I am experiencing a strange phenomenon after a minor crash and wanted to know if anyone of you has experienced similar things. I am not seeking medical advice. I know that consulting with a physician is the thing to do if I have any trouble. Anyway, I just wanted to ask if I am alone with this.
About a week ago, I hit the deck in a roundabout. It was just a minor incident, and nothing happened away from three little bruises on the shoulder, arm, and hip. Since the crash was right at the beginning of my ride, I even continued straight away instead of heading several hundred meters toward home. That’s just to illustrate that really nothing serious seemed to have happened.
However, about one week after the crash, I had some really dark and significant hematoma in the back of my knee, which I didn’t bump at all. It does not hurt; I did not even recognize it until yesterday. I did one indoor ride two days after the crash and a one-mile run some days later. Nothing of that was a problem. Anyway, after three days, I felt my leg being a bit sore after prolonged sitting.
Has anyone of you experienced such a thing in the past?
Years ago whilst riding in Germany I took a bad spill and multiple hematomas on my thigh, hip and shoulder. The most troublesome was on my thigh where it bulged like some other worldly attachment to my body. When I got back to the States I went to my orthopedic surgeon and he said, after MRI’s, that I had sheared the tissue (fascia) that connected my out skin layer to the muscle of my thigh. He said it was not uncommon for football players playing on astroturf to suffer the same thing when they skidded on the ground. Anyway it filled with fluid but required draining and intervention to repair. I am not saying this is what you have but it may be worth a visit to a professional.
I’m not a clinician but blood that seeps out spreads about and follows gravity. You may have bumped your thigh and the hematoma it caused has spread downwards. Which would explain the dark colour and lack of pain.
I crashed back in April and hit my knee on the top tube quite hard. I ended up with a HUGE haematoma mid thigh. It was the size of two fists…in area and in terms of volume and how much it stuck out. It resolved on it’s own but was very uncomfortable. Now that it has resolved, I have a wierd dent in that thigh. It clearly pushed into the muscle or something. I’d take a photo but not so keen to post thigh photos on the web. But it looks like a small shark has bitten a chunk out my leg. Very odd. No difference in power between legs that I can tell.
The Doc told me to leave it to resolve on its own but said sometimes he would drain them.
Just another exaple, a friend’s horse stepped on her hamstring and she got a 2litre or more haematoma. She passed out from blood loss. Hospital refused to drain it, they wabted it to resolve on it’s own. She had to have a transfusion to replace the blood lost into the haematoma
In the few times I’ve smacked the deck I’ve had smaller bruises develop after the fact but nothing like you’ve described.
Similar to Dame Lisa, I had an event this year that caused my knee/lower thigh to come in contact with my top tube and swell rather largely. I do not however have any lasting dents in mine, but I was super concerned about the swelling the first night. I will say it happened about a month and a half ago and it’s still a little tender if I really push on it. Because my injury was in a lower location I will share pictures of it, however had it been a few inches higher I would share the same sentiments as Dame Lisa. I will warn everyone, my legs aren’t making it into any modeling magazines anytime soon. One of the pictures is both knees together to show how much it’s pushed out and the other was the worst of the bruising.
Yeah this looks similar to what I had.
@Holger1980 I get those deep bruises from MTB crashes every once in a while. They generally go away after a few days.
It wouldn’t be unusual to have such happen. I had a friend get sideswiped and hit the deck at about 40MPH. She ended up having surgery to close the facsia but she knew it was injured as she was unable to ride and was wearing a compression bandage. Her medical team escalated the injury into surgery when it wouldn’t resolve.
Three things:
- is the bruise not resolving and is it extremely dark?
- Does it physically hurt to walk or do routine things?
- is it swelling sufficiently to require tension to hold things in place?
If all three are happening, it is most likely a torn fascia. If not, this may be a simple but large bruise. To put things in perspective, I fell while descending a mountain. I had a broken collarbone and ribs. I had extensive bruising across my chest. A simple call to a nurse team and they stated to let the bruise heal on its own. If I started to see red (that mean fresh blood and broken vessels) or streaking of any color, to immediately get to A&E (Emergency Room) as there may be underlying damage caused by the edges of the broken ribs. Since you had no broken bones, that shouldn’t be an issue, but torn tendons/ligaments might be. Any of the three, see your medical team or emergency services.
Years ago I took a bad fall and had a sizeable hematoma on my upper thigh and hip. When I got home my orthopedist was quite impressed. He had me wear compression shorts to try and get the tissue to reattach to the fascia but it did not work. He said American Football players got these when sliding on astroturf. Anyway the only way to reattach was to inject a scruffing agent into the site to stimulate the tissue to reattach. It was, honestly the most painful thing I ever went through but it worked.