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What Causes Swelling And Bruising On Ankles After An Injury?
Question: my son has diabetes with daily insulin. he left the gym Fir and somehow got a sprained wrist. It hurt bad enough the next day Sat he went a urgent care facility. they did an xray and found nothing really, but said there was an anomalty on the under side and recommended a cat scan of it.it hurt all day sunday and seemed to get worse. he called me in tears this morning he was in so much pain, couldn't move his fingers, didn't sleep and his entire body hurt down to his bones. he ached all over terrible. He went to a hospital emergency room, blood test revealed no infection in his body or blood, the doctor prescribed pains relief pilld for him. Went home and now his ankles are swelling and bruising.I don't know what to tell him to do. he's 21 and looks to me for advice. I'm not sure who to ask. could it be a bad batch of insulin? can someone help? I'm in Alabama working and his mother is in Oregon, he 's SoCal
Brief Answer:
Hello
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Good day.
Sad to hear about your son's story. I presume he has type 1 diabetes.
As the Xray showed no fractures, most likely he had a soft tissue injury like muscle/tendon/nerve injury. This will not be visible in Xray. The best option would be to apply ice ( not directly) and take pain medcines. Keep the area rested.
I guess he developed ankle swelling after taking pain killers. As he is a diabetic, i would not advice him to take pain killers like voltaren or Brufen. They can cause fluid retention and swelling around ankle/around the eye swellings. They are notorious for causing kidney trouble as well on long term use. Occasionally they cause platelets in blood to go low and hence bruising.
What pain killers are being used now? If he has bruise and swellings in his ankles, he should stop those pain killers and meet a doctor ASAP. Check his creatinine and complete blood count ( especially to look for paltelets).
Please ask him to stay calm. I dont think this has anything to do with Insulin.
Rearding the abnormality under the skin/wrist area, an MRI is preferred over a CAT scan. I feel he should go back to an ER which they can deal with all these. Till then, he should keep his wrist area rested and stop those pain killers until the blood resports are found to be normal. In the interim, Paracetamol is good to reduce pain and it has no side effects like the stronger pain killers.
Please reassure him and advice to meet a doctor.
Regards
Binu
Hello
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Good day.
Sad to hear about your son's story. I presume he has type 1 diabetes.
As the Xray showed no fractures, most likely he had a soft tissue injury like muscle/tendon/nerve injury. This will not be visible in Xray. The best option would be to apply ice ( not directly) and take pain medcines. Keep the area rested.
I guess he developed ankle swelling after taking pain killers. As he is a diabetic, i would not advice him to take pain killers like voltaren or Brufen. They can cause fluid retention and swelling around ankle/around the eye swellings. They are notorious for causing kidney trouble as well on long term use. Occasionally they cause platelets in blood to go low and hence bruising.
What pain killers are being used now? If he has bruise and swellings in his ankles, he should stop those pain killers and meet a doctor ASAP. Check his creatinine and complete blood count ( especially to look for paltelets).
Please ask him to stay calm. I dont think this has anything to do with Insulin.
Rearding the abnormality under the skin/wrist area, an MRI is preferred over a CAT scan. I feel he should go back to an ER which they can deal with all these. Till then, he should keep his wrist area rested and stop those pain killers until the blood resports are found to be normal. In the interim, Paracetamol is good to reduce pain and it has no side effects like the stronger pain killers.
Please reassure him and advice to meet a doctor.
Regards
Binu
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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