Surgical stockings

Ooh I shall be interested to see what advice others have been given re the stockings. I'm 4 weeks post op now and the stockings drive me mad - so hot at night. But I'vd carried on wearing them out of fear! I'm pretty mobile now though.

Happy New Year 😊🎉🎉🎉

Hi vanessa

i had to keep mine on for 6 weeks but I was allowed to take them off for two hours twice per day as long as I was moving around and also for when I had a wash. I recommend you get some moisturising shower gel to wash your legs because your skin will be so dry and it will be easy to wash off your legs with a bowl of water and a jug just sitting in a chair. 🙂

I have never worn them ~ my consultant said that the blood thinners are enough, he was voted the best surgeon in the UK by his peers and is very cautious so I do have a great deal of confidence, his success rate is fairly unblemished so I can't think he would risk anything happening. 

Given you are moving, personally I would definitely ditch them. You are probably moving more than the average office worker and they are not wearing DVT stockings. Of course it is for you to decide, but lots of consultants are encouraging them. 

I hope you are feeling well? How is it going apart from the stockings? 

Some surgeons think that the TED stockings are redundant due to the blood thinning drugs we are given.  One surgeon told a friend of mine treated at the same hospital as me that he should not wear them as he got a blister on his leg the night after the operation.  I asked my surgeon, a Japanese surgeon, about them.  He said that hospital policy was  to tell the patients to wear them but  that personally he thought they were a waste of time.

I removed mine with in the first week of leaving hospital as they were rolling down my legs and I had no one to help me with them.   In particular I could do nothing with the one on the bad leg. A stocking that is rolling down and is digging into the leg is  more dangerous than not wearing one. I am now at six weeks following the operation and have been okay without the stockings. good luck with whatever decision you make Joan

My doctor told me I could lose them at my 2 week followup. 

I was told not to ditch the blooming things until week 6 - I hated them too, but put up with them as my father died following DVT/PE many years ago - I didn't want a repeat of that.

Some places don't use them at all, relying on rivaroxaban or Heparin to thin the blood.

Happy Hippy New Year  🎈🍸 ❤ 💋 🎉

Graham - 🚀💃

I am in the States and never had them. Apparently the current literature/research shows no statistical benefit from the TED hose and they have dropped them as part of post op protocol. I sit a lot on my job and do wear light compression hose and have kept them on but nothing I have to struggle into. Well, I should say that my husband has to struggle me into!  I am 5 wks post op on Monday.

I wore the TEDs for the 1st week but they were so uncomfortable that I took them off on the say so of the district nurse who said as long as I was mobile and taking blood thinning tablets the TEDs have no benefit. I spoke to my consultant who agreed. Was such a relief. I am now Day 21 and have no problems since the op.

 

I ditched mine last night. Fed up with them wrinkling and cutting in. I am 25 days post op. I would say I am as mobile as I was prior to the op and improving every day.

Feel free as a bird today, bliss!

Im 5 weeks post op....my surgeon advised I can cease wearing the stockings once I was up and reasonably mobile (after about 8 days in my case)....I hated wearing them so was more than happy to be rid of them. Amazing how each surgeon differs regarding how long these stockings should be worn for!

I took the blood thinners for 3 weeks. My progress was going well until I developed this painful butt pain recently which is now slowing me down....hope it clears up soon!

a very happy new year 

Philip x

I was told I could stop using them two weeks after the surgery, and I happily did! Also, I was allowed to take them off at night once I got home from the hospital.

Just wanted to mention two very important things about TED hose that were invaluable to me. First, make sure you have the correct size. And second, get the kind with the hole in the toe, so that you can easily, and I DO mean easily, put them on with a plastic bag, either a bag made especially for that purpose (very cheap or free from the hospital, like mine) or a bag like you probably already have in your home. If you google "how to put on TED hose with plastic bag", you'll find YouTube videos that show you how to do it.

IT was the same when I had my hysterectomy last year.  My hospital made no mention of keeping on the stockings, others at different hospitals were told to keep them on for 4 or 6 weeks.

I stopped wearing mine after about five days; was getting a rash behind my knees where the top of the socks sat. I did put one on the op leg occasionally if my foot/ankle got badly swollen, but that's it. Haven't really worn them since the end of week two.