I am having plastic surgery and want to know if I should use it on my facial incisions, or swollen face after surgery? Will it help or hurt? Will it decrease bruising etc?
Have you asked your doctor about using PEMF? My husband just had his knee replaced, that is probably a lot more invasive than plastic surgery, so what I am about to say may not apply to your situation? Your surgeon may want you to use an ice box therapy machine, a cooling device that circulates cold air. Look up the brand Gold Rush which our hospital uses. That is what they used on my husband for his knee replacement immediately after his surgery. Some brands have different options for the application pad depending on the location of the surgery. A friend gave us a Gold Rush ice box to use at home, and ice box is what the doctors prefer as it is better than using ice. I see they sell on Amazon for $170. I was reading this morning info that applies to both an ice box or ice, this article said after the first 48 hours you should only use it for about 20 minutes every 2 to 3 hours. They said it is important to take breaks so that the blood circulation that is impaired by from the cooling can resume. If this is recommended you should get directions from your doctor about how long and how often to use it. You do not want to slow down your healing with overuse. The use of ice is not so highly recommended anymore according to recent studies, as it impairs healing in most situations. It is still recommended for cases of extreme swelling such as a major injury or after surgery.
We do not normally use ice for injuries, PEMF works better and does not cause tissue damage like ice can.
My husband has been also using his C5 with 4 of the 4 by 4 coil arrays, alternating between that and the ice box. You should find out how long and how often is advisable to use PEMF, Bob is probably going to be the best source of information on this topic. I would like to hear his opinion too. The first night home we had the PEMF coils on his knee, placed on both sides double stacked for the entire night. Then he put the ice box applicator over the top of it and held it all in place with an elastic wrap. Because he put the coils on bare skin the next morning he ended up with red marks in the shape of the coils and his skin also had a raised area the shape of the open area… We took the coils off for 7 hours before putting them back on this time over a sleeve and we wrapped it looser. In hindsight it was probably not a good idea to use both the cooling and PEMF at the same time and overnight was too long to use them. We plan to switch him over to just using PEMF and not use the ice box machine as soon as possible, which will be after the extreme swelling is down.
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