Quick update: The knee held together all right last night, but after cooling down, hurt when I got home. Will ice and rest for a day and try it again. My playing was horrendous, but I think I was thinking about my knee too much.
However, I did leave the evening with a huge pain in the palm of my hand and on the outside of my right index finger. The result: broken blood vessels. There is not a night of volleyball that I do not encounter at least one. Certainly they look much worse than they feel, a huge dark purple bulge just under the skin. They hurt for a few minutes, and if you get hit there again, the pain comes back. But the morning after, they are just a mark without pain. Are my veins just weak? Maybe. I would like to think that I hit the ball incredibly hard, and my friends do the same. The broken vessels occur on one of two situations: a block or a hit.
The ones in the palm of my hand are usually the result of a block. Last night it was caused by a dig on a rather hard hit. I had enough time to drop my right arm to the ground, basically a reactionary dig, and not enough time to close my hand. The ball slapped directly into the middle, and instantly caused a huge purple spot. Three rallies later, and the pain was gone.
The index finger came on a slightly missed hit (which I had PLENTY last night). I had attempted to go line on a hit, and in order to get just a little more spin, hit the ball on the outside of my finger, which caused the explosion between the top and second knuckle. These are visually the worst: the top of the finger instantly turns purple and shoots pain down the hand. Kind of looks like you've really done damage to the finger... but a couple plays later you are fine.
It's something you get used to playing volleyball. And if that is the most I get hurt, then I'm all for breaking a couple blood vessels every now and again.
- Tom.
Cutting the cord on cable TV: Personal experience
12 years ago
Tom,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your writing this. I am experiencing broken blood vessels myself! I've returned to the game after 15 years and am loving it! But it seems like I too am experiencing the bruising bigtime! Last night I got two spots, mostly on the hands near the knuckles. A couple days ago, I got a whopper on my forefinger knuckle. It swells up like a bee sting and then if I gently massage the area, the swelling spreads out. I am wondering if my body is just getting used to playing again, or if I am low in potassium, or if that is just par for the course when going for those stray balls or digging out a hit. It seems to happen to me most when I am igniting the "one hit wonder", that is stretching out the arm and recovering a lost cause. :) When I asked my friends if they experienced the same, it sure wasn't as frequently as I am experiencing it. So I thought I'd do a little research. And find out if there are others out there like me.
I'm relieved to find that this is a common ocurrance in Volleyball. I have been playing basketball and football all my life and this had never happened before, so now that i decided to start with Volleyball this i get broken vessels the first couple of times i hit the ball to smash. i noticed it in one and decided to continue nevertheless and with the next smash came the next broken vessel. i asked if this had happened to the others before and all said no so i started to get a little nervous about it. Maybe my vessels are too sensitive and weak, maybe warming up the fingers before training could help. thing is this happened yesterday night but tonight im going in again now that im reading this. i will use some tape over them, that might help with the pain that im sure i will feel everytime i hit the ball. Serves were particularly painful after it happened, probably my technique is all wrong anyway. thanx for sharing!
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