Here's a new one for you--I haven't seen this addressed on the board. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this. It seems I have very thin skin, especially on my forearms, and it takes very little for them to bruise. Often, my arm will touch against a cabinet door are some protruding object. Sometimes it's such a minor thing that I don't even realize what I've done. First thing I know, someone says hey, you know you arm is bleeding? I look, there's an ugly bruise--almost like a blood blister without the blister, very red and raw looking, and the top layer of skin over that bruise has sometimes peeled away causing it to bleed. Understand, this is not at all painful. In fact, sometimes I can't even remember what I knocked my arm on. Even before RA, I noticed my skin would bruise easily on my arms and I asked my GP about it. He just said you have thin skin-- nothing you can do about it. I remember my mother seemed to have thin skin, but I don't remember her getting these ugly bruises and causing bleeding at times. Since RA, it seems to have gone much worse, to the point of embarrassment. People are always staring at these bruises, and I'm sure they're thinking I'm the victim of some sort of abuse. Sometimes they're just concerned, and ask me what I've done to my arms. Those who know me suggest that prednisone makes your skin thin, and therefore easy to bruise. That may be true, but then I would ask muself why is the skin on the rest of my body not so sensitive? And I've gone from 20 mg down to 5 mg of pred--wouldn't you think that start to thicken up? I'm also on Kineret and MTX, plus Fosamax, 81mg aspirin, folic acid, HRT. Neither my rheumy nor my GP have offered me much guidance on this issue. Can any of you offer any experiences in this regard? It's really an irritating thing more than anything. I often try to wear long sleeves not only to cover the ugly, but to protect my arms from further marking. It's a difficult thing to do in the South in the summer. So for now, I just put up with the staring and answer the questions when they come. Oh--I bartend on Saturday nights, so my arms are very obvious. Perfect strangers are concerned about me when they see these marks. Any help out there?
Hi Sara,
I don't know medically what the causes of brusing
are but I can say that I am definately experiencing
what you are. I was on 20 mg of pred for about a
month and now am on 5, but I've noticed in the past
6 wks especially, that I have a lot of bruses and have
no idea how they got there! I don't remember
doing anything to hurt myself, and often the bruised
areas aren't even sore. I put on shorts yestaerday for
the first time (I'm very overweight so have been
putting it off ) and noticed I have about 5 bruises
on my left leg. I also have small bruises on my
arms.
Many times others point them out to me...such as
'Where did you get that bruise?". And the
strangest thing was the other day when I was
changing clothes, I noticed a GIANT bruise on my left
hip...no Idea how it got there or how long it had been
there!
So do other have this problem too?
Well, I've always bruised very easily. To the point my legs
looked awful. I do bruise in other places but my legs are the
worst. I get deep, dark bruises and have no clue how I did
it. There are some that are rather funny. The ones that I
know came from little doggy feet or Bastian feet crawling up on my
lap.
No real ideas on why this is or how to help it, just letting you know, it is fairly common from what I hear.
hugs wayney
Hi, Tara--
Tara and Sara--isn't that cute?
Anyway, another question for you. Are yours the kind of bruises like when you walk into the coffee table, sort of deep, they start out black & blue, then they turn tan, then yellowish, then gone? That seems like what you're describing. Mine are shallow--dark red like a birthmark. If I whack it right, the skin on top peels away and it bleeds a bit. It usually takes about two weeks to finally heal and disappear. I guess what I have is thin skin, more than the propensity to bruise easily, although I do both--wondering if anyone out there is experiencing this thin skin thing.
I did it again last night, and am testing a theory--I've been smearing triple antibiotic ointment on the wound every 4 hours or so. It actually seems to be healing up much quicker. Here's a good explanation of how thin the skin on my forearms is: I can't put a bandaid on these wounds. Why? Because when I take the bandaid off, the place where the adhesive was actually bruises when I pull the bandaid off. So I can't even hide them behind a bandaid. What a pain in the patooty! (Patooty--an old word my mom used to use. I like the words wippersnapper and persnickety, too. Any of you out there old enough to remember those?)
Tara--I'm going to ask my rheumy again about this problem when I see him in two weeks. You should do the same. We can compare notes and see if either doc comes up with an acceptable explanation... Hello Ladies - Sorry to hear about your skin problems. I had similar problems a few years ago when taking Pred. Even after I weaned down to just 5 or 10 mg it didn't get better - not until I was completely off the Pred and my skin had time to renew itself. My skin had changed from that of a healthy 20-something year old to that of an 80 year old. I noticed especially on my hands and forearms that my skin seemed to be thin and always look dry. I didn't get too many bruises or tears, but it did happen on occation. Sorry I can't offer any real tips except to try using healing lotions to help keep the skin moisterized so it doesn't dry out so easily. Good luck, Mandi I used to bruise very easily. We used to laugh and say that if you looked at me hard there would be a bruise. I read that Vit K will help and it did tremendously ( also for my mom who had the same problem). I have read that RA'er's have been found to be low in Vit. K. Don't know if the latter is true, but it takes quite an event to bruise me now and the bruises go away quickly. I read that you should not take over 100 mcg's of Vit. K and you should not take if you are on blood thinners. There are websites that explain it all. I take around 50 mcg's. Leslie Mandi-thanks. At least I know I'm not the only one. (Although I think I must look like I'm 80 when people see my arms...
Leslie--a huge help! I didn't know about vitamin K. I'm off to Google it, and then probably off to the drugstore to find it. What's another pill, when you take a zillion a day, anyway? Sara I know that several of the calcium chews have vit. K added to them in pretty substantial amounts. The chewable calcium I sometimes take has 40 mcg in it, so I guess I am getting 80 mcg's when I take that instead of my regular calcium. My Vit. k tablets came in 100 mcg, so I cut them in half. I have been taking it for over seven years now. I was doing some reading on Vit. K deficiency and one site said it is pretty rare, but if you take tetracyclines you may indeed have some deficiency. I do take tetracyclines for my RA so this may be why it has helped me so much. ( But that doesn't explain why it helped my mom!) Another site said that low intake of Vit. C could be the cause for easy bruising. So who knows? I always make sure that all my doctors know that I take Vit. K when I go for appointments. Leslie If you read your papers that come with the mtx and some of the other drugs you do bruise easier now when on them and you must be careful so that you don't end up with an infection. Please don't panic over it but it is just part of what happens. I get brusies all the time but when you get a cut make sure you keep it clean and covered if possible. You are now prone for infections since your immune system is down even more from the meds. meme Leslie-- Thanks again. Was checking on the Vit K when you wrote again. The Daily requirement is 65mcg for women. Was just about ready to get some, when I saw your mention of the calcium chews. I take mega doses per my OB/GYN, who wants me on fosamax plus 1500 mg calcium. Well, my chew gives me 120 mcg of K at that dosage, so I'm apparently back to scuffed arms. But hey--I learned something anyway. Meme-- Thanks. I'm pretty paranoid about infections. I wash my hands a lot more now, plus stay stocked up with triple antibiotic ointment at all times. Can't cover these because it would just cause more abrasions, but other than that, I'm doing ok I think. I hope. I know what you mean about infections, Sara. I do volunteer work with kindergarteners, I teach them how to use the computer at my daughter's school. The others laugh, but when they come to my classroom all the children must use the germ killer alcohol rubs on their hands before touching the keyboards and afterwards too.. I got the school to have the keyboards disenfected at least 3 times a week during school year due to germs. i told them they would be surprised at how much attendance would go up if they made sure things were disenfected more often. The rd told me you have to be careful wherever you go because you could get sick from anywhere by anyone. My mother has hepatitas c, which is in remission, but if it should flare up i can go nowhere near her due to my compormised immune system. I haven't had the heart to tell her that and I hope I never will. I have learned,Sara, to try and be careful but I still enjoy life. I have had to be taken off mtx 4 times and this time I may be off it permanently, we are going to try an alternative drug to mtx and see if that helps. So enjoy life and take care. meme
Hi Sara,
My bruises are the dark purple type that slowly fade
away to yellow then gone. I've always bruised easy,
but much more so now. I also have the same 'band
aide' issue. last time I had a blood test they put a
band aide over the injection point and when I took it
off I had a major bruise from the blood test as well
as a band aide bruise!
I haven't had the red bleeding kind though. Let me
know what your rheumy says. (by the way, I
remember those words too!!)
Tara L
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