My Atrocious Suspicious-Looking Bruise

October 29, 2009 at 6:08 PM · Filed under health and tagged: blood extraction, bruise

Last week, I had the unfortunate not-scary-but-deserving-of-a-bit-of-worry experience of having a big horrible-looking bruise after undergoing blood extraction for our annual physical examination. It was such a bummer! Everybody who sees it either cringe in disgust, be amazed by its abnormally walloping size or just stare at it with pity probably thinking that it will never go away.

It was quite fun at least, seeing the bruise with its pink color with a tinge of blue. I especially love the bluish part of the bruise. Can’t help staring at it for hours at the office. But then, the day after, it turned into purplish black and it became bigger. I was not worried at that time since they said it was normal if you had an inexperienced and (I hate to say this…) stupid phlebotomist for your blood extraction. But then, a friend told me that he’s seen a video in YouTube that involves a bruise acquired through needles (either the extraction or injection of something) and that bruise became infected and then pus came out of it. He said it was really gross! I was definitely scared. What if the same thing happens to me?!?!?

So, I immediately asked my sister about the bruise. And she said that this is what must be done.

 

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE A BRUISE AS A RESULT OF BLOOD EXTRACTION

1. Check if the bruise feels hot. If it does then it is infected and you have to go to the doctor immediately.
2. If the temperature is normal, then your lucky.
3. My sister told me to apply warm compress on the bruise but then according to my research, you have to apply cold compress on bruises for the first 24 hours upon acquiring that said bruise. So being a hard-headed girl and yet ironically obedient one, I applied cold compress on my bruise since I was advised by a friend to do so.
4. Wait for the bruise to disappear or not-to-disappear. Either way, all you can do at this time is to wait….

I was quite curious about the relationship between needles and bruising, so I asked our company nurse. She said that the bruise is a result of a punctured vein during blood extraction (and I would like to add that the punctured vein is a result of having an inexperienced phlebotomist).  The blood in the punctured vein would seep out of the vein and spread to the nearby cells thus causing the bruise.

Now, the bruise is disappearing!! Yey!! I know it would be wishful thinking to reckon that I would not be submitted into this kind of mental torture (LOL!) again since there will still be a physical examination next year. Yikes! So good luck to me! I’ll be hoping that my veins would get thicker each year… Hehehe… I wish

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