Strangely injured

Woke up this morning, uneventful night, and sat down and leaned on my left armrest.

Dayum! Painful and felt like a bruise.

Looked at it and discovered a -significant- half-golf-ball-sized bruise about an inch up from the elbow right where you, uh, lean your arm.

Has a few red mottled areas about 1/4" in diameter near the outer edge, as though it hit an uneven surface. The lump goes across the forearm bone.

Should have taken a pic this morning but was a bit freaked so didn't think of it. Here it is after icing and several hours later. Note the three red spots. None of my shirts show any holes or abrasions. Slept in a LS shirt.



If I didn't know better it looks like I fell down the stairs and landed on my elbow/forearm to catch myself. Or it looks like I forearm smashed the doorjam. (I did neither). Doesn't look like an insect bite, my first suspicion.

Never had anything like this, which is why I find it remarkable. (Again, the injury is really nothing; it's minor.)


Don'tcha just hate it when that happens?

[edit on 2-11-2007 by Badge01]

reply to post by Badge01


Maybe it was a ghost, or somebody was trying to beat you up.

reply to post by thehumbleone


Ghost of Chuck Norris?

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

lol thats bizarre. Ever had any experiences of sleep walking or anything?

Looks like those capillaries on your elbow just couldn't take that Atkins diet, big guy.


Seriously, though.. You may have slept with it under your body and cut off the blood supply, or hampered it with weight enough for the blood to coagulate due to the pressure.


Good to see you around. Hope all our beef is dead.

-

reply to post by Oni-Kage


Hi. Nope, never sleepwalked.

UPDATE:

I'm pretty much convinced it was some kind of bite. The major swelling has gone down, but it's left a dime-sized raised lump that is red. There's some loss of feeling in the skin surface around it. The main thing is there's no bruising, meaning it wasn't a hematoma (pooling of blood from an impact trauma).

I'm guessing a spider bite. Hope it doesn't come back.

Edit: here's a pic:





[edit on 5-11-2007 by Badge01]

Like you said it was probably a spider bite.
Not to long ago, I got bit by a spider and the area on my arm they had been bit swelled up and had a big bruise like that. But it lasted at least a week and a half. =/


--Min

[edit on 5-11-2007 by minnie]

Just wanted to post an update on this strange injury which has to be a spider bite. (yikes!)

It's been almost a month and the lump is still there, though it's now about the size of a dime.

The skin on top has begun to flake away, looking a bit like the aftermath of a bad sunburn.

It's obviously not a contusion, because those usually are gone in a few days.

The lump is completely solid, contained within the skin (I can move it around) and there's nothing inside it and it doesn't hurt at all (never did unless you count leaning on it which presses on the muscle and bone below which does hurt, but simlar to leaning on a pebble.

Up until a few days ago it was still red in the center indicating an inflammation. Now the redness is gone at least. (whew)

I've never had a bite like this and I have no idea what kind of spider would cause such a thing. There are the brown recluse types but they usually cause a much worse reaction as far as I know.

Anyway I'll post a final message when it's completely healed but I suspect it will be another month at the rate things are going.

Definitely weird. I'm definitely glad that it didn't start to necrose like you find with the skin eating staph infections. I'm also glad that the bite wasn't on an, uh, more sensitive area or on the face. Man that would have sucked and probably would have had a lot worse consequences!


[edit on 28-11-2007 by Badge01]

reminds me of a "bot fly".. been to brazil lately? i think thats where they come from..?. and if you were here in florida i would say that it might be a recluse.. DO you live in florida? you mentioned the recluse... it takes a while for it to umm decay..

hope it feels better now tho... put some alcohol on it to clean it... rubbing alcohol not the good stuff.....:w:

[edit on 11/20/07 by CHIYANNE]

Update:

Well finally saw the doc on an unrelated matter and he looked at the site and we decided it was -not- an insect or spider bite.

It's most likely an inflamed sebaceous cyst or a (benign) lipoma.

Mine is most likely the cyst. I've had one on my wrist as a teenager, one on my upper back as a young adult, and now, this one. The one on the wrist was surgically removed since it hurt to bend my wrist or do pushups. In the 'old days' I'm told they used to hit them with a book spine and (presumably) burst them.

The doc said he could remove it in the office with a simple incision. There's also supposedly (wiki) a new method using ultrasound (operates similarly to a lithotripter which breaks up kidney stones). Not sure if there's a gadget that a doc could buy for an office to do this.

Anyway, I'm glad it's not a spider bite, b/c that would be scary.

I'll probably have it removed, though it's now the size of a large grain of rice.


[edit on 26-12-2007 by Badge01]