How to avoid excessive swelling and bruising

Did I tell you how I’m going to be testing for my second Dan at the end of February? Well, the plan is to do it, but I have to go through a mock grading with my own Sensei on December 16th.

This all means that I have to train as often as I can and in other words it means that I have plenty of bruises and tired muscles day-in-day-out. I’m not sure why I have so many bruises this time around, but I do.

Yesterday, during the last 5 minutes of class, I became the proud owner of a nicely planted shinny bruise on the top part of my foot. It wouldn’t have been all that bad or anything to write about, except just two months ago, I had a nice bruise in the same place on my foot after my foot made contact with Sanaz’s elbow. During the last two months, I had been very conscious of not using my left foot to kick, so I could give it time to heal, and for some reason I thought my foot was ready to join the big league. Bad idea. It was painful. I wish I had a picture of the shades of purple the impact left on my poor poor foot.

Anyways, here is my tip: as soon as you have a bruise, no matter how bad, put ICE on it! It does wonders. Not only can I walk (!) and do karate (!!), but my foot is only a tinny bit swollen(!!!) today. Good Times!

My dad has a Persian home remedy to avoid excessive swelling or bruising:

Add
1 egg yoke
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir until all the ingredients have been mixed. Pour and spread the concoction on to the area of bruising/swelling. Wrap with a tensor band-aid and leave it on for 8-12 hours.

My dad usually makes “zeft tokhmemorgh” for Ali and I whenever we come home injured. It helps. Take my word!

I wrote this on 26 November 06 when I was feeling .

Comment

  1. brenda says,

    does this remedy really work?? and if it does, i have a couple questions:

    1. when you pour it over your bruise and wrap it with a tensor, does the mixture not seep into the tensor? i find this possibility kind of gross. what do you propose in response to this concern?

    2. do you ice the bruise and then put that stuff over it? or is it one or the other?

    3. is there any medical documentation noting the effectiveness of this remedy over any other standard ones? if so, please indicate this in your “articles I’ve read” section. yes, you are doing the leg work for me.

    in other news: hooray for your potential nidan!! you are my karate hero.

  2. sh!ma says,

    1. I forgot to mention the bounty paper towel. Place 2 sheets on top of the area after you’ve poured the stuff on the area.

    2. No, one or the other.

    3. No. I don’t think so. I just know from my own personal experience that it’s worked! :)

    Thanks! :)

  3. Ben says,

    I made the effort to come back and find this article. When I first read it, I was like, dude, how could she hurt her foot that bad with a single kick? I was all hating on you. I was a bastard and I was wrong. I’ve been out of muay thai for almost a month because I had an inside leg kick blocked with a knee, and at first I was told it was broken, then I was told that it’s just extensive soft tissue damage and bruising. It isn’t getting better. It’s been this way for weeks and now I hate myself and think you are badass.

 
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