Question How important is it for my mother to wear her tight socks for her edema in her feet and ankles?
My elderly mother has edema--pooling of fluids in her ankles and feet. Her doctor has recommended she wear tight fitting, thigh high stockings to keep the fluids out of her lower extremities. But the stockings are very hard for me as caregiver to put on and take off. She hates the whole process, as do I. The swelling is moderate. What bad things might happen if she doesn't wear the stockings and control the fluid in her ankles and feet?

Best Answer Without her support hose, her legs will swell and become uncomfortable. Continuing to allow them to swell will stretch out her lymphatic system, allowing more swelling. Lymphatic fluid is the "garbage men" of the body, taking waste away that the blood can't handle. So swollen ankles can make her more susceptible to infection. To aid in putting on the socks, get a "butler" - it's a heavy wire contraption that stretches out the sock so she can slide her foot into it. Then use rubber gloves (like the cleaning ones) to ease the stocking up her leg. The socks should start out inside out (except the foot) and basically roll up her leg. Yes, they're a major pain to put on, but they really will keep her legs healthier.

Question What was life like for American women in the 1930s and 1940s?
Was it common for men to be violent to their wives? Could women vote? Was it common for women to work? What were the general attitudes to the idea of women working? What was the role of the wife at home? Was it mostly thought that women should obey their husbands and do what their husbands tell them to do? Was there a lot of sexism? Would these attitudes have been the same even among the educated and wealthier segment of American society?

Best Answer Women got the vote in america in 1920. However, black women, like black men, were often prevented from voting in the south by the poll tax, literacy laws, threats, intimidation,and outright violence. Most single women worked for a living, and so did a lot of married women.The number of married women going out to work increased during the 1930s because many women were trying to keep their families afloat. Some people objected to married women working, because they thought they were taking jobs from single women who needed to support themselves. Many school boards for instance refused to hire married women teachers. But in spite of this, the number of working married women increased steadily throughout the 30s. It was still a widely held assumption that the man should be the head of the household,and many women prefered it that way. But then as now, not all couples were the same. Some wives ruled the roost, just like they do now, and some couples had a more equal relationship. Generally, most married couples probably didn't get along any worse than most do now, and some were probably getting along better. The marriage rate dropped in the 30s: "Do you realise how many people in my generation are not married?" asked Elsa Ponselle, who was working as a teacher when the Chicago school system ran out of money and started paying its staff with I.O.U.s. Her own boyfriend, a commercial artist, vanished when he was laid off from his job. "It hit him like a ton of bricks." she said. Magazines once again ran articles about women who found happiness in life without a husband. Live Alone And Like It was a best-seller. In the 1940s, some women were able to obtain better-paid employment than they had formally had by working in defense. Peggy Terry, who got a job with her mother and sister at a shell-loading plant in Kentucky, was euphoric. "We made the fabulous sum of thirty-two dollars a week" she said. "To us it was an absolute miracle. Before that, we made nothing." As a result of the great migration of women to defense jobs, 600 laundries went out of business in 1942, and in Detroit, a third of the restaurants closed because of the lack of help. Although most unmarried women were already working when the war started, a number of college students quit school to join the war effort. Among the other early volunteers were the wives of servicemen: "Darling, You are now the husband of a careeer woman - just call me your Ship yard Babe!" wrote Polly Crow to her husband overseas. By late 1942, unemployment was virtually non-existent, and the government projected a need for 3 million more workers in the next year. The prime pool of potential workers wsa married women. Ads and movie newsreels constantly emphasised how defense work was just like housework. However, even when the war was at its height, and the need for wokers was most desperate, nearly 90 percent of the housewives who had been at home when Pearl Harbor was bombed still ignored the call. One of the reasons undoubtedly wsa lack of child care. Unilike England, where the govnerment provided all sorts of support services for women who worked, the US government left them to their own devices. Congress didn't apropriate money for federal daycare until 1943, and even then it was used so ineptly that only about 10 percent of the defense workers' children were ever enrolled. Defense work was also hard and dirty. A lot of women found it unappealing. Whether women worked or not, their lives weremade infinitely more complicated by rationing, which resstrictec the availabiltiy of sugar, coffee, butter, certain types of meat, and canned goods as well ass things like gasoline, tires, and stockings. Unable to find stockigns, women began wearing leg makeup insstead. And since the stockings of the 1940s had seams down the back, women's magazines ran guides on how to draw a realistic-looking lien down the calf. Civilians got stamps ever month that gave them the right to buy different products. "My mother and all the neighbors would get together round the dining-room table and they'd be changing a sugar coupon for a bread or meat coupon. It was like a giant Monopoly game" said Sheril Cunning, who wasw a child in Long Beach, California, during the war.