I Have a Question

Rest, ice, compression and elevation

First you need to know the cause of the swelling, cooling the area only works if the swelling is caused by blood flow to the afflicted area. So to give you an extreme example; ice would not help if the swelling is caused by a foreign body at the swollen point.

Depends where it is? When my knee was swollen, the doctor made me keep a ace bandage wrapped around it to squeeze the swelling out