Cape vein clinic closing after 25 years; new practice taking patients

After 44 years of surgical experience and a quarter-century with his Cape Girardeau practice, Dr. Tom Critchlow is hanging up his jacket.

Critchlow opened The Vein & Esthetic Centre at 3065 William St. in 1999. He had previously practiced surgery in Mexico, Missouri, for 14 years.

"We docs are lucky," Critchlow said. "It doesn't take that much with what we know how to do to make a huge difference in peoples' lives."

At 76, though, he said it is simply time for him to retire.

Critchlow attributed his love for phlebology — the study of veins — to the way he can help his patients and how much the field has developed over time.

When he first began working on veins, the surgery process involved numerous incisions and pulling veins out of the body. Now, technology has improved to where most surgeries are nonintrusive and require minimal incisions, if any.

"We can achieve the same outcome with a needle and a tiny laser that we could with the old procedure," Dr. Colleen Moore said. "Now we do it in the office, it takes 30 minutes, you walk out and go to work instead of staying in the hospital for a week."

Colleen Moore will be taking over Dr. Tom Critchlow's patients at her new InVein Medical and Cosmetic Clinic, opening Monday, Oct. 2. She will provide the same services Critchlow did.CHRISTOPHER BORRO

Colleen Moore will be taking over Dr. Tom Critchlow's patients at her new InVein Medical and Cosmetic Clinic, opening Monday, Oct. 2. She will provide the same services Critchlow did.CHRISTOPHER BORRO

Moore runs the InVein Medical and Cosmetic Clinic, a new practice opening Monday, Oct. 2, at 21 Doctors Park in Cape Girardeau. She and Critchlow have known each other for around a decade. She will soon take over Critchlow's patients.

Throughout her decades of education, training and career work, she's worked in several surgical capacities, but she keeps returning to veins.

"Everywhere I've been in the three jobs I've had in the interim, the vein part of my business has taken off. I don't know if it's because I'm a lady treating ladies, typically, but I have done a lot of veins throughout my career, and finally we decided we were going to open a vein center and do just veins," she said. "... Veins are fun."

Moore has held positions across the Midwest, including five years as a vascular surgeon in Cape Girardeau during the mid-2010s. Having grown up in the area, InVein marks another homecoming for her.

Her practice will offer the same services Critchlow's did. She even acquired several pieces of operating equipment from Critchlow, in addition to patient charts.

Critchlow worked primarily on spider and varicose veins over the last 25 years. He also provided Botox injections and tattoo removal services at The Vein & Esthetics Centre in the past.

"My favorite patient for tattoo removal was a couple when they both came in. And verily, if they both come in, it's because one of them has a name on them tattooed that the other one is not named," he said.

In the past, Critchlow would attend conferences, talking with people about starting their own esthetic practices. He promoted vein work as a more pleasing alternative to general surgery.

"I could get called at 2 a.m. to take care of some drunk who was spitting on everybody and throwing up who has just run into another car, killing a mother and her two little kids. I spend all night taking care of this son of a (expletive). I spend weeks in the ICU. He finally goes home and he comes back to my office complaining about his incision. Versus now, I will see a lady, I'll treat her veins and she will come back and tell me, 'You're the best doctor in the whole world because now I can go to a swim party with my daughter. You have changed my life forever.' And I like that," Critchlow said.

Critchlow said he will miss his patients most of all. Moore said she was excited to get to know them.

Starting toward the end of September, Moore will begin accepting calls and emails for services at InVein. She can be reached at (573) 837-4131 or info@inveinclinic.com.