Hopefully it’s a lucky one? Well for me it’s an unlucky
incident I'm afraid. Don’t mess with gravity; it’ll get you down...
“You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn’t
care”
~Clayton Christensen
Long story short, there was this big fold up chair leaning against
a wall, I was shuffling past, it dumped itself on my right foot. The only
reason I knew I wasn’t dead was because I could still feel the pain.
I did however survive to tell the tale, it’s not even
broken, as you can see in the picture above that dark shadowy patch on the side
of my right foot isn’t a fake tan incident but is evidence of an impact which
damaged my underlying blood vessels – a contusion, i.e. a bruise.
Bruises are areas of discoloured skin which are the result
of trauma which has ruptured blood vessels (capillaries, or in worse cases
venules) which in turn seep blood (haemorrhage) into the surrounding tissues. The
seriousness of a bruise actually has a scale;
|
Harm score
|
Severity level
|
Notes
|
|
0
|
Light bruise
|
No damage
|
|
1
|
Mild bruise
|
Little damage
|
|
2
|
Moderate bruise
|
Some damage
|
|
3
|
Serious bruise
|
Dangerous
|
|
4
|
Extremely serious bruise
|
Dangerous
|
|
5
|
Critical bruise
|
Risk of death
|
I thought mine was a 5 but upon reflection perhaps in the
grand scheme of things I would only score a 1. I say 1 and not 0 because
although there was no underlying fracture to bones or organs it was painful
enough to prevent me wearing heels to work all week.
Thus the photo above, thank goodness there are only 5 days
in a work week because I only have 5 pairs of flat shoes that aren’t stinky
trainers that could run out the door by themselves. These 5 are my Monday to
Friday line up; lady brogues, dalmatian print, cream, gold glittery and appliqué
flowers. All bases covered. I quite enjoyed having to make more of an effort
with the rest of my outfit to still look professional but am definitely looking
forward to sliding back into black stilettos next week!
It has brought to my attention the need to further define the scale of bruises
that are specifically found in the foot/leg area;
|
Harm score
|
Severity level
|
Notes
|
|
0
|
Light bruise
|
The sky is the limit
|
|
1
|
Mild bruise
|
Platforms possible
|
|
2
|
Moderate bruise
|
Mummy Heels
|
|
3
|
Serious bruise
|
Stick to wedges/flats
|
|
4
|
Extremely serious bruise
|
Trainers/flip flops
|
|
5
|
Critical bruise
|
Stay in your slippers
|
This is how I will define my injuries to people in future;
“I hurt my
leg”
“Was it bad?”
“It was like
a 3, I had to wear wedges out to lunch”
If you fall
victim to an impact injury remember the treatment; RICE (Rest, Ice,
Compression, Elevation). Luckily (unlike number 13) your body deal with bruises
almost immediately as as soon as the endothelium of the capillaries is damaged,
endothelin is released which causes the blood vessel to narrow and stem the
blood flow to minimise bleeding. Von Willebrand Factor is also released which
begins the coagulation (blood clotting process) to block the site of the wound
until your tissue and be mended.
The
entertaining colour change of bruises is actually due to the breakdown of the
component of blood - haemoglobin which is gradually cleared from the area by
phagocytosis.
Haemoglobin – Biliverdin – Bilirubin – Hemosiderin
Red/blue – green – yellow – golden brown
There you go, next time you see someone with a bruise you
can a) inform them what stage it is at depending on the colour or b) recommend
what shoe type to wear until recovery.
OR If I’ve disappointed you and you
wanted to read about pancakes you can delight yourself with a peek back at
Episode 4 for all your fluffy sweet sugary bread needs!
