I think if you have them custom made for you, then they fit better and don't cut into the back of you knee. Honestly, I can't imagine wearing anything binding around my calf or knee. I stopped wearing tall boots because it wasn't comfortable. I could barely get them over my calf. I was prescribed thigh high stockings, and for a while I wore them daily, when I was having a lot of swelling. They'd come off at night of course.

Do you think they help you? If not, I wouldn't wear them, or only wear them when your swelling gets really bad. I now wear them as needed.

I was told by my vascular surgeon that I need to wear them all the time because two of my deep veins in my calf now leak. Do any of your deep veins leak?
My ankle hurts if I go too long without them and I think it is because of the leaky veins. I would love to go without them. But my vascular surgeon acted as if I would have more problems long term if I didn't wear them everyday. Also, it is only 9 months after my 2 DVT's in calf. I would love to heal enough to not wear them and truly get excited to think maybe it is a possibility I could go without them. They are so hot and constricting..

Also, so far I have had no swelling.
And sometimes the stockings hurt so bad by the end of the day that I have to take them off as they feel way too tight.

So he's telling you to wear them every day but warning you that the ones you are wearing can cause a dvt. What does he recommend then? I don't know if I have leaky clots. I wear them because of have post thrombotic syndrome so I had a lot of pain and swelling from that. Now the pain is much more intermittent so I only wear them as needed. If they hurt you, it could be that they aren't the correct size or the compression is hitting in the wrong place, or they aren't on right. My feeling is if they hurt you don't wear them. But that's why having them custom made for you through a medical supply store is a good alternative. Kind of costly but they measure all parts of your leg and make the stockings for you so that the compression hits at the right spots in your leg.

My doctor said two of my deep veins are now leaking probably from taking on the additional blood of the two veins clotted. She said I should wear the thigh high stockings but I hate them. They are so hot. But of course I don't want more DVT's in my knee.

A DVT in my knee from the stockings is what I meant. Right now I have two the length of my calf in my posterior tibial veins.

Stockings should not hurt. If you really want to wear knee highs, I'd really look into custom made stockings and then have a fitter show you how to put them on. I know that sounds silly, but they can help you make sure they are on right, to avoid cutting off your circulation.

Ok, thank you.

Can I ask you. How many clots did you have? How big and did they resolve? Or are they chronic?

I don't recall if I had multiple clots; I just know it extended from my calf to thigh and it's chronic but I only know that from the last scan I had a long time ago. My leg is fine for the most part except for intermittent pain and it swells. At the time of my diagnosis, I was more concerned with my PEs than my leg.

I think you just have to choose what you want to do. If your doc says thigh highs are better for you, he's probably right but it's really up to you if you want to take his recommendation.

Stockings are awful no matter what. But maybe you won't have to wear them indefinitely.

So your clot dissolved then? And if your leg is fine, you probably don't have leaky deep veins. I think right now that is my biggest problem. I want to believe that can somehow resolve itself or heal. But the doctor doesn't give me much hope for that.
I plan on going to see a different doctor soon and maybe I can get some more answers/options. I also would love for the clots to dissolve but mine was caused by Scleratherapy and that stuff is nasty on your veins. My last MRI, the tech said those 2 clotted deep veins were almost nonexistent :(
I keep praying for a miracle!

I have some presence of a clot but it's hardened. I have PTS which is cause by valves getting damaged. Dies your doc mean you have leaky valves? The blood leaks from the damaged valves which allows the blood to pool. I think they can diagnose PTS after 6 months post diagnosis. I've seen some articles that say a year post diagnosis.

I think others have mentioned they've had chronic clots and still had some improvement going forward. I do think you were done a disservice by being put on aspirin at first vs a traditional anticoagulant, if I remember that correctly. I do agree that valve damage is not going to resolve itself so if that's the issue for you, then that doesn't change. But I guess I can only go by my own experience and say I've had much improvement with my leg since being diagnosed in 2007.

Ok, thank you.

Dear Lissa, i would suggest double check with another vascular surgeon as the knee stocking will just push up the blood and not let it pool down in your feet so it should not have any role or should not be causing another DVT behind the knee unless there are some other risk factors involved like staying inactive, or surgery etc.