I’ve recently travelled from Sydney to London, via Tokyo, on an aeroplane. That’s a 10 hour flight and then a 12.5 hour flight, with a one-night stopover in Tokyo to break the long journey.
I was convinced to wear flight socks for the first time, for this journey. That’s because I’m getting older, which is annoying, but a good thing to do, considering the alternatives.
In case you don’t know about flight socks, they are tightly-fitted highly-elastic long socks or stockings that gently and continuously squeeze your legs, particularly your calves. This stops liquid, including blood, from building up in your legs as you sit inactive for hours and hours and hours in a plane on the long flight from Australia to pretty much anywhere else. Stagnant blood can eventually coagulate in your blood vessels, causing a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) – a blood clot, which can be very dangerous, as it can cause a heart attack or a stroke if it breaks up into pieces that move around in your arteries until they get stuck somewhere.
Getting the right size
Getting the size right is important. I had some trouble with this as I have big feet and skinny calves, and the sock have to fit both your feet and your calves properly.
(You can tell that I haven’t been to the beach for a while – such white feet!)
I initially got a pharmacist in Sydney to measure me and size them; unfortunately, she got them entirely wrong and I had to take them back. They were way too loose around my calves. I ended up going through what is available at the Chemists Warehouse and found a pair that I was happy with. Here they are:
Putting flight socks on
Flight socks are slightly tricky to put on because they are tight and they must be evenly spread over your legs. This can be hard to achieve unless you use the right technique.
To put them on easily and effectively, turn them inside out, and then reach down inside the sock and grab the toe. Pull the toe back up through the sock until the heel just flips over and becomes the lower end of the sock. Now you can put your foot into the foot part of the sock past the heel easily, and then pull the leg part of sock up over your foot and up your leg, stretching and spreading it out evenly as you go.
Do they work?
Well, I didn’t get a DVT, but I never did before, either.
The socks feel comfortable, and I think they help with restless legs, which can be a problem on long flights. I always make a point of getting up and walking around the plane and doing some stretches on very long flights, anyway. The bigger aeroplanes used on longer flights are usually a bit more roomy to allow this.
Either way, I’ll be wearing them on all my long flights in the future!
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