excessive bruising

[BusynMember]

Ever since I was a little girl, I bruised if the air touched me. This is also true of my mother and sister. We used to jokingly call our legs "Leukemia legs." People would ask, "Wow! How did you get hurt?"

I still bruise easily. It's embarassing. I just had a total blood workup and the tests were all normal. I'm wondering if any natural remedy could help with the bruising. Right now my immune system is obviously adequate because it is rare that I get colds/flus/anything even when I'm living with others who are ill. My red/white blood count must have been good when I had my tests two weeks ago. I don't feel sick. So can this be due to a vitamin deficiency? This has been going on for so long that I forget to ask doctors about it, although my Primary knows I bruise easily and always has. I never did ask what may help me stop bruising?


Any suggestions? Right now I had a fading purple bruise on my arm and I've been wearing long sleeves to hide it. It's ugleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! The medications I take...Paroxatine and Clonazapan...should not cause it and this was going on before I took any medication.

 

[buddy]

I'm the same. Always have been. Would be great to know how to avoid it. When I moved, I was head to toe bruised. Add Quin's aggression over moving and i was s mess. Very embarrassing.

 

[AnnieO]

MWM, are you really fair skinned? I am the same, and buddy and I are both blonde and reasonably pale...

 

[InsaneCdn]

I'm not super fair skinned, but have Celtic lineage... and I bruise super-easy too.

 

[SuZir]

Apparently it has to do with who quickly your blood clots. I also bruise easily, so does my difficult child. Considering his activity level and his fumble prone nature he made an embarrassing kid to tag along during summers, like he wouldn't had embarrassed us enough any how. And there has been times husband has not wanted to been seen with me because of my bruises, usually caused by dogs, horses, rough playing little boys or my fumbling all by myself. I'm super fast blood donor, takes very short time to get a bag full and I have been told that is because of the same thing. I'm also blond and pale that of course makes bruises show better, but doesn't cause them. husband and easy child (pale too) don't bruise that easily.

 

[Calamity Jane]

I remember reading somewhere that excessive bruising may be a symptom of Vitamin C deficiency.

 

[DammitJanet]

Count me in the (what used to be) blond, blue-eyed, pale skinned bruising people...lol. Right now I have about 5 bruises that are between the sizes of a quarter and a nickle all up and down my left leg and I have no idea where they came from.

 

[AnnieO]

All interesting. I didn't bruise easily as a child, which was good because I was a superklutz. But - I am anemic (normally - not now). The lower my hemoglobin, the more I bruise. The OB put me on an iron supplement when I was pregnant, and interestingly enough, I stopped bruising for a while!!!

 

[BusynMember]

Thanks, guys, as always.

My complexion is pretty fair although I have dark hair and eyes. My mom had a dark complexion...kind of olive like.

I have a long, long, long history of low white blood cell counts, but we're talking about all the way back to my early 20's. I don't know if I still have it. Maybe that's it. I'm going to try the Vit. C. Lately my puppy, who is a typical rowdy little girl, is forever jumping on me and I think that's where the arm bruises are coming from.

 

[susiestar]

Do NOT take aspirin unless a dr tells you to, not even baby aspirin. Aspirin is a blood thinner and can cause easy bruising. My stepmil started taking an aspirin a day because she read it was 'healthy''. She didn't read that it was supposed to be baby aspirin, or 81 mg and NOT the reg or extra strength. She took one extra strength each day. I figured it out when we visited for xmas (back during the three years where we saw her each xmas) and she was literally a walking bruise. her entire face was black and blue and you could tell she slept with her head turned one way because that side was really scary looking, a combo of old greenish yellow bruises and new blue/purple ones. Wiz was afraid of her because of the bruising and the horrible bad horror movie look of the makeup she used to cover it. Her company moved her from the reception desk to a back room to do filing and other things because clients were worried about her and she refused to go to the doctor when the co asked her to (on their dime, they were that worried about her!)

I snooped in her medication cabinet and she didn't have the low dose/baby aspirin, and I told husband and his sister that the aspirin she was taking was causing the bruising. Wrong of me to snoop, and I don't do it often, but husband and his sister were so worried that we needed to know what was going on. sister in law dragged ehr to the doctor and he had a FIT. Her blood was thinned to the point that a small cut could have caused her to bleed out. They didn't just take her off the aspirin, they sent her to the hospital for some sort of transfusion of the part of blood that causes clotting. They tried to do a blood test in his office and they couldn't get the vein to stop bleeding for several minutes. Even with direct pressure it did not want to stop, which is why they sent her right to the hospital.

Unless a dr tells you to, or you are having a stroke or heart attack that minute, don't take aspirin on a daily basis. If you don't need it, that can kill you. esp if you bruise easy.

 

[HaoZi]

Lack of Vitamin K can lead to easy bruising, and I've never heard of docs testing for it either.