Fall on warfarin, when to be worried about bruising

[ckeogh]

Hi all,
Had a fall off a ladder the other day knocking a block wall down in my house, stupid I know .

Broke my arm and fell on my lower back, when in the hospital I let them know about the warfarin but they weren't to worried as I didn't bang my head, just kind of said "Keep an eye" After day 2 the bruising got really bad(see photos). Has anybody had bruising this bad and should I be worried. No pain unless I'm lying on my back or touching it.

Called the warfarin clinic and they said "Go to hospital if I'm worried". Seemed like they were kind of just saying it to cover themselves, really don't fancy sitting in hospital for 12 hours when I feel OK.

Any one else experience bruising this bad.

INR is 2.4

Thanks

 

[pellicle]

Hi
sorry to hear about the broken arm. Ladders are dangerous and years of comedy TV has perhaps ruined most people in the civilised world to the dangers of ladders. Most construction sites frown on them, some ban them (work place health and safety).

A fall from a ladder throws the dice in such a way that death or becoming paraplegic is not off the table. I had a close call (which only required 3 stitches in my hand when a ladder I was on collapsed (quite new, fault, denied by the maker ... )

So, on to this

Any one else experience bruising this bad.

here is what happened to me (with a bit of follow up) when I walked into the tow bar of my 4WD ...
https://www.valvereplacement.org/threads/hubby-back-in-a-fib-sigh.889798/page-2#post-937416

note that lump is not my knee, my knee is above that lump (where the leg has a 90deg bend) ... subsequent pictures show the progression.

So yes small bumps are no problem, but substantial hits will be at least 4 times worse (even with only twice as much time required to clot) than before.

Please note the rational an non hysterical response you got from clinicians.

...when in the hospital I let them know about the warfarin but they weren't to worried as I didn't bang my head,

... Called the warfarin clinic and they said "Go to hospital if I'm worried".

because its not fatal nor really dangerous, but will take you off the list for your Bikini Modelling career for a little while

Best Wishes

 

[Lisa from LJ]

I'm very pale and when I bruise, it's usually pretty black. When I had my sternal wires removed, my entire chest was black. After my recent gallbladder removal, each of the 4 incisions had a large bruise over it about 5-6" in diameter, some overlapping, but the worst bruising was on my inner thighs where I was giving myself Lovenox injections because they didn't want me to give them in my extremely tender and swollen abdomen. Unlike what pellicle said, bruising can be life threatening if there is still bleeding under the skin. From personal experience, as long as this bruise is changing colors from black to green to yellow, and getting smaller ever so slowly, I figure it's healing, but if it's getting bigger after a week or so (not just sinking due to gravity) or causing a lot of pain, I would make an appointment with the doctor. When I fell last July and broke two ribs, the bruising was bad and the pain was getting worse. I went back to the doctor about a week after the fall and had an X-ray and ultrasound that confirmed there was quite a bit of blood surrounding the breaks, but they couldn't see any active bleeding so I went home with a small prescription of pain meds (I hadn't filled the one the ER gave me because it's not one that has ever helped me in the past), and was told to return if I didn't see improvement in a few days. By about 14 days, I still had rib pain, but the swelling and feeling of fullness from the fluid had lessened quite a bit.

Somewhere else on this site, I told the story of my brother developing a huge clot around his lung caused by an irritation on the outside of his lung that resulted in long-term bleeding.

 

[dick0236]

It happens. INR looks good. Since you broke an arm.... you did take a hard fall and a bruise like yours doesn't surprise me. Give it a little time. If it is still that dark after a week or so.....call your doc.

 

[carolinemc]

Hi all,
Had a fall off a ladder the other day knocking a block wall down in my house, stupid I know .

Broke my arm and fell on my lower back, when in the hospital I let them know about the warfarin but they weren't to worried as I didn't bang my head, just kind of said "Keep an eye" After day 2 the bruising got really bad(see photos). Has anybody had bruising this bad and should I be worried. No pain unless I'm lying on my back or touching it.

Called the warfarin clinic and they said "Go to hospital if I'm worried". Seemed like they were kind of just saying it to cover themselves, really don't fancy sitting in hospital for 12 hours when I feel OK.

Any one else experience bruising this bad.

INR is 2.4

Thanks

Anytime there is a fall and bruising, good to have it checked. It looks bad due to the blood in there. Just keep a good eye on it. I have had big bruises on one hip. Not fun there. But nothing wrong to keep an eye and if does not improve in a few days, then get to the PC or ER. It can be scary with our meds and health issues. I am also a type 2 diabetic; bruises take time to heal. Good you went to a doctor.