Hematoma (I guess)

[Cataboo]

It was at REI one time.

It didn't bug me too much to ride on it, I just noticed if I stopped cycling my knee would get stiff... so I just didn't stop

[Su-zq]

I took a minor spill a little over a week ago and landed on my right side. I thought I was fine, other than a little road rash, and continued cycling. At the end of the ride, I knew something wasn't quite right. By the time I got home, I had a very large swelling, bigger than my spreadout hand, on the outside of my thigh, slightly toward the back. It is right where I had a bit of a "saddle bag." The bottom of the swelling is discolored with lots of purple, red, and green.

I saw the dermatologist for another reason on Monday and asked him what to do about the hematoma. He told me, "time," and said I should take off the ace bandage I had been wearing for support. The swelling got a little bigger after he saw it, and it doesn't seem to be resolving. It is soft, sort of like an underinflated balloon.

My leg looks really ugly, but it isn't painful unless I sit the wrong way or move exactly wrong or brush up against something. When that happens, the pain is intense.

Should I see a sports medicine doctor after Labor Day if things aren't better. or maybe my primary care doctor would be an OK choice?

Maybe I am just being a big baby about it all........ Can anyone tell me of experiences with large hematomas and resolving them?

I am planning on doing a 60-mile charity ride tomorrow, so clearly I am not physically suffering that much. I am definitley looking for tips and reassurances.

[Eden]

I bruise and swell pretty easily and I've had big hematomas on my hip/thigh a few times. Compression and alternating heat/ice *as often as possible* in the first few days help a whole lot. It can be hard to keep an ace bandage on your thigh, but it really does help. The swelling usually goes way down in a few days, but it generally takes much longer before I don't feel anything at all where the bruise was.

[Kiwi Stoker]

I got a really strange bruise this weekend on the tandem. DH and I did 90km with a very fast 6km sprint halfway (averging 54km/hr during the sprint )

Anyway I came home and noticed on the outer side of my thigh a whole heap of little pin prink red marks grouped together in a large patch.

It seems from googling this I have somehow over-extended my muscles during this sprint and causing mini bruising/ bursting of capillaries on the skin's surface- strange!

I too would say keep on icing and rubbing in arnica on a hematoma. And see a doctor. I think you can use ultrasound or similar to break hematomas up.

[Selkie]

I got a really strange bruise this weekend on the tandem. DH and I did 90km with a very fast 6km sprint halfway (averging 54km/hr during the sprint )

Anyway I came home and noticed on the outer side of my thigh a whole heap of little pin prink red marks grouped together in a large patch.

It seems from googling this I have somehow over-extended my muscles during this sprint and causing mini bruising/ bursting of capillaries on the skin's surface- strange!

.

This happens to me, too. I bruise very easily.

As for the hematoma, arnica gel works wonders.

[Aggie_Ama]

If someone didn't answer... I found arnica gel in the natural foods/ homeopathic area of one of the local grocery stores. It didn't do anything for pain on a fairly large bruise I got mountain biking but gentle massage with arnica 2-3x daily does seem to have sped up the healing. I also was able to ice it immediately, then you alternate heat. Supposedly gentle massage can encourage the lymphatic system to start dispersing the blood.I have been doing that because what can it hurt?

DH rode with a pretty nasty hematoma, the doctors were concerned about his because he takes a medicine that weakens his immune system. I seem to think he was on antibiotics as a mostly precautionary measure. Took a couple months to go away for him.

[Su-zq]

I did finally see a sports medicine doctor at the end of last week. What he has me doing is taking 500 mg of naproxen twice a day for 10 days. That is supposed to prevent the hematoma from ossifying. If it does ossify, he said that all that could be done would to be to surgically remove the hard lump, something I definitely want to avoid. I am supposed to check back with him at the end of the month. If the hematoma hasn't gone done a lot by then, he will consider treating it with ultrasound to break it up. He would not try removing any blood with a needle or giving an injection to speed up the absorption; he doesn't feel either approach does much good.

The hematoma's colors are changing but I don't think the size has diminished at all.

The doctor also told me it was OK to ride. He did suggest I hit the sports store and see if I could find a protective pad, maybe in the football section, that I could strap over my shorts. I haven't gone shopping yet and probably won't. I doubt I could get the pad to stay on over something as slippery as cycling shorts and I know I couldn't fit a pad under the shorts. My approach is likely to be to try my hardest to stay upright on the bike!