Hi Elisa!
I had the surgery done 10 months ago, but remember it as if it were yesterday. My surgeon told me to start using the hand doing normal actvities as long as they didn't hurt too much from the day after the surgery. What is normal actvities for one individual could be very unormal for another person though, but he meant cooking, doing the dishes, dress myself, making the bed etc. I got an exercise program to follow. Some exercises to do in the morning and evening and some to do every hour in a woken state. I wasn't allowed to carry heavy stuff for the first 4 weeks. My physio therapist thereafter instead said for the first 6-7 weeks. So they had different opinions about that.
During the surgery, even though I had local anaestesia in the wrist/palm of my hand, I fainted for a short period of 5-10 seconds because the pain when he cut in the palm was unbearable. As I understand it from meeting the physiotherapist a couple of months after the surgery (my surgeon quit, retired and went abroad), she told me not to bend my wrists too much. I could still using the bracelets at night if I wanted to, at least for some time. However, I've noticed using the bracelets at night make my wrist become weaker! Anyone else thought of that?
Elisa, can you feel your fingertips? Can you bend your fingers? If so, the surgery probably went well. 
I had some pain the same evening the surgery was, but took no pain killers. But I had problems with the hand becoming swollen at night and for some months thereafter when I took a walk and held them down as you normally do... That seems better now, after 10 months at last, even if I some nights get a bit too swollen - you notice it when the bracelet fit rather loose at the evening but explodes during the night... Then I can't bend my fingers at all! But that's seldom nowadays. Hopefully I won't experience that again when the weather becomes warmer in spring/summer. That would be a nightmare. So keep doing the Anti-swollen exercises - that is my best advice. I did, and I don't know what would have been the result if I hadn't. You probably know the Standard exercise for that: Hold your arms up in the air, the fingers apart, slowly lowers your hands while simultaneously make fists - repeat 10 times every hour. If it doesn't help, not being enough, make 15, 20 repetitions each time, or make them every half an hour. Set the clock in the middle of the night and make 20 extra repititons then for the first 2-3 weeks. At least I had to do.
What to expect? Well, I'm still having problems with my hand, but I also have periods when I feel 95-100% recovered. That's a bit weird and everybody involved think so. It 's very activity correlated. The surgery team asked me the day they were about to remove the bandage how I felt, but what could I say more than; "I don't know!" I mean the hand was all wrapped up in a very large stiff bandage, it isn't normal that's for sure. When the bandage was removed it felt like a relief, but the hand didn't feel like a part that belonged to me. It took some days for it to feel as a body part of mine. Instantly after the bandage was removed though, I could touch every finger with my thumb and had thumb muscle power, even though you could visually and by grip exercise measurements notice some tenor muscle atrophy. It didn't feel like it was though. My advice efter the bandage is gone: keep using the hand as normal as you can.
I had lost my feeling, a total sensation loss that is, inside of my palm, an area of 5 cm in diameter, like a big coin. Now, 10 months later it had started to return pretty good. I could feel the scar a bit, but now that's only if I put the palm down on a table.
By the look of it, it seems your bandage isn't the stiff one, filled with gypsum/plaster that I got (I'm from Sweden so excuse my language, I don't know if the word is plaster or gypsum). Stiff it was anyway...
Very much Good luck to You Elisa!