Help advice: Compression stockings

[budisara]

So there's this big, big lady in this aged care facility. She has cellulitis so she's got pretty big legs with orange peel skin.

She's also got bilateral wound dressings with crepe bandages on her ankle. One of them is just there for protective purposes (she wants it there apparently) although there really isn't a wound there. And the other's got a small breakdown in skin where there used to be a leg ulcer.

Problem is she is is massive pain everytime the stocking is to be applied (meaning, she yells and screams and lashes out at the nurse doing it).

I am new so I had done her dressing (which is daily, by the way) once with disastrous results. I managed to get the first pair of stockings on (she's on the dual layer one) but she refused to let me put the second one on- which was fine by me anyway, i was shaken by her reaction throughout.

Also, she has painkillers on her reg meds which, if u ask her to take prior to the dressing, she will snarl at you.

My question is, how do you apply ted stockings on a lady with such sensitive and big legs? I tried stretching the stocking as far as I could but I'm only so tiny and I literally spent over an hour, kneeled on the floor as I did her dressing, reassuring and trying to finish the job. Also, I was told that this is not uncommon with her especially with someone new doing the job.

I have to work at that section again and I would really really really appreciate it if someone genius would provide me with some sort of solution to tackle this issue without causing her and myself much distress.To basically apply the stockings without dragging the bandage over her ankle dressings and without resting the stocking on her feet halfway while putting it on.

Also:

There was one other older staff who had done her dressing before, whom she said she did not want in her room. There was also a long-serving nursing who she also did not want to do her dressing because 'she's never done it before'. Apparently, the staff had tried using a contraption to apply her stockings on before which she said hurt her only.

She is also cognitively intact and self-administers her own medication (apart from the DDs).

The only option before me right now seems to be lifting weights in the gym to grow some muscles to stretch those stockings and apply them more easily. ):

[ktwlpn, LPN]

Skip the TEDS and try ace wrap compression dressings. We have a few folks who are unable to tolerate TEDS and the ace wraps have worked well.