Any suggestions to help w/ swelling aftre brachio?????

I had my brachio surgery last Wednesday, so far so good. Recovery has been good, not nearly as bad as I thought. It is hard to not over do it, because I can still use my arms, but I am trying really hard not to pu****

I woke up this morning and my hands looks like balloons! I had noticed a little swelling the past few days, but this morning is the worse! I can barely close my hand to make a fist. It does not feel good.

I know swelling is very common after surgery, but is there anything anyone has tried to get the swelling down? I have my arms wrapped in ace bandages and I don't think they are too tight or anything.

Just wondering if anyone had any helpful hints...

I had brachio and LBL 5 weeks ago...the swelling from the brachio has been far worse than from the LBL....try elevating your arms with 2 pillows on each side...I picked up some Arnica Montana yesterday so I am going to give that a shot to see if it helps any...my left arm is worse than the right.  Good Luck...its hard to not do too much!

My doctor put compression garments on my arms right after surgery to keep the swelling down.  Are you keeping your arms elevated?  I was told to keep mine elevated as much as possible. 

Good Luck.

Yep I have ace bandages wrapped on my arms and not loosely, they are pretty snug. I am keeping them elevated most of the time, even when I sleep. My right hand is much worse than my left hand. My hand looks like a big fat balloon!

I was lucky, I've had no swelling with my Brachio almost 4 weeks ago.

Are you wearing compression?  I'm talking about real compression not loosely wrapped ace bandages.....  I'm almost 4 weeks out and still wearing my arm compression sleeves 24x7.  It keeps swelling down and helps with skin healing.
Are you taking Bromelian?  It works wonders with reducing swelling.

I haven't heard of the Bromelian, but I am going to check that out ASAP! The swelling really sucks! It is almost as bad as when I had my c-section...my feet were soooo swollen I couldn't even put a sock or shoe on my foot.

Here's a link to the one I use after every procedure...

www.vitamedica.com/html/bromelain.html

You can buy it together with Arnica Montana.......  www.vitamedica.com/html/healingprogram.html
They have other pkgs....go to www.vitamedica.com

This is all such good information. My surgery is in 30 days!!

I had brachio last Wed too. My hands were swollen on the weekend but it's left now. I had 2 drains though so I'm sure that helped. Ice packs help too.

I had two drains in as well, just got them out yesterday afternoon. Swelling got really bad last night! Hoping it won't last too long, it is really uncomfortable!