Now, I’ve heard this term before, but I’m curious, what exactly does it mean? To my understanding 1) bruises are caused by damaged capilaries and whatnot, 2) bone’s don’t have capilaries in them, and 3) Hi Opal.
So, what does the term “bruised the bone” mean exactly?
Sorry, this was supposed to be in General Questions. My bad.
Off you go…
“I think my bone is bruised”
–Ninja in The Tick
Other than that, I can’t provide much help, except to say that I read that line as a “silly ninja, you can’t bruise you’re bone; you just got hit very hard” line…
It means “bruised the bone.” Of course bones have capillaries; they are living tissue, and need oxygen and nutrients as other tissues do. The majority of the blood supply is in the periosteum, a membrane surrounding the bones; from there, capillaries dip into the surface of the bone itself.
Don’t forget that blood cells are created in bone marrow; how do you think they get out, telekinesis?
Maybe I’m just padding the post count here but I suffered a bone bruise in my very last high school soccer game. IIRC, the doc said that the capilarries were damaged, but that the impact has to be pretty severe for that to happen.
It hurt really, really bad and there was a lot of swelling. You could even see the bruise on an x-ray!
Ouchy, ouchy, ouchy.
Of course bones have a blood supply. I broke my foot almost a decade ago, and I was amazed at how long the BONE injury took to subside long after the skin and muscle and tissue damage had mended. I remember giving my doctor a strange look when she said the words “bone bruise” some several months down the track, but when she explained to me the reasons why “bruised” bone takes longer to recover than bruised skin (OK, it helped that I had pics), it made a lot of sense. Not all cells replace themselves within the same timeframe. Bones are pretty slow at the game, compared to skin and tissue.
What really astonished me is that I don’t recall any of the major bone injuries I had as a child actually HURTING beyond the immediate swelling and bruising. As I age, it’s kind of horrifying to become aware that so many places in my body I thought of as being “neutral” also have pain receptors.
Ouch. I’ve had several, they hurt and take forever to heal. The Wonder Pony got a severe bone bruise a few years ago (vet took an x-ray to make sure it wasn’t broken) and to this day he has a lump where the bruise was.