1. J.T. Woody

    J.T. Woody Book Witch Contributor

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    How long does it take for bruising to fade?

    Discussion in 'Research' started by J.T. Woody, Oct 11, 2021.

    I'm talking major trauma to the face after a fight.
    In my WIP, one of my MCs gets into a fight with his older brother who beats him to a pulp. he refuses to go to the hospital afterward and deals with it on his own. broken nose? possibly. cracked eye socket? most likely.

    I want the bruising to still be visible for a scene that takes place nearly 3 weeks later and want to know if it makes sense.

    I've had leg bruising from pulling muscles, bruising from cat and dog bites to my arm and hand, and various other bruising from bumping into inanimate objects.... but I've never had facial bruising to know how long it takes for it to heal :confused:
     
  2. Friedrich Kugelschreiber

    Friedrich Kugelschreiber marshmallow Contributor

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    My understanding is that facial bruises disappear faster than bruises on other parts of the body. I haven't had too many bruises on my face, but 3 weeks seems like a pretty long time to me.
     
  3. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    I don't recall how long it took for a friend's bruises to fade after she fell face first into a tiled wall, but I do recall that the bruise gradually sorta dribbled down her face. Really. She started with black eyes and as the bruises faded, the color ran into her cheeks. She said her doctor told her it was the blood draining from the original area with the help of gravity. And that is all I know about that.

    One other tidbit to add about facial injuries: a few years ago, my horse flung her head back during a ride and cracked me in the right cheekbone hard enough to addle me. I've never decided whether she threw me or I ended up on the ground because I was half knocked out by the blow. Strangely enough, there wasn't much bruising, but several months later, my doctor commented on the residual swelling and asked me what happened.
     
  4. Travalgar

    Travalgar Active Member

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    A quick Google search turned up with up to 2 weeks.
     
  5. 48days

    48days Member

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    Bruising also varies significantly between people, the exact same injury will cause more bruising in some people than it would in others. There's a lot of license here. It could heal within a few weeks, or you could go with something similar to Catriona's injury and add residual effects that last for several months. It's perfectly plausible that there could be some visible bruising left after 3 weeks, though most readers will expect it to be mostly healed at that point.
     
  6. Lazaares

    Lazaares Contributor Contributor

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    I took a kick to my face during a Judo bout and it left a very nasty bruise below my eye for a week, which was almost invisible the 2nd week and disappeared after.

    Forever enshrined as I had a new passport made two days after and my mother rushed to conceal it with make-up - the first and last time I had make-up on.
     
  7. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    I can confirm this. It happened to me twice. Once a couple of us goofballs at a fast food joint where i worked were clowning around jumping on the tables and I didn't realize somebody had just cleaned a couple of them. As soon as I landed on a wet table my feet slipped off the edge and I flipped upside-down and fell on my back with my legs sticking straight up in the air. I got massive bruising over my entire upper back that turned all manner of colors (there was a full rainbow—greens, yellows, purples, reds, blues) and over a few weeks it slid down into my legs and finally settled in my feet. They were extremely swollen and multi-colored. Gradually, over a period of months, my body processed it all and they went back to normal.

    Then there was the time I was kick-starting a motorcycle and the starter peg came back up and slammed me hard in the back of the calf. I thought it broke the bone but it didn't, just caused massive swelling and discoloration again, like before. And also like before it slid down to the bottom of my foot for a few months.

    Not sure if you'd want to use this in a story though, it seems to fall into the area of too strange for fiction. Most people have no idea it happens and wouldn't believe it.
     
    Catriona Grace likes this.
  8. J.T. Woody

    J.T. Woody Book Witch Contributor

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    Thank you for your responses!
    Its sounds like the bruising would have faded away after the 2 week mark, but swelling may persist.
    I'll go with the swelling. I can say his face still held a bit of its puffiness around his eye.

    Would any other damages still be visible? Like a badly split lip, for example. And if you break a nose, would you still be wearing the nose strip thing that keeps it straight?
     

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