Take home compression stockings

Has anyone else's surgeon gave them compression stockings to wear at home after surgery?  I had my pre op appt yesterday and everyone was given a pair for home use.  The surgeon seems very proactive about preventing DVT.  My mother passed away in 2003 after a lung biopsy because she had DVT and it led to a pulmonary embolism.  

I didn't get any.  And even as a nurse, I have always been a little cavalier about DVT with mobile patients because the conventional wisdom had been that if you were able to get up and walk around you weren't really at risk for DVT.

However, I have a niece in law who went to the ER to get stitches for a cut in her thumb and they just happened to notice something off with her heart rate and by the time it was all said and done she was in the ICU with multiple clots in her lungs and over 12" of clots found in her leg.  The breathing problems she'd been having, everyone had been chalking up to her being overweight and her history of asthma.  Come to find out she has 2 gene mutations that put her at super high risk for DVT, and she has to be on blood thinners the rest of her life.  No indication of it until then, but it may be the reason she had multiple miscarriages.

So bottom line, the medical community is just recently starting to learn how common DVT is, and how it has very frequently gone undetected and may have caused many deaths that haven't been attributed to it.  So I took it seriously and took my blood thinner shots after my surgery.  And would have used the compression stockings if they'd been offered or I'd thought about it.

If your mom had DVT, I would urge you to at some point get tested for the gene mutations, and in the meantime take every precaution after surgeries.  Getting up and walking often after WLS is good for a lot of reasons, preventing DVT is just one more reason.  :)

I didn't get any but it sounds like a good thing for you since it appears to be in your family history.  Trust your surgeon they know best.  We look forward to your updates and helping anyway we can.

Once you get used to wearing compression socks, it's not a big deal. They are a little annoying to put on - if you put them on right after you shower, you have to be sure that your feet and lower legs are completely dry.

I had a major DVT and a bilateral pulmonary embolism back in 2015 that almost killed me. I'll likely be on blood thinners and compression socks for the rest of my life. I have valve damage in my calves from the DVT, so I really need to wear them.

They aren't going to do anything bad, only will potentially help. With the family history of DVT, it's probably a good idea for you to wear them. Especially when you are flying or doing long car trips - any time when you are sitting for prolonged periods of time, clots have a better chance of forming.

There's a lot of companies that make fashionable ones now, so you're not stuck with some ugly knee high stockings. I have less selection as a guy, but I do like the ones that are made by Sockwell, and their selection for women is pretty good.

I still wear them when I fly, since I'm more comfortable that way. And for run recovery. 

When I woke up from surgery, I had a pair on. I'm prone to lower leg edema so I used them for a couple of weeks, and then finally bought a nice sports calve compression sleeve to wear off and on.

I had a bunch of vein work in my legs done. The vein doctor was in his late thirties, and in great shape. And he wore compression stocking every day. It's a good idea fror anyone who sits a lot.

I wasn't told anything about DVT in my preop but was given blood thinning shots in the hospital and sent home with a pair of compression stockings that went all the way up to my thigh In the hospital and told to wear them till I resumed normal activity. I think I lasted 3 days with them because they were so uncomfortable and kept rolling down my thighs. 

I had the very same thought that if you could get up and move around (and had the ambition to do so) you shouldn't need them at home.  In fact, once I was doing 10 laps around the nurse's station in the hospital, they took them away.

Using Compression Stocking Tool to put them on makes it so easy.