Owing to a combination of current medical problems and an old injury, I have permanently swollen feet and lower legs. I have to take a (women's) 4E wide shoe. My standard Gentle Grip socks were no longer staying up because they have been massively over-stretched by the oedema I have, particularly on my left leg, the worse of the two. I thought these Oedema Socks would solve the problem, but no.
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Straight out of the packet (and therefore unworn) they were much too big on my feet (4E, remember) and loose on my legs, not gripping at all. On walking, they soon trickled down, bunching around my ankles and creeping into my shoes. The model in the sales photos doesn't appear to have any significant swelling of their feet, which led me to believe that the socks would fit snugly but with loads of non-constricting stretch to accommodate individual degrees of swelling.
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I walk everywhere! The day I tried them, I walked into my local town centre from home, went all over doing my shopping, then walked home, covering about 3 miles in total. I had to pull the socks up three times - just as often as my over-stretched Gentle Grips. I can only assume that most of the people giving positive reviews are not particularly mobile so haven't encountered this "downward creep". I'm particularly disappointed given the price - I can get six pairs of "ordinary" Gentle Grip ones for less than the cost of one pair of these. I was intending to buy at least ten pairs of the Oedema Socks - several in black plus one each of the other colours for almost £180! - but will not be doing so now.
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I wish I could say I love them - I was hoping to! - but, sadly, I can't.
