How bad is it to have a gigantic bruise on your inner arm?

Not a big deal assuming his fingers and arm work fine. It will ultimately fade to multiple colors like green, yellow, blue, etc. but will fade away without any consequences.

I don’t want to scare you but i think the same thing happens to heroin addicts they damage their veins from all the needle pokes and then their veins basically collapse and they get whats called tracks which are bruises on the arms because of the collapsed veins and from what I know they never go away

Shilolo is right.

Unless you see redness/ heat or any other sign of infection I would not be concerned.

Aside: We do have a Doctor in the house now…he is smart; he is experienced; he is clear; he is nice; he is, indeed, right.

@eadinad. Don’t let nightripper scare you. Nothing bad will happen. His veins will not collapse and he will not develop needle tracks from one incidental bleeding event. The reason he bled so much is that they use big needles for plasmapharesis (you guys starving students?), and so the needle poked a big hole (temporarily) in his vein. A lot of blood escaped until his blood clotted and stopped the internal bleeding.

As far as needle tracks are concerned, they are due to scarring of the soft tissue and veins from repeated non-sterile injections. Heroine addicts miss a lot, and the the heroine is cut with a bunch of impure stuff, leading to scarring and infection. The reason they are called tracks is because addicts aren’t stupid. They start farther away from the heart, and slowly move closer (i.e. up the arm) as the farther (more distal) parts of the veins become sclerosed and impossible to access. They thus “track” the course of the vein, but they rarely look like bruises.

I would like to thank shilolo for this and other helpful, generous advice in our
little home on the web.

@ shilolo – thanks. and yes, we are starving students. : /