DD has a bruise that isn't going away.

[SaulGood]

8yo dd complained a few weeks ago that she had a bruise on her inner thigh. She said she couldn't remember how she did it. It looked very much like a mark made by her little brother pinching her which on occasion, when frustrated, he does. He also tends to aim for her thigh or the tops of her arms. She's also as active as most 8yos and rides her scooter everywhere, occasionally crashing and bruising her legs. I put it down to that.

A week ago she mentioned it was still there and I had a good look and it had faded to a browny colour but I could feel a lump directly underneath it. Around the size of a pea. She said it was sore.

A week later and it's still there, same size, sort of a reddy colour but she says it's more sore than it was. She does admit though that she squeezes it because there's a lump underneath it and it 'feels funny'. I don't know if that's exacerbating things.

I have a terrible health anxiety, particularly where the dc are concerned and I am jumping to the absolute worst conclusions. Because that helps, obviously.

She's not ill, not tired or not herself. She's perfectly well. She's also had other run of the mill, fell off her scooter or got whacked with a golf club bruises in the last couple of weeks and they've cleared up within a couple of days. It's just this bruise on her thigh.

I've made a GP appointment for after school today as it's preying on my mind but is there a chance this is absolutely nothing and my sky high anxiety and terror is unnecessary? I need to stop googling.

[flumpybear]

Hhhmmmm I'm the same as you with health anxiety, but with my stable head on as I don't know you, sounds like something g that needs looking st but if it's cancer it doesn't just retreat then start again - I'd think it was perhaps an ingrown hair, foreign body etc - take her to the docs tomorrow and sort it once and for all

[SaulGood]

Thank you for having a stable head. Mine's up and fucked off. I have anxiety head up the wazoo right now. It's Dr Google. I can't seem to LTB.

[hannah1992]

Firstly stop googling. Google always says everything is cancer or some other serious illness. It really is not your friend. If this was cancer I dare to say your daughter would be seriously ill or not here 2 years down the line. If she has been perfectly well and there's none other of these lumps then it probably will be nothing. Perhaps the heamotoma large some scar tissue and she's maybe bumped it again and not realised (we all get bruises in which we have no idea how we got them) and bruised it again. It will be something innocent. Gp will put your mind at rest

[Cranb0rne]

It could be a foreign body like someone else said. My DH accidently stabbed himself with a pencil when he was a kid and still has a piece of the lead under his skin

[SaulGood]

She is pretty well. The odd cold here and there maybe. No time off school for years.

Only real health change is a diagnosis of hypermobility which is being treated with orthotics and physio. She gets that from her equally hypermobile father.

[SaulGood]

There was never a wound or broken skin. It looked exactly like a pinch mark with a red crescent shaped centre and a purple/blue bruise which slowly went browny green, shrank and vanished.

Now it's brown again and there's a hard, painful lump right under the surface of the skin.

[SaulGood]

There was never a wound or broken skin. It looked exactly like a pinch mark with a red crescent shaped centre and a purple/blue bruise which slowly went browny green, shrank and vanished.

Now it's brown again and there's a hard, painful lump right under the surface of the skin.

[SaulGood]

I did NOT post twice.

[FretYeNotAllIsShiny]

If the vein there was damaged and scarred, could it be that it's been knocked or something and burst because it's weak? My daughter kept getting massive bruises in the same place (just above her hip) and there was a big vein there. She's put on a bit of padding now - gone from scrawny child to woman- and it doesn't happen any more.

Hopefully it'll turn out to be one of those weird body things.

[Nj1208]

Could it be that you're feeling normal gristle/ muscle under the skin and that it feels different with the position you check it? My dd (3) has a bruise on her hop with a lump beneath it last year. I have health anxiety and made countless trips to the doctor who kep reassuring me that the lump I was feeling was just normal muscle. I took it out of my mind. Then last week, I noticed another small bruise in the same place. Felt it, and the "lump" I felt originally was still there. What I mean is we all have lumps and bumps (my dd has one on the back of her head that the doctors have said is just part of her) and sometimes it's only when we notice a mark or a bruise that we feel these lumps.

My gp told me that because I have such bad health anxiety over my daughter, I tend to notice things that other parents wouldn't notice i.e the lump on her head. This can only be felt if you really feel around her head. The doctor even said they notice things like this all the time on people when examining but don't even mention them because they're irrelevant.
Hope that makes sense

[VivienneWestwoodsKnickers]

Yes, see the GP, but while you're there can you ask about the health anxiety? Have you ever had counselling or CBT to help you cope? It sounds terrifying for you, and there are ways to help you get it under control.

[SaulGood]

It's definitely a lump with clearly delineated edges. You can see it as well as feel it. It is also very tender. She jumps a mile if you touch it. It hurts when she runs. It's not a normal lump or bump.

I have an appointment for 4.30pm. It's going to be a long day on no sleep.

[SaulGood]

My health anxiety is actually better than ever.

I think I'm struggling with this because my Mum has had skin cancer (sun damage related) and skin stuff, plus Google brings it all back.

[Nj1208]

Good luck for the appointment. Let us know what the doctor says. I'm sure it will be something innocent. Most lumps are harmless remember.

[SaulGood]

Thank you. And thank you for sharing. Health anxiety is the pits. I will update later.

[LaContessaDiPlump]

Op, I am hopeful that it's a run-of-the-mill abscess or similar (fits the profile imo, plus easily removable/treatable). The fact that it went down by itself last time could be due to her body clearing the causative bacteria.

Disclaimer: not a medic, but I am medical.

Good luck!

[tinypop4]

Op I am not a doctor but just to try and reassure you a little- I am prone to lumps on my thyroid. They are cysts and harmless - shrink down to almost nothing. Once I knocked the area and the cyst blew up large and painful- it was just bleeding into the cyst (haemarogegic cyst) and it went away again.
Sinister lumps rarely come up suddenly and are even more worrying if painless rather than painful- it could just be something like this!

[SaulGood]

You are all lovely.

I have spent time in the garden weeding and trying to be calm. I usually have a better handle on this stuff.

[flumpybear]

It's really unusual for a child
To get skin cancer to be honest - enjoy your gardening and looking forward to a positive update later today 💐

[SaulGood]

A boy I was at school with died from cancer. His first symptom was a leg lump. That's the sort of thing going round and round my head. When I was little, I had "something" wrong and needed biopsies and bloods and investigations. I remember hearing my parents speaking in hushed voices about leukaemia when they thought I was asleep. It was something entirely treatable and benign in the end but those weeks of being too frightened to admit I'd eavesdropped and heard their big adult fears was what started the anxiety. I fully appreciate the irony of me doing what my mother did. I know it's pointless.

Come ON 4.30pm.

[Nj1208]

If it makes you feel better, I have terrible health anxiety over my daughter too. I am always finding things on her which completely make me think she has a serious illness. Last month I found a lump on the back of her head. All the doctors told me it was nothing at all to be worried about (even saying 100percent either a gland or a muscle) and that it would be "bad medical practice" to investigate it. But of course, I check it every day and every day I feel it, it makes me feel sick with worry. The gp has even told me it is unlikely to go away so there is no point in feeling it. They have even said that they won't examine it again because there is nothing to worry about. Health anxiety is horrific.. I totally sympathise with you.

[Nj1208]

I should say that my gp knows about my health anxiety hence she knows that the constant need for reassurance is a symptom of the condition. If the lump had got bigger or anything then of course they would check it

[TheBakeryQueen]

Hope all is ok! 💐

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

Hoping all is well x

[tinypop4]

Hope all is okay op I've been thinking of you this afternoon. I have had bouts of terrible health anxiety and it's very debilitating. xx