cold water pump machine vs. ice pack - Foot Problems Message Board

cinderella777 · 09-22-2003, 10:25 PM

have any of you heard of some machine that cycles cold water intermittetly through tubes that are on some type of dressing you can put inside your cast? My doctor suggested I use this vs. Ice paks as the cold water is better than ice and it's better that it's circulating. I guess a tube would stick out of my cast and I just hook it up when I want to use it the machine. Anyone heard of this?

cjaffee · 09-24-2003, 08:24 AM

Yes I've actually used this for the first 2 weeks following some arm surgery a while back. It is a tube that hooks to a machine so it's very easy to deal with. The cold kept the swelling down without having to worry about leaking ice bags or even changing the ice. My insurance paid for it, it was delivered and picked up by the equipment company so for me it was a no brainer. Now for my foot surgery that I just had it wasn't even offered by the Dr. So I'm not sure what the current thinking is. But either way make sure you keep ice (coldness) on as much as possible. It goes a long way towards healing more quickly. Good luck.

gypsy704 · 09-24-2003, 02:39 PM

I had a cheveron bunionectomy on 9/12 (2 weeks friday).I was sent home from the hospital with the cold water machine and it is GREAT. I used it for 3 days after surgery and experienced very little pain. I did take pain pills at bedtime for the first 3 nights not because I was in pain but I was afraid I would wake up in pain. The discomfort I experienced was after I returned the machine on the Monday after my surgery probably because I wasn't tied to the machine so I was more mobile and therefore kept my foot elevated less and with less ice time. I had my stitches out on this past Monday and the doctor said everything looked great and I could wear my shoe whenever I felt up to it. I think that will be a while since my foot is still pretty swollen and bruised. I was sent home with a walking shoe (hard sole) and used crutches for the first 4 days. He had me start doing toe exercise after my first post-op visit (day 3) which my toe and I thought was a little early,but I'm working on it. I've scheduled the left foot to be done along with a rotated,underlapping fifth toe to be repaired in November,I plan on using the ice machine again but keeping it for 1 week instead of 3 days.

cinderella777 · 09-24-2003, 07:50 PM

cool! Well the doc offered that I could use it for as long as I wanted even if that was for 3 months. So I plan to use it for a week all the time or as much as I can then when I go back to work use an ice pack but use that machine at home all the time. I hope it does wonders!