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bundleking2003 · Mar 31, 2012, 03:56 AM

Ok - long story here. Few weeks ago I had a heavy blunt object land and strike the back of my right arm. It swelled up with a golfball to baseball size lump on the back of my arm. I was able to reduce some of the swelling with a cold pack and eventually the large swelling went down in a couple of days leaving a huge bruise on the back of my arm. Ever since I can feel a hard lump in the back of my arm. The other day I went to chop wood and my whole right arm was in intense pain that radiated all up and down the arm but most concentrated where that injury was at. I have been able to control the pain with ibrophen and some icy hot but I still am experiencing episodes of pain and tightness in that area of my arm... will this go away over time or do I need to get this checked out?

Fr_Chuck · Mar 31, 2012, 04:09 AM

Time to get it looked at.

joypulv · Mar 31, 2012, 04:57 AM

No one can say if it will go away with time or not (or commonly, leave some minimal residual effects).
You probably should not have chopped wood within a few weeks of the injury.
The hard lump can be scar tissue forming, and pain can be from that and from the bruise literally drying up under the skin, both pressing on nerves. The bruise will eventually be carried away but the lump may or may not remain, and it may even grow a bit. In a year or two you might want to consider surgery, depending on how much it affects you, but more often than not it's not worth it because surgery produces scar tissue too, and it's too difficult to pinpoint which of all your many nerves it is affecting.
I broke a finger in about 1995 that is lumpy with scar tissue and it got larger some years later, probably arthritis as I aged, because all my fingers are getting knobby.
Your best bet now is physical therapy, whether you get it from a doctor's prescription, a sports injury clinic, or if you do it yourself. Warmth, moist heat, whirlpool, soaking in a tub or long shower, and gentle lifting of your arm, rotating, flexing, etc, all while keeping warm. That's all anyone can do for you. You don't want to coddle it but you don't want to chop wood for a while either. Often you are your own best judge.