Inflammation I: My accident

Inflammation has four classic symptoms: redness, swelling, heat, and pain. That was my leg, about five weeks ago. I did a stupid thing: I stood on a table to adjust light fixtures. To get down, I stepped on a chair, the seat of which sloped slightly toward the back. My foot slipped under the back of the chair and just kept heading downward, scraping the inside of my shin—from knee to ankle—until my foot hit ground. Painful! It immediately started to swell and a huge hematoma appeared (a hematoma is a swelling filled with blood caused by a break in the wall of a blood vessel).

I concluded that nothing was broken and that my body was doing its job. So I carried on as best I could (13 for dinner that night!). As the days wore on, it started looking worse in some ways. It continued swelling, and started looking more bruised. Plus my foot and toes became purple. I figured I broke a million blood vessels (no blood on the outside—all on the inside) and that the blood was seeping down into my feet. I continued my normal activities, including Jazzercise, although mostly I just wanted to lie down. It made me feel sort of sick.

Friends and relatives were horrified that I didn’t seek medical help. But I couldn’t imagine what a doctor would do. Nevertheless, after two weeks had passed and the swelling and discoloration hadn’t gone down much, as shown in this photo, I gave in and made an appointment with an orthopedic guy.

My leg, 16 days after the accident.

As I predicted, the doctor did nothing. (I did have x-rays. Nothing broken.) He was unconcerned and rather uninterested in my plight. I told him that what really bothered me was pain in my hip, which I’m pretty sure is bursitis. He wasn’t interested in that either, but told me to take four Advil in the morning and four at night. Advil is an anti-inflammatory drug. The idea is to keep inflammation at bay.

So that’s what I’ve been doing. Advil’s scientific name is ibuprofen. It is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (as are aspirin and many other drugs, such as Motrin). It works by blocking the production of prostaglandins, substances our body releases in response to illness and injury and that also cause inflammation. After doing a little research, I learned that Ibuprofen's painkilling effects kick in soon after you take a dose, but its anti-inflammatory effects may take weeks. So I guess I’m going to be doing this for a few weeks.

This Advil-taking regimen is something I wouldn’t have known about if I hadn’t gone to the doctor. I don’t like the idea of blocking any of my body’s normal functions. But what the heck. It’ll be a scientific experiment. The drugs.com web site says the maximum amount of ibuprofen for adults is 800 milligrams per dose or 3200 mg per day (four maximum doses; I'm taking two). I guess that Ibuprofen can increase the risk of heart trouble and can damage the lining of your stomach. I’ll take my chances. I want to see if this works.

Report: I took those big doses for two weeks and was not impressed. Maybe it helped a little. The day after I stopped taking the twice-daily doses, I had a terrible time sleeping plus I got a cold, something I've not had for many years. I think all that Advil compromised my immune system. I don't recommend that regimen.

Next week: Inflammation II: The basics

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.