How long to heal a muscle strain / bruising

gcwebbyuk

I had a fair sized stack at the weekend, and have been diagnosed with muscle "trauma" to the groin, arse and hip.

I have had the last couple of days off work, sat on the sofa, with just short hobbles to the bathroom or kitchen when needed.

I have only bruised on my right hip, inner thigh and little bruises on my knees.

I can't actually put any pressure on my left leg without severe pain running through the very top of my left leg, from groin through hip to my arse - but there is no bruising there yet.

I am keen to get back to work, as I play an important part in the company.

How long does this kind of injury take to heal?

I also have an MRI scan on my neck (osteoarthritis/nerve damage) on Monday, so am a bit worried I will look a fool hobbling into the hospital to have a scan on my neck when to the unknown it looks like I have more damage in my leg!

The Northern Monkey

how long is a piece of string?!

all depends on how bad/deep the bruising is.
if its really bad it could be a haematoma = physio + lots of pain.

Rich1978

Get to the physio ASAP, earlier you get it checked out the quicker they will get you back to functioning properly.

I tore my medial colalteral ligament skiing 4 weeks ago....went to see the physio and was told it was a 6 week healing process. She gave me exerices to do which I did religously daily in the gym....3 weeks later was back on the bike and now its 90% healed in only 3.5 weeks.

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Rich1978 wrote:

I tore my medial colalteral ligament skiing 4 weeks ago....quote]

ligaments are a different kind of soft tissue and usually take longer to heal than muscle so ignore this. fortunately muscles are so richly supplied with blood that they heal well.

provided you have been diagnosed with muscle strains and bruises by someone medically qualified then i would advise you use arnica, lightly stretch and move the injured muscles but only as they allow, i.e. not to a point of pain. don't lay on the sofa all day as this will delay healing. use non steroidal anti-inflammatories (careful if you're asthmatic) and paracetamol to reduce inflammation and pain.

if you haven't had this diagnosed professionally then you should see someone.

Rich1978

actually I was just posting an example.

my advice was 'Get to the physio ASAP'

gcwebbyuk

Went to A&E on the day it happened - mainly to get checked for concussion and breakage.

The doc did an examination rather than an xray, and there is no pain when i push on the area around my left hip/groin/buttock so certainly agree its not a break.

I am already taking 3x800 + 1x600 of ibuprofen a day (3g) as recommended by my rhematologist - I am ok with ibuprofen with my asthma.

Bought some arnica cooling gel last night expecting it to bring the bruising out, but still same as before.

Am having a soak in a hot bath each night, and doing stretching excersises while in there.

Guess I just need to bear with it :x

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Rich1978 wrote:

actually I was just posting an example.

my advice was 'Get to the physio ASAP'

yes, but it was incorrect and a tad irrelevant.

no need for a physio at this stage if already been checked out medically. if it was they (a&e) would have referred or advised it - that's what they do. what he's doing is correct at this stage. physio would do no more than whats already been advised. best to consider physio if healing is very slow or areas of injury perisist. as a guide, your recovery will be based on many things but on average you should be seeing big improvements over the first 2-3 weeks. i would say that you should be almost completely better in weeks rather than months.

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you mention you had some advice from your rheumatologist. if you are under their care for a systemic inflammatory condition and are taking long term steroids like prednisolone then you may find healing takes a tad longer.

gcwebbyuk

At the moment I am only on ibuprofen for the osteoarthritis in my neck.

I have an MRI on monday so that they can get a clearer idea if I have anything else wrong up there - neck that is not head!

Hoping my current injury will be healed by the time I see the rheumatologist again the following week, or I may get a telling off.

Feel a bit stupid injuring myself when I am still trying to get over my neck problem, but I couldnt just not cycle :S I was aiming for a nice XC ride, it was just an acident that caused me to end in a heap!

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don't berate yourself. happens to the best of us!

gcwebbyuk

Well I rested for 4 days until I went back to work.

Minimal walking when at work, and had a colleague drive me around.

The bruises have now all but gone, but then they weren't causing me any discomfort.

I am still limping though. It seems to have healed a bit, and can now limp flat footed, whereas before I was limping with my left foot on tip toe (the side that is in pain).

So thats over 1 and a half weeks, and am still not walking properly.

I may pop back to A&E tonight and get them to look at it again, the doc who saw me the day it happened said that if it wasnt healing in a week to go back, well it has healed a bit but not as much as I had expected.

gcwebbyuk

Went back to A&E last night, had another examination, and an X-ray this time. No fractures, or breaks, so they are sure its muscular.

Been prescriped diazepam (and to take the codeine I was given before) to help relax the muscles and was given some Tramadol while there to ease the pain.

So am on 2mg of diazepam 3times a day for the next three days :roll:

I had to take it over xmas due to my neck injury, and lets just say it was "interesting"!

Glad its over a weekend though so I can just chill out.