Bruises

[Sunshine susan]

Hi everyone--

I have a wonderment that I haven't seen specifically asked or addressed before but I know it is an issue at some time or another with us coumadin users. That is the subject of bruising. Before AVR, whenever I got any kind of a bruise, it would go way within a few days anyway. Now they seem to last FOREVER! Between helping my daughter move into her new college apartment (bumps of all kinds) and bumping my leg on my computer CPU at work (frequently), I look like I have been in a war. And the bruises have been there for almost a month now and are finally starting to fade. Old ones go and new ones come, but they all take forever to go away. What experiences have others of you had with this, and what besides being careful do you do about it? Just wondering.....very small issue certainly but curious all the same. Thanks!! Susan:

 

[Gail in Ca]

Susan,
I just counted the bruises on my legs-15!
I always seem to have 4-5 big ones and then many small ones. I just have to bump or scratch something and I get the green lumps. Mine also take awhile to go away. I have gotten a couple of huge ones from hitting a car door, that type of thing, and I can still see the shadow of them 1 year later. Just another side effect of coumadin for me.
Gail

 

[Granbonny]

No bruises

No bruises

I have been on coumadin coming up 6 months and not one bruise...Funny..I'm sure my time is coming Bonnie

 

[Nancy]

Joe has them from time to time, however, the funny thing is that his bruises heal MUCH faster than mine do. His bruising was worse when he had severe anemia (hemolytic anemia). It's better now, and he takes folic acid every day.

 

[Gnusgal]

bruising

bruising

For me, I don't really notice all that much MORE bruising. I've always bruised fairly easily in some areas (my knees, for example). There have been several times since being put on coumadin that I thought "Well, THAT will bruise." But it didn't. The lab techs at hospitals and such try to blame my bruising after a blood draw on my coumadin, but I've ALWAYS bruised easily after needle sticks. I always come out of the hospital looking like an abuse victim. This dates from way back when, and I've only been on coumadin the last two and a half months.

 

[Rain]

Bruises

I constantly have bruises all over my legs. I wear shorts all the time... I think wearing pants would help. But I?m stubborn... soooo I guess I have to live with bruises. I don?t even know where they come from most of the time?!

My son playfully grabbed my wrist really tight one day and I told him, ?Ry, you just gave me a bruise? He didn?t believe me, but later I showed him the bruise. He felt horrible... I almost wish I hadn?t said it, now he treats me like a china doll half the time.

Oh well........ Life goes on... thank goodness.

Rain

 

[McCln]

Bruises

Bruises are naturally more often because of the coumadin. They at the hoptial pharmacy, should have eduacted you on this sideaffect of the coumadin. It is nothing really to worry about unless you have a lot of bruises and they are not healing properly. You just keep on eye on the bruise and if it takes more than two weeks to looking better, get it checked by a doctor. Otherwise, it is normal part of life with coumadin. Take care.

Caroline
09-13-01
Aortic valve replacement
St. Jude's valve

 

[JimL]

Just curious.
It seems to me that there must be other factors involved in bruising than just to blame it on the coumadin. Although I bruised abundantly in the hospital when the nurses were sticking needles into me everywhere, I have not bruised since.
Recently I got "gored" by a bush in my garden; I was rototilling, and bumped into it; it left three good-sized scratches on my back, but no bruises at all.
It doesn't seem fair to me to blame bruising on coumadin if some on coumadin don't bruise. There must be other factors involved.

 

[jackie]

Bruise easily!!!

Bruise easily!!!

Dear Susan-

I have always bruised easily and they take forever to go away. I take 3 baby aspirins a day for TIAs. The cardiologist told me the bruising was from the aspirin, but I only started taking aspirin regularly on Feb. 21, 2002.

I hope someone knows the answer to this question.

Good luck and God bless.
jackie

 

[weekycat]

Hi Susan,

I had the same experience as you with the bruising. I've always thought I bruised rather easily, but while I was on Coumadin for 8 weeks it was LOTS worse. Any little bump would leave a huge bruise, and most of the time, I had no idea where the bruise came from. They also seemed to take "forever" to go away, and by that time I'd have one just as big somewhere else to take its place. Of course this was over the summer, and I wore shorts, so I thought people might think I was being abused.

I was only on Coumadin for 8 weeks following my mitral valve repair, and the bruising continued for up to a month following my going off of it, but now things are back to normal, so I can say for a fact that it had everything to do with the Coumadin.

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Like Nancy's, Joe. When I was anemic my bruises were much worse and lasted a long time.

I do tend to get them all over my legs when I am most physically active. Usually outdoors gardening or working on the house. May be a funny way to look at it.......but I know my Coumadin is doing it's job when I see them. It does prompt me to check my INR when I have a large collection of them just to make sure it's not too high. Usually it's 3.5 - 4.0 when I have the most.

 

[Johnny Stephens]

My INR is kept up around 3.5, and I always seem to have just one large bruise somewhere...usually on my thigh from bumping into something. My last one was the size of a baseball with all colors of the rainbow. I took about 2 weeks to go away.

My wife told me I have one on my back, but I can't see it...

 

[Guest]

I tell my patients that they are their RED BADGE OF COURAGE.

Women tend to bruise more than men.

Postmenopausal women tend to lose the thin layer of fat that that cushioned their skin and so tend to bruise more

 

[MarkU]

I haven't had any noticable problems with bruising since being on Coumadin. I'm pretty active, going to the gym 5 days a week and working in the yard and garage. Maybe I've got thick skin or are just lucky...

Mark

 

[Gnusgal]

Just you wait... I didn't get any extra bruises (even before coumadin I got a lot around my knees for some reason) for quite awhile after starting coumadin. However, the last month or so I've encountered some doozies. First, I got one from banging into my desk at school- became HUGE. At least that one I expected. The second I got I THINK from carying a large box (light, just big) and bumping into the wall briefly. Did not expect that one, but the bruise on my upper arm got to be slightly larger than a silver dollar. And DARK. I've gotten a few others since then, but none as big as those two. And they both stuck around for quite a while. The one on my arm I was very worried about, because I was going to be in a wedding just three weeks after getting it in a sleeveless dress. Fortunately it had at least faded enough to not make people ask about it. But you can still see a shadow of where it had been.

Anyway, don't think you're off the hook just yet. I thought for sure I was one of the "lucky" ones until this last month (I've been on coumadin for 5 months now).