NIU

LEARNING ABOUT TED SOCKS FOR AFTER SURGERY

Posted by Stacy on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 10:32 AM

After having surgery, there is always a chance of throwing a blood clot, and recently I learned about TED Socks which essentially are stockings that cover the whole leg and can help keep you from having a potentially life threatening blood clot thrown into your heart or your brain that could kill you. These socks are supposed to help by not allowing Thrombus formations to occur in the days immediately following surgery. I thought they sounded very interesting and so I wanted to get some more information about this because my mother was going in for surgery soon and I thought they sounded really good. In any case, I learned that you should always check with your doctor before using TED socks to make sure they are okay for you. You should not use them if you have any type of skin problems, circulation problems, edema or swelling of the legs, severe vascular diseases, hardening of the arteries or fluid in the lungs. You must only wear them as recommended by your doctor. I checked with my mother's doctor and he said that they would be a good idea for her. So now I wanted to get them for her, but I needed to figure out what size to buy. So I went online to look up how to size TED socks and I found out that you have to measure the upper thigh. Then you need to measure the calf circumference at its greatest portion. It is also a good idea to measure length from top of the thigh to the base of the heel. Once I finished all the measurement I went online and ordered these socks for my mom. They only cost me about $25.00 and I thought that was a pretty good deal for something that could potentially save my mother's life. I was also thrilled because they arrived really quickly and so she had them in plenty of time before her surgery. We even gave them a test run to make sure that I had gotten the sizing right, because I just wasn't sure, I had never had to measure anyone for TED socks before. Well, you can never be sure if a product like this works because you are waiting for something not to happen, but she came through the surgery and recovery with no problems and she never did have any problems with a blood clot.