Bruise Healing

[Aggie_Ama]

I tried to search and didn't find exactly what I was looking for. Short story Tuesday night I was racing at the dirt track, I went over the bars and hit the inside of my left thigh hard. I got back on and raced, didn't think it was anything too big of a deal. I got home and it was swollen, like I had an egg under my skin.

The next morning though, wow it is a huge hematoma. I iced it Tuesday night and yesterday. The bruise is easily 6"x9". It is deep purple, still slightly puff but not too bad. I have been taking arnica internally and last night rubbed gel on it. I have been avoiding ibuprofen even though it hurts and my back is a little sore because I read ibuprofen keeps the blood at the surface.

Mainly I am training for a race on 11/19 and right now my muscle is sore and tight. I took yesterday off (planned rest day) but I don't want to take too much off. Anyway I can help my body heal itself that I am not doing?

[OakLeaf]

Now I confess I've had two hematomas and let them heal on their own, but you KNOW there's a risk of blood clots and you ought to get it drained....

Electrical stimulation (the stupid gizmos they sell to "work your abdominals" or facial muscles) works wonders for me for taking fluid out of injuries. But if you don't already have one of those things, it might be more of an investment than you want.

To reduce your risk of clots you probably ought to take aspirin.

But see a doctor.

[zoom-zoom]

To reduce your risk of clots you probably ought to take aspirin.

Careful with that...I am a bleeder. I had a surgeon pretty stressed-out when they had difficulty getting me to stop after elective surgery. I ended up with drains, which he doesn't typically do. I avoid aspirin and NSAIDs, as a result, since they thin the blood and can cause increased bleeding. I am frequently covered with bruises without any idea of cause. When I do fall (like I did 8 days ago while mtn. biking) I get massive hematomas from even relatively benign tumbles. The problem is that I don't clot fast.

I'm finally tired of this, so when I go in for my annual physical next month I'm going to ask about having some testing done. I have nearly all of the textbook symptoms of von Willenbrand disease. Years ago I was diagnosed with state 2 endometriosis, but part of me wonders if it's more than that, given all of my other bleeding/bruising issues.

[Aggie_Ama]

Measured it tonight it is 4.5"x7". I am not sure it is serious enough to drain, it is pretty large but the swelling has all but gone away. It was scary yesterday morning because obviously the blood had spread overnight (Tues-Weds) but I am pretty sure it is not the level of the one my husband almost needed drained. I did some heat compression tonight to help the circulation. Here is a photo of my hideous thigh, um yeah it isn't super model fit..... The round red scrape part in the middle is all I saw before going to bed Tuesday, it was swollen there but I had no idea it was going to be that big. I bruise easily but this is pretty out of the ordinary. And it was far from my worst wreck at all.

[zoom-zoom]

Ow. This is mine, about a week ago (taken the day after falling--by the next day or two after that it was even larger/darker):


It measured 3x4" at the time of the photo. Now the center area is much lighter, but the ring of blood has spread very wide, an inch+ bigger in all directions. This was from a very slow-speed fall. In HS I was thrown from a snowmobile when we hit ice on a lake (I'm sure we weren't wearing helmets--that terrifies me, now) and I had a dinner-plate sized bruise on my hip. That looked great with my cheerleading skirt!

Re: bruising and clots...it's a myth. Taking blood-thinning pain-meds early-on is not a great idea, either.

[OakLeaf]

Re: bruising and clots..it's a myth.

Well, that's good to know. Is that new research?

Four years ago I read that on several "reputable" but consumer-oriented sites like WebMD or MedlinePlus (don't remember specifically), and in fact just the other day my PT read me the riot act about not having had the one in my hip treated. I've got a dent half the size of my fist that I don't suppose will ever go away.

I'm going to have to find the actual medical journal references. I guess I would still be concerned if the hematoma itself (not the superficial bruising) is larger than a dime or so.


ETA: Here's my old thread with some other people's suggestions. Note the last poster said her doctor prescribed naproxen to help prevent it ossifying.

I miss Zen.

[Aggie_Ama]

I'm going to have to find the actual medical journal references. I guess I would still be concerned if the hematoma itself (not the superficial bruising) is larger than a dime or so.

The hematoma (I guess the harder part) is very small. Most of it I guess is just significant bruising.

[Crankin]

I had a hematoma on my knee from my very first bike crash, about 10-11 years ago. The thing was really internal, just swollen on the outside, so my pcp sent me to an ortho guy, who was talking arthroscopic surgery . I went for an MRI and lo and behold, it was a hematoma (which is what I had diagnosed myself with). Said doctor drained it, I was good as gold the next day.
I never tried to pass a water bottle to anyone ever again, as that is why I crashed. My leg hurt so badly, I was actually swimming for exercise (and I hate swimming), because I couldn't do anything weight bearing.
I still blame my son for this , as it was him, zooming down a hill on his cross bike, who saw me attempting to climb up said hill and said, "Mom, give me a drink," as he had no cages on his cx bike.

[zoom-zoom]

Well, that's good to know. Is that new research?

Four years ago I read that on several "reputable" but consumer-oriented sites like WebMD or MedlinePlus (don't remember specifically), and in fact just the other day my PT read me the riot act about not having had the one in my hip treated. I've got a dent half the size of my fist that I don't suppose will ever go away.

I'm still not finding evidence on WebMD of hematomas causing clots. Clots can cause hematomas, but I'm not seeing evidence of the reverse, aside from bruising on the brain or placenta.

[OakLeaf]

Yeah, like I said, it was a while back, and I'm not finding anything one way or the other now. I did run across a report that I'd forgotten, that Serena Williams developed a hematoma that required emergency treatment as the result of her treatment for embolism. But it didn't say why her hematoma needed emergency treatment.

[zoom-zoom]

Yeah, like I said, it was a while back, and I'm not finding anything one way or the other now. I did run across a report that I'd forgotten, that Serena Williams developed a hematoma that required emergency treatment as the result of her treatment for embolism. But it didn't say why her hematoma needed emergency treatment.

The hematoma she had was caused by a clot, not the other way around, AFAIK. I have a friend who had something like this in her arm (the scary thing is that I have had THREE exceptionally fit female friends in their 30s and 40s diagnosed with clots just in the past 6 months--one in her arm, one in her leg, one in her head).

[OakLeaf]

I'm not arguing with you, really!

I just can't find anything authoritative one way or the other. I don't know whether Serena Williams would've had to get her hematoma treated if she hadn't had the clot before, or anything about why she had to get it treated. I don't know whether my PT actually knows something about it, or whether her opinion just seems to carry more weight with me because she's a health care professional.

If the consensus is that it's safe for Aggie to treat her injuries conservatively at home, good! and I hope it's healing fast.

[Aggie_Ama]

So the hard part seems to be getting larger in length but not swelling. It also feels slightly warm to the touch, I hate to go to the doctor but I may have to.

Overall heat (one of those gel compress packs) worked tremendously well. The bruise is really progressing in healing nicely and it seemed to do what it said about encouraging the reabsorbtion of blood.