How to heal a yellow and red bruise?

today, a huge wooden crate fell on my dad and hit his shoulder.he already went to the doctor and they gave him pills,but the bruise is all yellow with a blotch of red in the middle.it takes over his whole shoulder.is that normal?i also want to know if their is anything we can put on him to make it better?we cant put ice on it because its still too tender.