Elbow surgeries can be very painful and orthopedic elbow specialists recommend a lot of recovery time in order for your elbow to start functioning somewhat normally again. Here is everything you need to know about the recovery after arthroscopic elbow surgery.

Care After The Surgery

To know how to care for your elbow after the surgery, it’s important to know what an arthroscopy is in the first place. An arthroscopic surgery is done in a minimally invasive way and it is used to diagnose any type of problem in the elbow joint, and it also helps to treat different internal elbow injuries. Here are some things you need to do after you get an arthroscopy done. Doing these things will lessen the time of healing and you can get to doing normal life activities quickly.

The Proper Way Of Wearing A Sling

After getting an arthroscopic surgery done, your doctor will most likely recommend and advise you to wear an elbow sling to help keep your newly treated elbow in place and to avoid any dislocation. The right way to prop your arm on a sling is to make sure that your hand is elevated from the elbow and the hand should be in line with the shoulder.

Your Diet Matters

The right food will do wonders for your body when you are healing from a surgical procedure. Your doctor will most probably give you a proper diet plan which covers all of the basic nutrients your body needs after a long surgery. You will need to eat a lot of calcium and magnesium to help your elbow joints heal faster.

Also, eating lots of greens and fresh fruits will keep your nutrient consumption up. Just make sure that you are eating light food, since you will not be able to move a lot to digest the heavy food.

Approximate Healing Time

The healing time for your elbow after an arthroscopy is about 2 to 3 months. It takes a lot of time for the incision to heal completely and you shouldn’t move your elbow around too much for the first month or so.

Pain Medication

Needless to say, you will be in some pain even after your surgery. Your elbow is manipulated by an arthroscope so your elbow and its neighboring joints may feel tender and painful. You need to take pain medication timely, if you don’t want to be in a lot of pain.

Try to ice your elbow too, as it will alleviate the pain and tenderness a lot. You will need to take pain medication for at least a few weeks before the pain becomes tolerable for you. It is different for different people.

Take Care Of Your Wound

For the first six weeks, you need to keep your incision dry and away from water. This will quicken your healing process. You also need to change the bandage from time to time, because you don’t want the wound to become infected and create a new set of problems for you to deal with.

Keep an eye for any signs of redness and swelling around the incision. You need to call the doctor immediately if you see any of these signs. This is a sign of infection and it can lead to more problems in the future.

Physical Therapy

Last but not least, if you want your elbow to become functional again, then you need to do some light physical therapy. You need to move your elbow within 2 days after your surgery, to keep it mobile and prevent it from getting frozen in one place. Elevate your elbow slightly as far as you can take it and try to move it in small circles. Do anything and everything which doesn’t cause you shooting pain in the affected area. A little bit of pain is fine, but it shouldn’t be excruciating.

There you have it! Elbow surgery takes time to heal completely so you need to take care of yourself and follow the instructions of your elbow injury doctor Woodbridge until you are fully healed and able to do things with your elbow without feeling pain or apparent tenderness. Again, don’t lift anything heavy with that hand, take rest, and spend time with your loved ones.