From: "Steve Harris" <sbharris@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com> Newsgroups: sci.med Subject: Re: Treatment for contusion of shin bone? Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 14:20:46 -0700 Message-ID: <b8hhn9$v5f$1@slb0.atl.mindspring.net> 2 or 3 weeks. Should be more or less gone in a month. So long as it's not hot or red, it is healing and will get better. Patience. "Fred Moon" <noemail@please.com> wrote in message news:uo2oav41qt2i9nkhktm98hknvodp9dterk@4ax.com... > I dropped an automobile starter motor on my left shin, consequent > abrasion and swelling in front shin midway between ankle and knee, > Applied ice and later ace bandage for a few days. No increase in pain > from walking or working, 2-3 inch area swollen out about a half inch, > but not discolored. > > I am a 49 year old male with type 2 diabetes under good control (last > a1c = 5.7) and otherwise in good health (still have good circulation to > feet, no neuropathy). > > Is there any home treatment to aid healing? How long do these things > take to heal? > > Of course, I realize you can not diagnose over the internet, and I > assume all responsibility for my own actions. > > Thanks, Fred > From: "Steve Harris" <sbharris@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com> Newsgroups: sci.med Subject: Re: Treatment for contusion of shin bone? Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 19:31:19 -0700 Message-ID: <b8i3ti$ath$1@slb9.atl.mindspring.net> "PF Riley" <pfriley@watt-not.com> wrote in message news:3eac7daf.192219808@news.nwlink.com... > On Sun, 27 Apr 2003 14:20:46 -0700, "Steve Harris" > <sbharris@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com> wrote: > > >2 or 3 weeks. Should be more or less gone in a month. So > >long as it's not hot or red, it is healing and will get > >better. Patience. > > But I would suspect there may be a nontender residual hematoma for a > few months after that. COMMENT: Could be. But patience is still the answer. Healing can be slow. If you still have some hard lump from soft tissue or tendon injuries (not that this guy sounds like he has the last) it can take a YEAR to see what you're going to have permanently in the natural uninterupted course of things, in the way of edema resolution, fibrous scar formation, and "permanent" functional impairment. And even scars can mature a bit after that (turn pink to white, change texture, etc). For neuro injuries the basic rule is one to two years, and even that's not hard and fast (look at Christopher Reeves). This is sort of the same situation people get into with (say) back pain from an acute injury with no fracture. Wish I had $1 for every impatient person who had something that looked like it might be nerve impingment on MRI, but had a choice to wait, and yet still got his or her (say) back operated on without waiting at least a year to see if it would get better all by itself. A lot of them would have gotten better spontaneously, and think of the money, time and problems saved! In medicine, when you and your docs are not quite certain what to do a few months after an non-infected injury, do nothing! For a while more, anyway. I personally wouldn't let them do a discectomy on me unless I was dragging one leg like the mummy of Rameses II in some bad old movie. And if I start of think of all the *MRI* money wasted on people with back pain who aren't limping, my BP is going to go into the stroke range. I wonder, for instance, if they MRI'd this poor shin bruise guy when the X-ray was negative. Radiologists have stolen a large hunk of medicine, and that's because the wisdom to just *leave it alone* and not worry about it for awhile, in our Nintendo culture, doesn't have any payoffs for the patient or the doctor. It is a principle which mainly benefits greedy HMOs owners and bureaucrats in Socialist Pestholes. Who, naturally, go overboard and abuse it. Gaaaaaah. SBH |