Fell over on bicycle - my coumadin story

[scott.eitman]

I was on a bike ride yesterday morning. At the turn around point, I made a slow and sharp uturn. Well it was a little too slow and I fell over onto my right side. After laughing at myself, I got up and fond that I was OK.

A couple hours later, I rubbed my elbow to find that it was very soft. At that point, it was the size of half a golf ball. An hour later, about the size of a half grapefruit!

A few hours later, it was decided that I had a swollen elbow due to the Coumadin.

Over night about half the selling went away.

Just figured this is a story worth sharing. I knew I would wreck someday, but was not counting on such a simple accident and what happened to the elbow. For the athletes, I will be riding this weekend, against the Dr's advice.

 

[Protimenow]

Do you know what your INR is? If half the swelling went away, I have doubts about the swelling being due to excessive internal bleeding. When I get injured, the bruising takes a while to show up and a while to be absorbed. My guess is that other interstitial fluids may have drained into the area, and were reabsorbed.

 

[scott.eitman]

Do you know what your INR is?

2.6 the week prior.

 

[Cooker]

Do you know what your INR is? If half the swelling went away, I have doubts about the swelling being due to excessive internal bleeding. When I get injured, the bruising takes a while to show up and a while to be absorbed. My guess is that other interstitial fluids may have drained into the area, and were reabsorbed.

Agree ... ...

 

[Guyswell]

Scott,

I had the exact same kind of fall off my bike last week. I was sure I would have bruising on my hip and elbow but nothing appeared. It may have helped that I landed partially in the dirt and didn't land on jagged rocks. I also checked my helmet to make sure it didn't show signs of hitting the ground. After brushing off the debris I resumed my ride. I was only a little sore the next day.

 

[scott.eitman]

Guyswell,

Now you tell me to fall in the dirt. Oops, I fell on the yellow line...not much cushion. I am really surprised that I am not black and blue. My elbow is changing colors slowly but surely.

 

[jarno1973]

Makes me think...after surgery and being on warfarin I have had something similar twice...did not get as big as a grapefruit but almost the size of a tennis bal...I never thought of it to be related to warfarin...went to see doctor and he thought it was due to an insect bite or something.. doctor gave me some cream to put on it and it went away...especially strange that it happened again after about a year..I do hit my elbows regularly by just being clumsy and doing things like kick boxing and motocross...I am under the impression that both times when this happened I had hit my elbow somewhat....I also found the elbow to be very soft when this is happening

Would be interesting to know if there are any more cases under our forum brothers and sisters.....

 

[clay_from_nj]

My elbow did get swollen up pretty good with bursitis. With our dry Colorado front range air, I sometimes get "alligator elbows" and apparently this one time the skin cracked and allowed some kind of infection in. It swelled up and got red and hot. A course of Keflex from my GP and all better. Warfarin seemed to have nothing at all to do with it. Living in the country and being a pretty active do-it-yourselfer, I've gotten bruises, scrapes, and cuts, and haven't really noticed any difference since being on anticoagulation, between 2.0 and 3.0.

 

[dwhist]

I recently had a small bump on my arm just below the elbow. Arm was a little sore and bruise developed. Had doctor look at it and he decided it was a hematoma,
a collection of blood outside a blood vessel. At this time my INR had been running in upper 3's and was trying to bring it down. He suspects I bumped arm on something. Most of lower arm became bruised over next few days and it cleared up after maybe 2 weeks.

I also bike, but mainly on limestone paths with soft sides. After some 15 years, still have not fallen off. Knock on wood. And I always wear a helmut.

 

[Protimenow]

Does Helmut mind that you're on his head? Does Helmut wear a helmet? (Sorry, I had to ask).

I've got my own injury stories. The latest one is from a fall I took nearly two weeks ago -- I went tumbling over a large flowerpot, and did some damage to my leg, just below the knee. It swelled up considerably - I didn't know if I chipped the bone, but I was (and AM) able to walk on it, so I think that eventually it'll heal. The swelling made my loose jeans feel tight. Nearly two weeks later, there's still a significant bump on the bone - and it feels tender - but, surprisingly, very little bruising where leg hit pot, and just a bit of bruising on the right of my knee. I'm rather surprised that there was no big, ugly bruise on this area, but apparently it doesn't have a lot of vessels that would break and bleed.

Anticoagulated or not, apparently, some areas don't bruise as much as others.

 

[dwhist]

I hate spell check. I guess it should be helmet. Yes an item that protects the hard head I have.

Hoping I did not jinks myself as I agreed to do a 62 mile road ride tomorrow which includes a visit to the home used in the movie "Home Alone".

 

[Agian]

I do hit my elbows regularly by just being clumsy and doing things like kick boxing and motocross...I am under the impression that both times when this happened I had hit my elbow somewhat....I also found the elbow to be very soft when this is happening

Would be interesting to know if there are any more cases under our forum brothers and sisters.....

You can kick box on Warfarin? That's great.

 

[jarno1973]

You can kick box on Warfarin? That's great.

Welll..it is not what it used to be...I am not sparring or anything like that...it would not be smart to voluntarily take hits to head an body...I just keep doing it for fitness...kicking bags/pads and stuff like that...

 

[pellicle]

Hi Jarno

Welll..it is not what it used to be...

that is a natural progression in life for everyone. The difference between knowledge and wisdom is often acceptance of this.

...it would not be smart to voluntarily take hits to head an body....

well, just look how the professional boxers get increasingly 'strange' as they age. Its only the ones who don't take as many head hits that remain that bit more level headed. Not that you'd ever say it to their face

Fenech did the right thing by himself I feel, but Mundine ... well lets see how it goes in October.

I used to do Aikido for some years. My favorite partner was 20 years older than me and a bit taller. He used to always say that it wasn't how intense you were but how long you did it for. I liked his attitude.

I went off Aikido after a motorcycle accident (neck, wrist and shoulder injuries). By the time I was 'fit enough' again life had introduced other distractions and priorities and now all I do is a little training in the gym. I tried to get back into it again back a few years ago, but found that my neck was 'aggravated' too much from some of the tumbles. Anyway, my schedule at work made it difficult too. My wife loved it however and kept doing it.

Keep whackin those pads !

 

[scott.eitman]

Update: My arm is amazingly (at least for me) purple. After wearing an ace bandage, the blood seemed to get pull or pushed to the skin level. The first time I have looked like a guy on Coumadin . Almost all of the swelling has gone away.

 

[Protimenow]

It often seems to take quite a while for the bruises to show up.

I'm still waiting for a massive bruise related to what now is looking more and more to be a break in my lower leg from two weeks ago. The area above the bone is raised (and I thought that by now, it would be gone), but still NO BRUISE. (I'm guessing that there's not a great enough concentration of capillaries and arteries to have leaked blood, but I'm still kind of surprised, in light of the swelling and sensitivity to pressure).

It may be interesting to watch your bruise - if this is your first major bruise while on warfarin - while it changes from blue to yellow and fades away.

 

[jmstallard]

It sounds like you got what we skaters/bikers used to call 'swellbow,' which had nothing to do with blood, and went away quickly. How is yours doing now?

 

[scott.eitman]

It sounds like you got what we skaters/bikers used to call 'swellbow,' which had nothing to do with blood, and went away quickly. How is yours doing now?

I wish it was that easy. It is sore and very bruised...purple that is. The purple is about a 8 x 3" area on the inside of the arm. Where it hit me, not the road. About a 1/4 of the arm is bruised.

The swelling of the elbow is still about the size of a 1/2 golfball. It feels like a bubble is in there.

It is quite sore to the bump, but most of the time is not too bad.

Stay well
Scott

 

[pellicle]

FWIW since being on warfarin I've noticed that if I "bruise the bone" (like a good whack to my elbow, really hurt a toe, smack my head good and hard while working under the house

that it swells more than before (and I mean the bone area seems to swell) and the swollen area takes a fair bit longer to get back to 'normal'.

I try not to hit the wrong nail with the hammer ... really I do

 

[Agian]

Is that asbestos Pel?