Flight Attendant Of 26 Years: I Had These Socks On Under My Uniform When A Grandmother Collapsed In My Aisle. I Never Told Her

She showed me a photo of her grandson in the galley. Four hours later she was on the floor of my aisle.

If your ankles swell when you fly...

If your shoes feel a size smaller by the time the plane lands...

If you've been told it's just part of getting older...

Please read this before your next flight.

My name is Joanne. I'm 52, and I've been a flight attendant for 26 years.

There's something almost every crew member knows that passengers are never told. I knew it too. I was wearing it under my uniform the night I watched a grandmother collapse three rows from my galley.

And I never said a word to her.

The Flight I Can't Stop Thinking About

It was an evening flight from Toronto to Vancouver. Full cabin. She was in an aisle seat near the back, 66 years old, in a soft blue cardigan.

About an hour in she came back to the galley for a cup of water and showed me a photo on her phone. Her first grandson. Three weeks old. Her son was meeting her at arrivals with the baby.

She walked every morning, she told me. Her doctor had cleared her to travel without a second thought.

Then she went back to her seat, kicked her shoes off, and slept for most of the flight.

When we landed, she stood up, reached for her bag in the overhead bin, took two steps into the aisle, and went down.

I was the first one to her. I knelt beside her on that carpet while the captain radioed ahead, and I held her hand until the paramedics came down the jet bridge.

A clot had formed in her leg while she sat still for hours. When she stood, it broke loose and traveled to her lungs. A pulmonary embolism.

Her son was standing in arrivals holding a baby she'd never met. I still don't know if she ever got to hold him.

We See The Warning Signs On Every Flight

Here's what you notice after 26 years of walking the aisle.

Women over 50 with their shoes off an hour in. Rubbing their calves. Then at landing, struggling to force those shoes back on over ankles that weren't swollen when they boarded.

Most of them laugh it off. "That's just what flying does to me now." "That's just getting older."

It isn't. Those are signs your veins are already struggling, long before you ever board.

What's Actually Happening In Your Legs

Inside the veins of your legs are tiny one way valves. With every heartbeat they open to let blood climb back toward your heart, then close so it can't slide back down. Estrogen helped keep those vein walls flexible.

After menopause, the walls stiffen and the valves seal a little less tightly. Blood slows down and starts to pool in the lower legs. Quietly. In women with clean bloodwork and normal checkups.

Flying doesn't create this problem. It speeds it up.

The cabin is pressurized to roughly the air at 8,000 feet. Humidity often sits between 10 and 20 percent, drier than most deserts, so you lose water without feeling thirsty and your blood gets thicker. Your calf muscles, the pump that pushes blood back up your legs with every step, go quiet the moment you sit down. And the seat presses on the vein behind your knee for hours.

When blood sits still in the deep veins of your calf, it can clump into a clot. Doctors call it deep vein thrombosis, and often there's no pain and nothing you can see. Then you stand up, your calves squeeze hard for the first time in hours, and that clot can break loose.

The World Health Organization's research on air travel found the risk of a blood clot roughly doubles on flights longer than four hours. And over 100,000 Americans die from pulmonary embolism every year. That's more than breast cancer.

What Passengers Are Told, And Why It's Not Enough

• Drink more water. It helps a little with thick blood. It does nothing for a calf pump that's switched off.
• Walk the aisle. It works while you're walking. Sit back down and the pooling starts again within minutes. And when the seatbelt sign stays on, it doesn't happen at all.
• Put your feet up when you land. By then you've already spent hours with blood sitting in your lower legs.
• Pharmacy compression socks. The right idea, done badly. Thick, hot nylon that digs in harder as your legs warm up. Most women peel them off within two hours. A sock in your carry on protects nothing.

What's Under Our Uniforms

Here's the part passengers never hear.

People assume our legs hold up because we're walking the cabin all flight. That helps. But we also sit through take off, landing, every bout of turbulence, and every rest break on a long haul. And we do it week after week, for years.

So a lot of us wear compression under our uniforms. Every shift.

For my first 20 years, mine were the thick pharmacy kind. Hot, itchy, a red ring around my calf by the end of the day. I wore them anyway because I'd seen what happens when you don't.

Then on a layover, a younger crew member caught me peeling mine off in the hotel room and laughed. She lifted the leg of her trousers and showed me hers.

A soft grey knee high sock. Ribbed bamboo. Thin enough to forget about.

"Evina," she said. "Half the girls on long haul wear them now. Small brand. They sell out."

Why These Were Different

I ordered a pair that night. The difference was obvious the first time I put them on. Most people don't quit compression because compression doesn't work. They quit because the sock is unbearable.

• Graduated compression rated at 15 to 20 mmHg. Firmest at the ankle where blood pools first, easing off up the calf. It does the job your calf muscle would do if you were walking, while you sit completely still.
• Soft bamboo viscose that stays cool at altitude, so you don't overheat or itch.
• A non pinch top band that holds without leaving a red ring around your calf.
• Cushioned heel and ball of the foot for the long walk through the terminal.
• 28 micro massage points woven into the knit.
• Multiple sizes, including room for wider calves, so they fit real legs.

A Cochrane review of airline passenger studies found people who wore compression stockings on long flights had far fewer silent clots than people who didn't. But only if they actually stay on.

The Thing I'll Never Forgive Myself For

I had a pair on my own legs that whole flight. Three rows away from her.

When she showed me that photo in the galley, I noticed her shoes were already off. I noticed her ankles. And I said nothing, because it's not our place to tell passengers what to wear.

I don't stay quiet anymore.

Now when I see a woman my age with her shoes off and her ankles puffing up, I crouch down beside her seat and tell her what I wish I'd told that grandmother.

A few months ago, a woman stopped me at the door as she was getting off a flight to see her granddaughter. She'd sat in my section on a flight in the spring. She pulled up her trouser leg. Grey socks.

"I listened," she said. "Look at my ankles."

So I'm Telling You Now

I still think about that grandmother. The photo on her phone. Her son waiting in arrivals with the baby.

If you fly even once a year, if your ankles swell when you land, if you've been telling yourself it's just part of getting older, please don't ignore it.

These are the socks I wear on every shift, and the ones I tell every woman in my section about now. Because compression only helps while it's on your legs.

Right now, Evina is offering 60% off for readers of this article.

They make them in small batches, and when a batch sells through, the offer closes. If it's still showing when you click, I wouldn't wait.

P.S. Since that flight, I've told every woman I know who flies, including half the passengers in my section. Here's what some of them, and other Evina customers, have said:

Click the button above to see if Evina is still offering 60% off.