Men in Tights

During our first visit to Beloved's surgeon's office, we could not help but notice several men (all the men) who sat with us in the waiting room were wearing shorts and white tights.  None of them looked especially good in this garb, but they seemed to not care about this odd fashion statement they were forcing on the rest of us.  

Now, a couple of months and a total knee replacement surgery later -- my own Beloved is a member of that group!  And I am a participant in this "look" because the dear man could not put these things on himself every morning without my help -- for which he is grateful.  He thinks that since I have decades of experience in wearing pantyhose, I am exactly the kind of dressing aid he needs.  

First let me clarify that these hose just cover the leg and foot, nothing more, so they are 2 separate pieces, one per leg.  As for pulling them on like pantyhose, let me assure you, these TEDS (as they are properly called) are like the strongest support stockings a person would ever wear.  They are close to impossible to pull on and still maintain a sweet composure!

If you will squint your eyes and closely examine Beloved's left foot in the picture above, you will see that we have placed a plastic bag over his foot first, then slipped on the TED. There is a hole in the bottom of the stocking (ventilation?  we don't know.) which enables us to slip out the plastic bag.  The bag is just to help get the stocking on, and then the pulling and tugging up the leg goes on from there.  The hospital nurse taught us this trick -- thank you!!!

The patient gets to wear these very tight stockings for 3 weeks after surgery to help cut down on the possibility of blood clots being a problem.  Coumadin (pharmaceutical blood thinner) and TEDS -- both are very important in the rehabilitation process.  Beloved wears the TEDS all day, removing them at bedtime.  whew! Before climbing into bed he slips on a much looser tube-thing for the purpose of holding his knee bandage in place.

Now I would like to show you just how bold my husband is -- wearing these tights in public.

We have been having summer-like autumn temperatures here in Blogville, so, like those guys in the surgeon's waiting room, Beloved has been wearing shorts with his tights, and slippers.  This picture was taken earlier this week when he opted to accompany my walk to the mail boxes in our neighborhood.  But wait -- what is that on the left leg?

Good grief!  His sock is falling down!  The elastic at the top of that stocking has lost its strength and is threatening to fall down around Beloved's ankle!  How embarrassing!  

If you read my post from yesterday about rehab equipment, maybe you should add to the list "garters" -- something to hold the socks up if they get droopy!