January 30th, 2026

I have accidentally discovered something wonderful and I want to share this wonderfulness with you!    The rainbow of socks you see here at the top of the page isn't just cute (and they are very cute) and they aren't just normal utilitarian socks, nope they are special socks.  Behold, I give you Compression Socks!

Compression Socks?  I hear you scoffing at me.  Like old person socks? Circulatory Problem socks? Medical issues socks?  Big Fat Hairy Deal, I hear you say.  And I know that's what you are saying because up until a couple of weeks ago, that is also what I would have said.

It began, as I said, a few weeks ago when I finally (FINALLY) got the okey dokey from my foot doctor to "slowly transition" from boot to shoe, which of course I translated as just wear your regular shoes. Sort of.  I did also agree to always wear the recommended orthotic in my shoes and since the orthotic only fits in one of pairs of shoes, I am, at the moment, wearing the same pair of shoes every single day no matter the occasion, circumstance or what the rest of the outfit looks like.  AND I also agreed to try to never, or at least almost never, go barefoot for the rest of my life. sigh.    This is by way of compromise, in my mind at least, with the doctor's instructions.

Me, wearing my one pair of regular shoes that the orthotic fits in. Nice to be in regular shoes once again though!!
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For the past, I don't even remember for sure, many months I'd been clomping around in an orthopedic boot after carefully wrapping both feet with compression bandages. Every Dang Day I had to go through the ceremony of finding the correct end (there is a correct end as it turns out) of the compression bandage and slowly winding it around each foot, making sure it was not too tight, not too loose, making sure it was smooth with no wrinkles (coz they can create a sore spot), somehow, magically pulling a sock on over top without dislodging the wrapping and then strapping into the "boot" . To be honest, poor Tim often found himself roped into the wrapping part as he was far more patient than I and therefore did a superior job.

Oh it felt so good to be done with that nonsense.  On the other hand, as I awkwardly limped a little through my first few days in regular shoes, I felt like something was missing.  I did a little mental inventory. What did the doctor say in his post-boot instructions again?  Orthotic plus shoe ....,check, check. Nope, I didn't miss anything he said. but by the end of the day, as I was, once again, icing my feet because  they ached so badly,  I wondered what was going on.  Was it just adapting to wearing regular shoes again? Was it still just a part of the ongoing healing process? Was it the orthotic?  

I gave it  some serious thought.  It seemed to me that the achiness was remarkably similar to how my arthritic hands feel on the bad days. Hmm I wondered, do I now have arthritis in my feet?  And then the light in my head clicked on.

Years ago now, Tim bought me a pair of compression gloves for those bad days and they are a godsend!  I now have three pair, one pink and two grey and on rainy, cold days, such as we've been having lately, I find myself wearing them A LOT!  Usually only at night, but some days (such as today as a matter of fact) I wear them all day long and  they feel so good.

So I cleverly put two and two together and came up with compression socks. What a terrific idea. I've been wearing compression bandages on my feet for months so the 'leap' to compression socks is more of a hop than a leap.   Right away I went online to look up this compression sock idea, which I already knew was a thing even though, in my memory they were just so awful looking. I know, I know, how shallow of me to be concerned with looks. So sue me.

To my tremendous relief compression socks now come in all sorts of adorable patterns and colours! Yay!  My memory (admittedly a distant memory) of compression socks was of truly ugly beige or white, hospital grade, functional, get the job done but not done pretty and while I was certain that they would do the job, I dreaded the thought of committing to a lifetime of hideous socks.

Ok, side note, something else you probably don't know about me is that I used to make it a point to wear fun socks.  For literally years I looked for Colours, prints, ruffles, lace, anything that was out of the ordinary and jazzed up what can otherwise be a very functional piece of clothing. (Are socks clothing?) In fact, people referred to them as Sam's Jazzy Socks.  I often got fun socks as gifts from people because it was something relatively inexpensive and was something associated with me.  Then I grew up, got married, had children and didn't have the time or funds to indulge in fancy footwear. Instead I started buying my socks by the bagful, all white, at Walmart. They weren't pretty but they got the job done and I stopped thinking about my old jazzy socks days.

And now life and the universe gave me an opportunity to, once again, indulge a wee bit.   Just a little.  There were some Very Expensive and far more elaborately designed compression socks online but I compromised, Fun colours at a much cheaper price.  I was not going to settle for ugly socks and that was that.  Tim had No problem with the socks and now I have an entire sock colour wardrobe to choose from ever day !  Huzzah!

That is of course, the superficial part.  The functional part is Aces! I cannot begin to tell you how much better my feet feel in these compression socks.  Where have these been all my life?  Honestly if I knew that they felt this good to wear, I would have been wearing them all my life. ALL  MY LIFE!  I think back to when I was running every day. That extra support would have felt so good while knocking out my daily miles. And then after running would have been like a little mini foot massage.  ahhhhh.  And then while racing around after toddlers?  Daily Farm Chores?   Mall Shopping?  Heck, grocery shopping on those miserable concrete floors....oooo that would have been so nice.  Hiking!  Walking around town, at work, at play, even while I'm sleeping and I'm not kidding about that either. I would never ever have thought about trying compression socks if it hadn't been for my broken foot and toes.  But now I'm wondering why nobody told me about this before! Which is why I'm telling you.

I think I have a new obsession.  I see a lifetime of cute compression socks stretching ahead of me.  And I think you would enjoy them too! Anybody who spends time on their little feets and ends up with sore, achey,  tired feet by bedtime would truly appreciate how much better they feel wearing compression socks.  Give it a thought and maybe give it a try. Let me know what you think afterwards.