swelling treatment?

The thing is I punched a wall (wooden) and my knuckel swelled up. The question is how long does the swelling take to go away?

The only treatment I know of is to put ice on it, but if there's anything else I'd like to know.

[edit on 2-19-2006 by websurfer]

The swelling is typically due to bleeding and excess interstitial fluid, nothing to worry about unless you have reduced range of motion in the joints or particularly jarring pain in the bone. Give it a couple days and you should have a nice bruise as a reminder of why it's a bad idea to bunch walls.

~MFP

Elevate, elevate, elevate in that order along with the ice and take trip to your doc. You never know what you may have done to your hand

Being arthritic, I'm pretty prone to swollen joints. I've also had a swollen hand multiple times from punching brick walls. Other than ice and elevating it, I suggest taking an over the counter, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory. Big bunch of words for a couple of Aleve.

I also suggest not punching walls.

But I do agree with FredT=== It may be a good idea to see a doctor about it, because it's really easy to destroy your hand without even knowing you did it ((Why I haven't punched a brick wall ever again)). Hope all gets well soon!

Epson salt soaks.

Nothing that I know of reduces swelling faster, or cheaper.

Thanks for all the replies. What I ended up doing was...

First putting my hand in ice cold water (reason: some kind of diffusion property), and stretching the fingers.

Secondly before hitting the sheets I applied this stuff to the area

In the morning applied the stuff again and just exercised the fingers throughout the day. After a week the majority of the swelling subsided, with swelling visible only within the webs of the knuckles. Another week passed and that also subsided.

***also note that reason for not going to the doctor was because I had full range of motion with the hand and fingers, so there was no real need.

--- > besides I didn't punch through a brick wall, that's just crazy; only because of the sharp pieces would cut the hand. Also brick has a rough surface which isn't good for punching.

What I did was punch through drywall that had a stud (wooden bar) behind it, and so not as dangerous.

The only reason I paniced was because the whole top of my right hand had balloned up, and it was weird but not dangerous since I had range of motion and there was no bleeding.