mzeffex 

I'm not sure if this is where to put this question.. but I figure some people here might have had this problem?

So I was biking and skidded out on sand. Now about a week later my elbow is almost healed, and the big scrape on my side is 90% gone. The question is.. on my side where the scrape was the bone, my pelvis, is sticking out. It is not equal to the other side and its kinda worrying me. It doesn't hurt more than any other bruise, as it is bruised still.

Maybe someone knows about this kind of thing - could my pelvis have been knocked to one side? I hit the ground quite hard. I don't think that can happen but you never know. Thanks.

Heres a diagram, its the part labeled Ilium

SwimBike

Ever think about going to the doctor?

camhabib

The way I was taught sports medicine (the crash course way) was that if you can move it, you're fine. From a more medical standpoint, it is highly unlikely you somehow displaced / fractured your hip, let alone did it and aren't in enough pain that you've passed out. Most likely your hip was always that way and you never noticed it, seems larger one one side because of a bruise or underlying scaring, or you're just paranoid. In any case, if you are worried, as with all injuries, seek professional medical help.

mzeffex 

Well it's not like I'm in pain at all. So at this point, no.

Flatballer

Those words are funny sounding.

AEO

it's probably just swollen.
if your pelvis was 'knocked' to one side, I don't think you'd be able to stand at all since that means your spine is broken.

now if your pelvis was cracked in half, that too would make it really hard to even stand.
not to mention it will flail and move independently from each other.

but, hey, I'm no doctor.

mzeffex 

Ahaha, wow, I can't stop laughing at your post.

Jakedatc

this is quite wrong.. from a non crash course sports medicine professional..

i've had football players play with broken collarbones without telling me about it.. i've had a kid break his tibia and not feel any real pain.

basically that's a piss poor diagnostic tool.

OP: i'd say if you don't have any significant pain then you probably have a decent bruise that is swollen. but if with a few days of icing it does not improve you should probably get it checked to be sure. your pelvis can get knocked out of wack without things being broken. a good PT would be able to do some manipulations and such to get things back into alignment.

assessing injuries on the internet is nearly impossible so i'd probably get it looked at.

mddang

My friend, you have what is called herpes.

Seriously, you should consult a medical professional if you think something might be wrong.

camhabib

Imagine finding out you have herpes from an online bike forum.

caloso

Nice picture of Rasmussen.

Flatballer

That must be in winter, he looks a little heavy.

DrPete 

Basically ignore everything but the bolded part. In addition to a bony problem, you could have a hematoma or something like that, but bottom line is that if you came into my clinic saying you crashed your bike and your pelvis looked funny to you, you'd be getting X-rays. Go see a doctor.

AEO

broken collar bone = you can't lift your arm over your head.

DrPete 

Except when you can.

Jakedatc

Dunno.. didn't see the kid until almost a month post injury .. had a major lump where the fx was and he'd had an x ray and the tech's missed it. he played weekly until he saw me.

either way.. just because they could lift their arm i wouldn't use that to confirm or deny that it was broken.

Jakedatc

Doc maybe we should just quit since people on the internet clearly have more medical knowledge than people who went to school for it

DrPete 

Sounds like a plan.

I've got one iliac stent, a tibial angioplasty and SFA endoluminal bypass, and an AV graft revision on the schedule for tomorrow, and I want to go for a ride. Who wants 'em?

AEO

well, that's what I've been told by the physician who took a look at me after I broad sided a car.
unfortunately, I was too healthy to stay at the hospital.

really? you can lift your arm over your head with a broken collar bone? interesting.
we mean broken clean off and not fractured are we?

camhabib

You'd be getting imaging, a few advil, and sent home with a large bill and nothing else. Out of the few thousand xrays I've seen during my (unofficial) radiology rotation, at least of 50% of them were completely normal, with another 25% of them unnecessary due to the injury being able to have clearly been established without the use of imagining, and the other 25% were necessary for various reasons.

I'm all for better safe then sorry, and utilizing modern medicine to it's fullest (after all I'm the one helping to design it), and while I can't speak with any authority as DrPete can (I'm still a student), when it comes down to it (IMO of course), doctors are getting more and more lazy and performing more tests and procedures for no other reason then to cover their ass. I know DrPete will most likely disagree with me (respectfully of course), and you SHOULD go see a doctor just to be safe, but I would be willing to put a very large sum of money on it that you will get an xray and be told to go home and ice it.

Jakedatc

Call me when you got a TKR or a meniscus clean up job.. those are the only ones ive seen in person so i'd feel the most comfortable with those.. i've seen ACL recon on video so that would be my third choice

i usually see the injury...assess... refer.. then do rehab. but i'm sure the middle bit isn't too hard

DrPete 

You make the mistake of inexperience, i.e. that a negative study isn't necessary or worthwhile. And no, it's not to cover my ass, it's knowing that sometimes typical problems present in atypical ways, and the only way to bridge that gap is to get the imaging. Feel free to direct yourself (and all the other MS-1 facutly ideologues) to the various studies, especially in trauma, that discuss the unreliability of physical exam in certain clinical settings.

Of course there probably isn't a fracture, but your willingness to say there's not for an individual patient based on probabilities derived from extremely limited experience would suggest you've got some more training to do.

Jakedatc

Cam exactly what do you do? or are training to do?

AEO btw.. fracture is broken in two.. is shattered into pieces.. is barely cracked. it's anything that's distrupting the continuity of a bone.

daxr

No problem - sounds like the kind of stuff a few well-worded posts and a htfu or two should take care of

camhabib

DrPete, I definitely agree I have a ways to go. As I said in my post, I have no authority in the matter, just speaking from my personal experience, which admittedly, is very limited in comparison to any full fledged doctor. I did not mean to imply that I knew better in any way or imply that I had any idea how you practice, just speaking from observations in the general field.