Cold Therapy

Along with elevation, icing is one of the most important things you can do after surgery to minimize swelling and pain. There is no hard and fast rule on the amount of time one should ice, but typically 4-5 sessions of 20-30 minutes each every day are useful.

If you use a large enough ice bag, the cold will get through the dressing to the limb.

Think of it this way--no matter how fancy the down jacket is, if you are outside long enough in the winter, you will still feel cold.  If you're not feeling any benefit, your bag is too small or you aren't icing long enough.

Typically a standard grocery store bag filled with ice or some bags of frozen peas can be very helpful.  The fancier cold packs typically don't get as cold as standard ice and are better for when your dressings are off than when you are trying to ice through a splint.

Icing is most important for the first 2-5 days, but may be helpful for a few weeks.