OUCH, OUCH!!! Quad injury while on Warfarin...

[coffeelover]

Hi fellow members! Hey can anyone share advise or their experience with large bruises and lingering lumps that go with anticoagulation? I accidentally wacked my thigh hard a week ago and have developed not only a large bruise but also a hard, tender to touch lump that is an inch and half wide. How can I speed up healing? Should I massage this lump? Heating pad? Whirlpool? I don't want to make bruise get bigger. Thanks for your help!!

 

[Protimenow]

I dropped a marble slab on my foot a few decades ago. Black, blue, swollen, turned to yellow, hurt quite a bit. I used ice to try and reduce the swelling and bruising.

A few weeks ago, I somehow developed a large bruise on the right side of my leg. My wife asked me what I did to get the bruise. I have no idea (or forgot about it). This thing was large and purple - typical of what happens when on warfarin and as a result of impact. I develpoed a lump like the one that you described. I didn't apply heat, I didn't apply cold. I did massage that thing a bit -- but not too much. I just let things alone as much as I could and let nature take care of it.

You may consider doing what I did (practically nothing). If it gives you pain, maybe Tylenol will help (it doesn't do much for me).

Good luck with recovery from that big, ugly bruise.

 

[Superman]

I posted a picture on here somewhere after dropping furniture on my foot. That was pretty. I just waited. It healed eventually.

 

[coffeelover]

Thanks for sharing I've been using ice, heating pad..I'm thinking I will try a little more light massage. The hard lumps after the bruise disappears seem to take alot longer to disappear.takes time

 

[pellicle]

I walked straight into a pole and corked my thigh. Fcuken hurt. Blue. No photo because it may attract remarks from the "gallery"

 

[gerrychuck]

Be gentle with that quad bruise; that muscle is particularly susceptible to calcification and you don't want that lump solidifying into bone, believe me. Be very gentle with movement and especially exertion of force, do not stretch through pain, and don't massage the lump. Also don't look at it funny and above all don't taunt it! Only that last bit is a joke, in all seriousness. You have a classic Charlie horse, which is very touchy to deal with without warfarin, and certainly moreso with it. You basically have to give it time, gently keep moving the knee to maintain and carefully increase painfree range of motion, and likewise gently and carefully increase weight bearing exercise as it improves. If you try to push it, you can wind up with a big lump of bone with painful restriction of movement and pain on any contraction, and that ain't a warfarin thing, it's a quads thing. I saw a few of these in my 35 years as a physiotherapist, and it was very difficult to not do our usual thing and treat it aggressively, but this is one thing that you just have to be patient with.

 

[Rapidman]

I have developed a hematoma twice in my calf after presumed muscle tear while running both confirmed by US. Each time resolved within 2 weeks.

 

[Rapidman]

I just left mine alone.

 

[coffeelover]

Thanks everyone for your sharing! I'm super glad I am not signed up for a Spring Half Marathon. Otherwise I would be big time bummed...I can cut back my land Cardio, and instead do some pool workouts for awhile. Next time I take a hard whack I am for sure stopping everything to ice, ice ice!! That would help big time.

 

[Protimenow]

Gerrychuck - what you described almost sounds like the issue with my knee. It's been bothering me for abut six weeks. My PCP was concerned that it may be a ganglion cyst. Beause it displaced my tendons (or ligaments), the muscles were stretching in different ways. Range of motion was reduced, it hurt to bend my leg, and I am still careful about not extending my leg fully.

I didn't try much with it - a bit of sunshine through a window at morning, a wrap around the swollen area (cyst?), and time. It seems to be resorbing, the muscle pain is subsiding, I can bend my leg almost like I should. And, of course, NOW I get to see an orthopedic specialist.

Unlike my other leg issues, there didn't appear to be any bruising for this thing..

 

[gerrychuck]

Gerrychuck - what you described almost sounds like the issue with my knee. It's been bothering me for abut six weeks. My PCP was concerned that it may be a ganglion cyst. Beause it displaced my tendons (or ligaments), the muscles were stretching in different ways. Range of motion was reduced, it hurt to bend my leg, and I am still careful about not extending my leg fully.

I didn't try much with it - a bit of sunshine through a window at morning, a wrap around the swollen area (cyst?), and time. It seems to be resorbing, the muscle pain is subsiding, I can bend my leg almost like I should. And, of course, NOW I get to see an orthopedic specialist.

Unlike my other leg issues, there didn't appear to be any bruising for this thing..

If you had a link on the back of your knee, it most likely was a Bakers Cyst; swelling in a pouch that communicates with the main joint capsule of the knee. If so, very different animal than a Charley horse. Sometimes people on warfarin will experience severe knee swelling or Bakers Cyst issues due to bleeding in the joint, a condition called haemarthrosis. Not a good thing; can do a lot of damage to the joint. Happened to my mother in law 5 years ago and they took her off anticoagulation completely. My apologies if I am misinterpreting your response and your cyst was on the front of the thigh; that would be a situation I never encountered in my 35 years of practice.

 

[gerrychuck]

I have developed a hematoma twice in my calf after presumed muscle tear while running both confirmed by US. Each time resolved within 2 weeks.

I had a nasty calf haematoma after slipping on my sailboat and banging my gastrocs. I was on crutches for the better part of a week; not fun at all. They normally do resolve without intervention, just as your and mine did. A quads bruise carries much higher risk of the haematoma turning into a solid block of bone inside the muscle, and has to be dealt with very carefully.

 

[gerrychuck]

Thanks everyone for your sharing! I'm super glad I am not signed up for a Spring Half Marathon. Otherwise I would be big time bummed...I can cut back my land Cardio, and instead do some pool workouts for awhile. Next time I take a hard whack I am for sure stopping everything to ice, ice ice!! That would help big time.

Maybe, maybe not! Research has been causing a rethink of some of our oldest assumptions regarding use of ice; turns out it may actually increase tissue damage, even if used in what was thought to be the safest mode (less than 10 min on, at least 10 min off, repeat). Our old mantra was RICE; Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation with acute injury. We're not so sure about the "I" these days, but the RCE are all still good!

 

[Protimenow]

Actually, I've had two Bakers Cysts (popliteal cysts) in the past few years. My most recent, and most troubling, was in November 2018. The damned thing landed me in the hospital -- although I told the E.R. doctor that it was a Bakers Cyst (I take warfarin, and knew what the cyst was like) he was afraid it was Compartment Syndrome - and admitted me for observation. A few days later, I saw a Rheumatologist who drained the knee every week or so, until I had some flexibility return to the joint.

What happened this time was nothing like the Bakers Cyst -- it was in the other leg, and was a mobile mass that passed under the patella. I could feel it slightly above the right knee, and move it under the knee, to the other side of, and below the patella. It seemed to change the geometry between lower leg and knee, causing new muscles to work, and creating muscle pain. At its worst, I could barely bend my leg. Fortunately, this has eased up quite a bit.

Thanks for the speculation of a Bakers Cyst -- but what I had was nothing like one.

 

[gerrychuck]

Actually, I've had two Bakers Cysts (popliteal cysts) in the past few years. My most recent, and most troubling, was in November 2018. The damned thing landed me in the hospital -- although I told the E.R. doctor that it was a Bakers Cyst (I take warfarin, and knew what the cyst was like) he was afraid it was Compartment Syndrome - and admitted me for observation. A few days later, I saw a Rheumatologist who drained the knee every week or so, until I had some flexibility return to the joint.

What happened this time was nothing like the Bakers Cyst -- it was in the other leg, and was a mobile mass that passed under the patella. I could feel it slightly above the right knee, and move it under the knee, to the other side of, and below the patella. It seemed to change the geometry between lower leg and knee, causing new muscles to work, and creating muscle pain. At its worst, I could barely bend my leg. Fortunately, this has eased up quite a bit.

Thanks for the speculation of a Bakers Cyst -- but what I had was nothing like one.

Fair enough! This one does sound quite unusual for sure. Glad it's improving.

 

[Protimenow]

My last PCP thought it may have been a ganglion cyst - by the time I finally saw an Orthopedic Surgeon (looking, of course, for something surgical), this thing was almost entirely resolved.

BTW - I think I may have found a way to deal with Bakers Cyst before it spreads down the leg -- wrap an ace or similar bandage around the leg, just below the knee. It seemed that, if the fluid has no place to go, it doesn't spread into the calf.