[Bank of Dad]

So my ever a beginner DH came off his horse in November and landed on twigs and branches on the side of the trail, landing on his skinny backside. He was purple for two weeks. He still has lumps there, and they are painful to press. I made him use ice,advil, and now I still tell him to soak in hot water. He still rides, it doesn't affect his mobility, etc.

He has a Dr. appt. in a few weeks for a regular checkup.

Anyone guess how long these will take to go away?

[JanM]

Sound like hematomas, and they can take a long time to reabsorb and vanish permanently. Next time he needs to go to the doc sooner (but you already knew that, and he refused to go, right?).

[Airfern]

I second the hemotoma guess. I have a few from some nasty spills, and still have the lumps to prove it (now they are two years old and still very present)
Per my doctor,
"Why did you wait to come it, you could have had a serious problem with blood clots with this much bruising. You should have had it looked at earlier."
(I waited a week) And per orthopedic referral, "you were lucky you did not form blood clots, and this may never completely go away without major surgery."

Hemotomas can form compartments around the area where the internal bleeding occurs, After the blood is reabsorbed the compartment can either clapse back down to "normal" or, it can form scar tissue inside the compartment where the blood pooled. In my case, This scar tissue is forming the lumps, resulting numbness and edema from the lack of circulation and the pinching of the nerves and blood vessels around the scar tissue. The major surgery would be to remove the scar tissue, but there would be no promise that the feeling would return or the edema would go away. The surgery may result in even more scar tissue forming, which could make it worse. Going to the doctor right away may not have prvented the hemotoma from scarring but it would have caught or prevented any clots and potential risks from clots forming in the arteries/veins which can be potentially fatal. That's why I was told I was lucky no clots formed.

[Bank of Dad]

Yes, that's what they are, hematomas. He went to the dermatologist for a full body scan a few days after, and she saw them but didn't seem concerned. I will push arnica, heat, and massage.

[baylady7]

Judy-I agree hematomas. A warm compress will help them break up. On my horse we used DMSO, he got one when he was a yearling

[khorsem]

I had several large hematomas in my upper thigh/almost butt area after getting kicked about 15 years ago. Being the stubborn horse person that I am, I didn't follow up after my initial ER visit and by the time I did, it was really too late to do anything about it (guess it could've been drained?) Anyways, I'm now the proud owner of a permanent horseshoe shaped dent in my thigh that looks like a giant chunk of cellulite to those who don't know any better because the pooled blood essentially killed the muscle around it. Ugh.

[jengersnap]

I'm a bruise queen. Never break anything, but I do get black and blue quite often. This morning I took a spill on black ice covered sidewalk and popped a blood vessel in my thumb :P I'm sure that will take a week or more to drain. I still have a golfball sized hematoma on my buttock from getting cornered by a steer with horns in a chute back in August. Not one of the best moments of my life, that's for sure. The brusing along my ribcage thankfully did go away along with the grazing one on my upper thigh. Same side hip I came off at full speed on a thoroughbred on a packed sand beach frozen in November. It was like hitting my hip with a cast iron pan. Western saddle, so I had a matching lovely brusied left knee where the horn wacked into it as I came off. We continued to ride another two hours after that too. That hip is most like your DH's injury, and took about 3-4 months to go from dark purple to violent red to pea greens and jaundice yellows and the hematomas did dissapate. Being thin is not an advantage when you fall like that. I'm lucky I'm fluffy lol In any case, daily low dose asprin for thinning the blood could be a good idea. I do it upon my doc's advice as I have no other medical conditions in which thinning my blood would be a bad idea, and it does help reduce the chance of a very dangerous clot from lodging somewhere. Best wishes!

[NeedsAdvil]

Hematomas stink. I got a huge one from being bitten on the thigh and it took MONTHS to shrink. I used arnica though, and it definitely helped. A nice long soak in a hot epsom salts bath might help too, and sure wouldn't hurt.