Post ablation bruising question - bruising getting worse?

Hi everyone,

Just to update, I was released from the hospital in Bordeaux last Friday and everything was great. Barely a blip for my heart and a very small 1"X1" bruise on my leg. Well, contrary to all the advice here, rather than just relaxing, my wife and I did a lot of walking over the weekend and saw the town. As a result, the little bruise has spread to 3X4" and looks a little nasty.
I sent Dr. Hocini and email but have yet to hear back from her and I'm wondering if this is a cause for concern. There's no swelling and it's not painful but it's pretty ugly.

Just wondering what everyone else's experience with post ablation bruising was. I'm a week out now, should it still be bruising at this point? I know the biggest thing is for me to stop pushing myself so once I reach Paris I'm going to settle down in my apartment and relax for a few days.

Monty

Hi Monty great to hear from you. I think the bruising is very common, and it can cover a large area. The color will change and eventually fade after time. I don't know if you have ever had a black eye, but the bruising is very similar and can take a few weeks to disappear. No problem checking with Dr. Hocini to ease your concern. Or you could send Laurence an email, and I think you will get an answer quite quickly.

Enjoy Paris,
Lou

Hey Lou,

Thanks for the answer! The source of my concern is that I had almost no bruising from the Monday of my ablation until the Friday of my discharge. The bruising started worsening the day after I left and now, two day later and a week after the ablation, it continues to worsen. I've heard of cases where it extends down to a persons knee, so my 3X5" bruise isn't so terrible I guess. Just a little nerve wracking being in a foreign country and now being hundreds of km away from Bordeaux. Dr. Hocini got back to me and thought it might be superficial and that I should either return to the hospital or see a GP.
Going to see a GP tomorrow AM so we'll see from there. If it's bad I'll either go back to Bordeaux or try to fly home early (where I'm covered). If it's ok I'll probably just wait out my trip in my apartment. Either way, it's not looking like I'm going to get to enjoy Paris. :-(

Monty

Hi Monty - latent bruising when you are on an anticoagulant seems to be common.

After a surgical procedure, there is maximum swelling in 72 hours and often little bumps or traumas show up as small hematomas that increase in size during those 72 hours. Often applying ice packs - on and off for 15 minutes at a time helps prevent further expansion. That happened to me on both my recent ablations. Apparently, I received a blow to my ankle area...no pain.. just a small bruise that expanded to a larger bruise and because I was on Eliquis, it took over a month for it to resolve. The same was true for the trauma area where they tried to use a vein in my hand for a port installation. I told them that wouldn't work based on history, but the tech tried it anyway and blew out the vein...so I had a small trauma area at the start but because of the Eliquis, it covered much of the back of my hand, wrist and lower arm. That took about 3 weeks to fade.

Glad you are doing well and enjoying the sights. Just don't overdo.

Best to you,

Jackie

I was age 52 back in January when I had my Natale ablation. I had a little bruising in my chest where the LINQ loop recorder was inserted....maybe a little at the catheter insertions locations, but nothing of any significance.

My experience was that for the year I was on Xarelto before the ablation, my bruising was worse than the 4 months after ablation when I used Eliquis.

Glad you are doing well!

Ken

Monty

I was just watching a medical programme on the BBC about bruising to the brain. One of the doctors was explaining what happens and compared it to a bruise on the leg. He said that if you get a bruise on your leg it gets worse over the next few days.

Made me wonder if this could this be what happened to you?

Gill

Jackie, you are so right about bruises worsening 72 hrs after the event, and hematomas developing then too. I remember all too well the aftermath of an ill considered trip to walk my dog in the woods near my house about a week after getting out of the hospital after that small stroke i had in 2009. I think i wanted to know if i could still do that. The city or some public spirited group had upgraded the area with a few heavy wooden picnic tables and benches and had used the same timbers to floor a small bridge over a ravine.

Our local yahoos [remember Gulliver's Travels?] are a sturdy breed and had already torn up and burned these tables and benches for bonfires, and were starting, unbeknownst to me, on the bridge timbers. The board i stepped on was no longer attached to the bridge but was lying in its place like the others. Fortunately the dog and me were not alone in the woods on that trip. That board went out from under me and would have dumped me in the ravine had my nephew not caught me before i could fall. As i went down i scraped my shin on that treacherous board. We threw the board down so nobody else took the same trip, but the damage was done. The next day was not too bad, but then a fiendishly painful large hematoma developed. That thing took weeks to go away.

PeggyM

Totally par for the course and the wider spread is due in part to your over active though understandable gallavanting around beautiful France
Which helps accelerate the bruise from the groin puncture to spread out and migrate down the thigh.

No worries at all, it will gradually fade into just a mild war story to share years later about your adventure to Bordeaux. My first big ablation in Austin I had hardly any bruising at all but took it real easy the first ten days after having the lose all that water weight from re then brand new Thermocool irrigated catheter of which I was something like the 11th person they had used it on during investigative trials prior to FDA approval.

But after my second and last ablation which was just an LAA isolation only Magdalena and I took a long walk the very next day after I got out of CPMC across and then around the full Crissy Field up to and back from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Chrissy Field parking lot and my tiny right groin bruise expanded over the next few days to cover my entire thigh down to my knee as one giant bruise that gradually faded from dark blue to light purple in the way to nothing.

Enjoy France at this point but just don't do any heavy duty exercise just yet.

Shannon

Hi Monty, I'm Late to reply. Sorry . I had some computer issues, imac lockup but it seems to be ok now. Congratulations on your successful ablation with Dr. Hocini. She was very thorough with my ablation and its still holding. Sounds like your's was pretty straight forward so good prognosis for one and done.

3x5 bruising eh. I wouldn't worry about that it just looks bad is all. I went and climbed the Dune of Pyla on the seacoast by Arcechon after my ablation and my bruise was about double yours. It just kept growing. I think there was a picture of the Mona Lisa in there. very colourful. The Pain in your chest should be a lot better now too. If not It will be..

Wishing you the very best

Adrian

Montos,

Please don't let that small bruise ruin your visit to Paris!

You can still walk around at a modest comfy pace and take enough little breaks at nice cafes along the way in summer Paris which is often a lovely time to be there when it isn't too humid ... though I love spring and fall the most and Xmas is a lovely time too in Paris.

In any event, this is a non-issue at the size and area of your bruise which is clearly the standard bruising from the groin puncture and it does tend to both migrate and expand looking far far worse that in reality it is.

It is nothing, trust me! The reason it did not expand much in the first 5 days was because you were still in the hospital and not roaming all over the French countryside as you had been in past days when the purple expansion began in ernest. No doubt the main reason Dr Hocini said to check in with a GP or return to Bordeaux was for your own peace of mind , not that she was concerned. But you have us here to lean on and get the scoop from too and in this case, do listen to the advice here.

It will, indeed, subside and totally disappear before too long, but may well still have some remnant light purple patches even up a month from now so just don't even give it another thought, and certainly not spoil what might be an infrequent opportunity to enjoy Paris in a leisurely and not too stressful or strenuous manner.

Be well and take care,
Shannon

So, just to update, The pain in my chest was gone after a few days. My INR was about 3.3 so I skip tod my INR was about 3.3 so I skipped a dose of warfarin and brought it down to about 2.3. After that the bruising started going away. I was able to do some sightseeing around Paris.
Adrian, I climb to do the weekend before my ablation so I got to experience that as well.

16 days and things are rock solid so far.

Monty