BRUISES - a question - does anyone know?

[Grumpy's Gal]

This is odd.....I KNOW THAT......but can someone tell me.......

Bad bruises are different shades of colors.....green, purple, black, brown, yellow, blue.....

what determines the colors? and which colors come first?

and do the colors have anything to do with how fast one will heal or how long the bruise will stay?

Thanks!

 

[Equidae]

Good question!

Well, I do know that a bruise is when you rupture a blood vessel. The color is from blood just under the surface that has pooled. Hmm.. my *guess* would be that such things as how much blood leaked from a vein/artery was lost, if it was a vein or artery (I would think the relatively darker blood in veins, since they are deoxygenated blood and therefore look blue through skin, would produce darker bruises), skin color, and maybe a couple things would make a bruise a certain color. Personally, I've noticed once a bruise gets to the yellow/green stage it's almost gone. Hmmm.. I think I may look into this more. Very interesting.

Did you bruise yourself recently? Or is this for homework?

 

[Christine]

Red, purple, green, yellow. Not all my bruises will take on all shades. Depends where they are and hard the bump was.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

Did you bruise yourself recently?

yes, fell on the ice. Fortunately, I had enough "padding" to not break my tailbone but part of my behind is bruised. It's a lovely shade of purple/black at the moment. Just wondering how long this might last...... and what colors I might go thru before it's gone. I was pink, then a maroon, now a purplish-black.

 

[Christine]

yes, fell on the ice. Fortunately, I had enough "padding" to not break my tailbone but part of my behind is bruised. It's a lovely shade of purple/black at the moment. Just wondering how long this might last...... and what colors I might go thru before it's gone. I was pink, then a maroon, now a purplish-black.

Probably at least 2 weeks. I bumped into the edge of my glass dining room table and my thigh was pink, maroon, purple-ish black too. It is now green/yellow with a little purple on one side. It has been 10 days so far and it's still there.

 

[Equidae]

yes, fell on the ice. Fortunately, I had enough "padding" to not break my tailbone but part of my behind is bruised. It's a lovely shade of purple/black at the moment. Just wondering how long this might last...... and what colors I might go thru before it's gone. I was pink, then a maroon, now a purplish-black.

OUCH! The pink/red was probably the blood fresh and now it's old and all the oxygen's gone, so it turned dark. Yuck. My sister gets bad bruises like that a lot (the doctor's don't know why -- when she bumps something that would make me get a small bruise she gets a HUGE ugly one). Hers usually last a week or more. Feel better soon!

 

[KelNottAt]

I think the yellow and green stage comes last. IIRC, the yellow is bilirubin in your system. It's what your liver cleans out of your blood and the same stuff that makes newborns jaundice.

Sounds like you took quite a spill. Take it easy.

 

[RickinNYC]

I should know this since I'm accident prone and bruise like a peach. But I got no clue.

 

[vhoffman]

Try vitamin C to speed up the healing process. You need about 1000 mg day to heal. Try the Ester-type. I bruise easily and I've found vit C helps speed up the healing time ocnsiderably.

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

yes, fell on the ice. Fortunately, I had enough "padding" to not break my tailbone but part of my behind is bruised. It's a lovely shade of purple/black at the moment. Just wondering how long this might last...... and what colors I might go thru before it's gone. I was pink, then a maroon, now a purplish-black.

green and yellow are next

I just had a hernia repaired and I was bruised from hip down...all the way!
Lovely..looked like a port wine stain

 

[lucas]

If it is really a dark bruise and looks like the blood has pooled there, try gently rubbing it to break it up.

 

[CajunDixie]

MY OB/GYN suggested a heating pad be placed over my huge bruise that was still purple at my post-surgery visit. He was amazed it was still so visible 4 weeks after the surgery.