: Websites like Amazon offer the widest variety of brands and price ranges.

Back in his bedroom, Arthur stared at the fabric. It looked small enough to fit a child, yet it possessed the structural integrity of a car tire. He sat on the edge of his bed and began the battle. He pulled, he tugged, and he broke a sweat. The fabric fought back with immense, elastic spite.

Arthur drove to "Hale’s Medical & Surgical Supply," a quiet shop tucked between a bakery and a hardware store. The air inside smelled of rubbing alcohol and cardboard. An elderly clerk with a tape measure draped around her neck smiled at him.

Arthur nodded silently. She measured his ankles, his calves, and his thighs with practiced efficiency. She handed him a box containing a pair of dark, incredibly thick, rubbery tights.

Just as he was about to give up and shove them into a drawer, he remembered the clerk's advice to roll them up first. He tried again. Inch by painful inch, the fabric slid over his heel, his calf, and finally his knee.

: Retailers like Dick's Sporting Goods or REI carry various athletic compression options.

The package arrived in a plain brown box, but to Arthur, it felt as heavy as a medical verdict. At sixty-two, his legs had begun to feel like lead pillars by the end of his shifts at the archives. His doctor’s prescription was simple but bruised his pride: graduated compression tights, 20-30 mmHg.

"They aren't easy to get on the first time," she warned. "Be patient."