Washable Bruises

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Lady (regular) comes into our ED by ambulance, claims to have twisted her ankle while dancing (stripping).

Has a dark purple bruise to medial ankle, upon closer inspection has some sparklies in/on it.

Barely brush my finger across her medial malleolus and she writhes and moans in pain.

I look at my finger and now it is bruised (or at least purple with sparkles).

Talk to ED doc, he gets her story from her and then proceeds to clean her ankle with a washcloth...no more bruise!

She opted to leave the ED on her own at this point.

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

Had something like this happen in my LTC. Family "painted" a bruise on mom. (Yep lots of issues there) and said that we abused her they had a lot of issues with care and also complained that she wasn't washed properly. Well she was washed with pm care and sure enough the bruise went away. Who was abusing who???

[CountrifiedRN]

How clever, a purple eyeshadow bruise. Ya gotta love it! :chuckle

[Sari_noel]

Here's a little different spin on the "washable bruise" when I was about 5 I broke my arm about elbow area. I had a huge bruise on my wrist, mom thought it was marker and tried to wash it off. Can we say pain??? I won't ever let her live that one down:chuckle