Rattner specifically as I was in San Diego. The wait last time was over an hour and I had to leave so I rescheduled again. This time the wait was almost 2 hours. Even though it is understandable that they cant control the length of emergency surgery, they should not schedule 3 – 4 people at 10 am knowing that there is a chance of 2 hour wait or at least they should everyone to warn them. Also every time I come out with my more of a cosmetic problem I have to pay out of my pocket and I feel like I am not getting all my problems solved. I get a response like: «we will get that one next time». I don’t understand why I get that response as I feel like I come from out of town and it is very hard for me to take off work and I also pay cash so it is very expensive. But I want for my veins to go away and not become as bad as my mother’s. So when I come there, I want for all of my needs and all of my veins to be zapped. I don’t want to wait for another 6 m to a year when I get a chance to come out again to zap them. Anyways, overall I am disappointed and feel like I wasted 3 hours of my time and $ 250 again. But I gave this place another chance. I am giving it 3 star for the fact that his staff is amazing and Dr Rattner himself seems to be a very nice man but it seems like he is very busy and focuses on big serious vein problems and overlooks smaller patients like myself.

I found this place on the internet. I had varicose veins. The type of varicose vein I am talking about are the ones that are below the knee on the front and back of the leg AND bulge out. I originally was looking to do the venus procedure or sclerotherapy after doing some research on the latest treatment. My brother and father had their veins stripped long ago and didnt want to do that (they rarely do it anyhow). I originally met with a Doctor in La JolIa, however, I have learned to always get a second opinion and sometimes a third. Thats another story. Anyhow, I called their number and I got lucky when a Rosemary or Rosemarie picked up the phone. She me set up for a consultation that afternoon. She made sure my insurance would cover everything and personally set up my appts too.
I met with Dr Rattner. He was great. He went to some good schools AND he had a good «bedside personallity». One of those doctors that explained things before I asked my 20 questions AND told you what was going to happen before he would do anything etc. And I did ask this guy about all the treatments out there and I asked many many questions. He advised me to go with laser therapy on a vein between my knee and my hip on each leg (same as the La Jolla doc), stating this was the source of my problem of tired legs and bulging veins below my knee. The problems below my knee were the result of a bad valve above the knee and the problems below would probably go away with the laser therapy above the knee. My plan with the first doctor was to do laser above followed (this getting too long!) sclerotherapy below. He suggested first doing above, waiting to see what happened below the knee with the veins. Two weeks after the laser above, my lower veins looked improved, but still visible. He said that he could do a phlebectomy or schlero that day, but he said more than 90% of the buldging would be gone in about 6 months. Well, I am writing this today because I did not go with the lower leg surgery and its only been 2 – 3 months and 90% of the bulging is gone and I didnt do the unnecessary surgery he advised. The plan was to wait six months and see. It was tempting to just have the second phase done and have immediate cosmetic results, but I did not.
My tired /​heavy legs disappeared, but I am worried they might be coming back. Originally, i thought my heavy legs were just bcuz i am getting older, but it went away!
Feel free to message me through Unilocal with any questions and I will post the question here and answer it. HOWEVER, I only check messages once in a while. This took too much time! but i am thankful everything went smoothly with this doctor.
other notes,
I liked how they called me to check on me.
No billing headaches.
I had the option of emailing the doctor if I wanted to. I never did email this doctor. I emailed the La Jolla doctor and did not get a response. Kinda lead me to this guy.
My only advice to you (and to the doc to tell his paitents), take ibuprofen after the surgery. I was told to take it if there was pain, but I am the type that avoids meds and thought it normal for the soreness. it vanished after i took it. I believe it reduced swelling inside my leg and the swelling created the soreness. I only took advil like 2 – 3 times. I just wished I took it sooner.
They have two offices. The one in SD was not in a super fancy building, but I scored by going to this place.
Anyhow, I am writing this review because I am grateful that he did not put me through an extra surgery on each leg (both legs had problems). He would have made more $ if he swayed me that way…