packing for hospital for tomorrow--question

[nzgirl]

A kitten is a great way to encourage you to mobilise, you'll be able to play with it a bit! We're also thinking about getting a kitten before my surgery, my beloved cat was run over on the road outside our house. It's hard thinking about facing that again if we got one, but there are lots of old cats in the neigbourhood.
As for the stockings, all surgeons are different about how long you wear them for, if at all. Some prefer to give you anti-clotting medication. Also, if you don't have the correct size stockings or wear them bunched up or folded over, they are ineffective or even harmful. Beware!
Anyway, why worry about packing right, you can always over-pack and not use stuff, or send someone on a mission for what you need.

[vndy]

stockings?

Please explain the what and why?

[nzgirl]

The stockings that often patients are asked to wear are a light compression kind, to increase the return of venous bloodflow from the legs. This is to reduce blood just hanging about in the legs when muscles arn't working (like if you're on bedrest for a while), because that can cause bloodclots. So after surgery, people often have to wear compression stockings to reduce risk of bloodclots.. but you can be given bloodthinning medication as well as or instead of to do this. It just depends on the preferences of the surgeon.