Basketball Enthusiasts .

[jepskie]

Hi! I am Joey from the Philippines. I am 40 years old, a five year post AVR (St Jude's) patient. Before i was diagnosed with Endocarditis on December 2003, i was a very active ball player. After i was operated on April 2005 and fully recovered, i changed my activity to low impact ones. However since late 2008 i felt that i am not enjoying so and so activities so i ask my doctor if i can shoot some hoops. He said ok and ever since i played good pickup games. Everything was going fine until this last Sunday when i my leg collided with one of the player's kness. Its quite a strong impact and i felt some pain. There's no icepack available so i readied myself for a bruise. After 3 days, the pain didn't go away and the bruise was so large i cannot wear shorts. I went to see my doctor and he advised me to have CBC and Protime tests. Results were ok. Right now eight days after, there is still some pain and the bruise lighten just a little. I am having second thoughts about playing again because of this incident. Could anyone out there givie some helpful advise about this? Do you have similar experience? What did you do after? Thanks in Advance...

 

[ARGreenMN]

Hi Joey. I'm 49 years old. I can't help much, but am very interested in your thread. I just had my AVR (also St. Judes) about 4 months ago. I've been looking forward to playing basketball again this fall. I've been cleared to do so already, but haven't tried it yet (still building up my stamina on the treadmill first). I don't know what CBC and Protime tests are, but they sound kinda scary... Please keep posting updates on what you find out. I was more concerned about knocking heads w/ someone (once I did that my head, his knee) and I got some stitches above my eye - kinda afraid what that would be like on warfarin. But even worse, afraid of a concussion - haven't ever had one playing basketball, but I could see it being possible... But I never thought about things like a deep thigh bruise, which I've had before. I suppose that kind of internal bleeding could be bad too. Please keep updating us!

 

[SumoRunner]

Whether you had AVR or not, if you play hard you will get bruises. They just may take a little bit longer to heal because of the pro-time issue. I had a calf muscle tear two years ago while running a mile race on a track. I felt a twinge of pain as I went through the 4th lap but finished anyway. It bothered me only slightly for a few days, then I entered another race a week later and tore it far worse. Within a couple days the whole leg from knee to toes turned purple from internal bleeding. I called it the great grape leg. It took about 6 weeks for it to heal properly and the swelling and discoloration to completely subside. If it had not been for the slow clotting time I might not have had as much swelling but that sort of injury is going to take 4-6 weeks to recover from not matter who you are.

I was back running races about two months later and have run dozens more since then without incident. Well yeah, there have been other incidents, but not related to that muscle tear. I hurt my ankle last April running a cross country 5Km race and that took about 8 weeks to completely heal. That had nothing to do with a valve or blood thinner issue. It still gets a bit sore if I run 9 or 10 miles but I'm back running track and road races regularly now.

 

[jepskie]

Thank you very much for your replies. I guess we have the same bruising incident. Do you know of some cream or procedure to speed up clearing the bruise marks? I hope there is. Mines preety bad too. From Knee to up high in the thigh area. The ones on the back of the thigh is very dark. The pain and swelling is better now. I'll continue playing even if this happened. I'll be just more careful. Im thinking i could play for around 5 to 8 years before i shipped again to a safer activity. It's against the doctor's advise but ... Tnx again.

 

[Lynlw]

Hi Joey. I'm 49 years old. I can't help much, but am very interested in your thread. I just had my AVR (also St. Judes) about 4 months ago. I've been looking forward to playing basketball again this fall. I've been cleared to do so already, but haven't tried it yet (still building up my stamina on the treadmill first). I don't know what CBC and Protime tests are, but they sound kinda scary... Please keep posting updates on what you find out. I was more concerned about knocking heads w/ someone (once I did that my head, his knee) and I got some stitches above my eye - kinda afraid what that would be like on warfarin. But even worse, afraid of a concussion - haven't ever had one playing basketball, but I could see it being possible... But I never thought about things like a deep thigh bruise, which I've had before. I suppose that kind of internal bleeding could be bad too. Please keep updating us!

A CBC is just a Complete Blood Count (red cells, white cells, hemoglobin, platelets ect) and a protime (PT) pretty much is an INR

 

[Philip B]

Bruising @ 40

Bruising @ 40

Sure, if you play hard, you'll have some bumps and bruises from your effort. Coumadin use does tend to result in bigger bruises than non-coumadin users get.

The other reality is one that's a little tougher... as you get older, it often takes longer for injuries to heal. Those kinds of bumps and bruises you got when you were 20 just won't heal as quickly now that you're 40.

Does this mean you shouldn't play? Well, that really depends on you and how much you want to play.

-Philip

 

[jepskie]

Sure, if you play hard, you'll have some bumps and bruises from your effort. Coumadin use does tend to result in bigger bruises than non-coumadin users get.

The other reality is one that's a little tougher... as you get older, it often takes longer for injuries to heal. Those kinds of bumps and bruises you got when you were 20 just won't heal as quickly now that you're 40.

Does this mean you shouldn't play? Well, that really depends on you and how much you want to play.



Yes i've noticed it also. Sprained ankle used to be not an issue for me. 3 days rest and off to the playing court again. But now, takes more than a week and more painful. Its not so much of an issue as the bruises. My kids would look at it and they cant believe the size and the darkness of it. Hehe, i told them i swallowed ink. I cannot wear shorts because it's really ugly. I hope there are no complications to this bruises. Otherwise, i will have to switch to gentler sport like boxing . (Haha!)

 

[SumoRunner]

Old timers have a "rule of sixes" regarding sports injuries. If it doesn't heal in 6 days, it'll be 6 weeks and if it still isn't over in 6 weeks, it'll be 6 months. You have a 6 week injury. There's no way around it. The discoloration will go away in time but there's nothing you can do to speed it up. It's not a good idea to rub vigorously in the hopes of pushing the pooled blood out of the tissues but light massaging helps a bit.

Speaking of age, I think by the time you reach 60 it should be the rule of eights.

 

[jepskie]

Just an update guys. Today is day 11 after my injury. The pain from the collision is nearly gone and the bruise has improved considerably using just warm compress and a local chinese liniment called Katinko. Cant wait to play again.

 

[Alex B]

I had this same concern last year, but now I play 3 days a week. I notice that my bumps and bruises last longer and come more quickly, but I don't care. I love the game, so I continue to play. I'm only 31, but look like I've been through a war. The guys I play with are nice, but they do not take it easy on me, I get hacked just as much as anyone else. I twisted my ankle and it took 3 weeks until I could play again (used to be just a couple days).

 

[jepskie]

I know the feeling Alex. My wife is really against me still playing. She tells me that my glory days on the court is over, but when im playing with younger guys, i still can keep up with them although im more of an outside player than inside so the risk of banging is not really much. Still , twisted ankles, bruises from loose ball scrambles and knee swelling is more often now and takes longer healing. Heck, ill take it , i just want to play.

 

[jepskie]

I am happy to share that at day 16, Bruises are gone and the pain is very minial. Did some stationary biking. I am hoping that i cn play this Sunday. Yahoo!!!!