Friday 15 January 2016

Bad Things Come in 3s : The Daily Journal of an Injured Knee - Day 3

Day 3: The turning point...turning purple!





Three seems to be the magic number. 
 
The swelling has gone down some and I can finally bend my knee to about 90°, which makes getting dressed in the mornings less of a circus act. Thumbs up. It also makes getting in and out of the car a lot easier. Double thumbs up! The only thing that still makes my teeth mash however, are the stairs, especially going down.... I still have a bit more healing to do.

But the exciting thing is I'm finally getting some discoloration coming up to the surface, notably dark purples and blues. OOOooooo. Exciting stuff  I tell ya. All that got me thinking about bruises and contusions in general. Like, what's going on in there and why does it change colors? I know the gist of it, but I wanted to find out in more detail. So, I went to our good friend Wikipedia who explains bruises as:


"A bruise (layman's term), also called a contusion (medical term), is a type of hematoma of tissue in which capillaries and sometimes venules are damaged by trauma, allowing blood to seep, hemorrhage, or extravasate into the surrounding interstitial tissues. Not blanching on pressure, bruises can involve capillaries at the level of skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscle, or bone."


Well ok then.... I hope I didn't bruise the bone, that sounds really bad.....

But what about the changes in color, what's up with that? So, I dug around a bit more (on the internet, not my knee) and found this interesting (and most importantly, short) video on the IFLScience website that explains why bruises change color. And according to the video, my white blood cells are separating the heloglobin into heme and globin which gives it the purpleish-blue color. Cool stuff indeed. I'm looking forward to the biliverdin or as I like to call it, the green stage.... :D 

So if you're curious like me, have a go at the video, and Happy Friday everyone! 






 You guys ever have a really bad contusion that changed colors like this? Remember how long it took to heal? 

 

11 comments:

  1. The green in a bruise always makes me wonder...

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  2. I had a fall in the bowling alley on Jan 1, 2015. Amongst other things I achieved a bruised big toe nail. It finally disappeared in December. The fall was 100% my fault mind you, I was stupid enough to go down on the alley in stockinged feet and it is slippery, for a reason. Splits anyone?

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  3. My worst bruise was about the size of a lime and started out pure black. After that it went through the whole range of colors.

    I've always thought it would be so pretty if glass bruised when it was broken. Instant colored glass. Not very efficient though as once the glass is broken it's usually worthless. Still, pretty.

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  4. Hi Elise - bruises happen ... and watching them heal is interesting. When I fell over in late 2014 - I watched in amazement as my face changed colour .. I was just lucky that all was well!

    So glad the healing is happening ... in ten days or so .. you'll almost have forgotten about it - til you get back out there again ready for another game, and another bump!!

    Take care and take it easy at the weekend - all the best Hilary

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  5. Well, um, at least the colors are pretty? I guess there's no real positive spin you can put on an injured knee. Also, extravasate is a cool word.

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  6. It looks worse! Hope you are feeling better.

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  7. Good you are a bit bendy and color changing lol

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  8. I fell down my stairs and probably broke a toe - the colors were quite spectacular as I recall. Glad you're healing.

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  9. The yellow is my favorite. I also like when there's yellow and purple at the same time, since they're complementary colors. On a lighter note, happy healing!

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  10. The turning point? (The knee isn't your Turning Point story protagonist, is it? LOL)
    Happy Healing!

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    Replies
    1. Haha! That would be funny, guess I've got that anthology on the brain. :D

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