Why Do Bruises Change Colour as They Heal
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Most people have had a bruise and watched it change colour with a kind of puzzled interest. You bump your leg on a table, or you knock your arm on a door, and at first there is nothing to see except a sore spot. Then a red or dark patch appears. A day later it is blue or purple. A few days later it is green, then yellow, then a golden brown, and then, almost without you noticing, it is gone. The colours look strange, almost like a painting changing day by day, and it is natural to wonder what is happening under the skin. The answer is simple, and it is a good example of how the body repairs itself. A bruise is blood that has leaked out of a tiny blood vessel and become trapped under the skin. Your body then breaks that blood down, step by step, and each step produces a different colour. This article follows that process in plain words, from the moment of the bump to the moment the skin looks normal again, and explains why bruises differ in size, colour and healing time.
What a Bruise Really Is
A bruise, which doctors call a contusion, is a small injury under the skin. Under your skin there is a network of tiny blood vessels called capillaries, which carry blood to the skin and the tissue beneath it. When you bump into something hard, the force can break one or more of those tiny vessels, even though the skin itself does not break. Blood leaks out of the broken vessel and collects in the tissue under the skin. Because the skin is not broken, the blood has nowhere to go. It stays trapped in one place, and that trapped pool of blood is what you see as a bruise.
At first, the blood is fresh, so the bruise looks red or dark, depending on how deep the blood is and how much of it has leaked. The blood is red because it contains haemoglobin, the substance in red blood cells that carries oxygen around the body. Haemoglobin is bright red when it is full of oxygen, and darker red when it has given up its oxygen. That is why a fresh bruise can look red, dark red, or almost black, and why the colour changes as the blood ages. The soreness you feel is not only from the leaked blood. The bump also damages the soft tissue around it, and the body sends extra fluid to the area to start the repair. That fluid causes a small amount of swelling, and the pressure of the trapped blood and fluid on the nerves under the skin is what makes the bruise tender to touch.
It is worth noting that a bruise is different from a cut. In a cut, the skin breaks, the blood can escape, and the wound is visible from the outside. In a bruise, the skin stays whole, so the blood is sealed inside. That is why a bruise can look worse than a cut, even though the injury is smaller. The blood is trapped, so it takes longer to clear, and the colour changes are visible through the skin for days. It is also why a bruise can appear some time after the bump. The blood may leak slowly, or it may be deep under the skin, so it takes hours for the colour to show on the surface. A bruise on the leg may appear the next morning, even though the bump happened the evening before, and a deep bruise may take a day or two to reach its darkest colour.
The First Stage: Red, Blue and Purple
In the first day or two, a bruise is usually red, blue or purple, and the reason is the fresh blood and the oxygen in it. When blood first leaks out, it is still rich in oxygen, so it looks red. As the blood sits under the skin, away from the flow of fresh oxygen, the haemoglobin loses its oxygen and changes. Blood without oxygen is darker, and through the skin it looks blue or purple. That is the colour most people associate with a bruise, and it is the stage when the bruise is usually at its darkest and most tender. The area may also be slightly raised and swollen, because the body has sent fluid to the injury to begin the repair, and because the trapped blood takes up space under the skin.
The size and darkness of the bruise at this stage depend on how much blood has leaked and how deep it is. A light bump may break only a few tiny vessels, so only a small amount of blood leaks, and the bruise is small and pale. A hard bump may break larger vessels, or more of them, so more blood leaks, and the bruise is larger and darker. A bruise on thin skin, such as the skin around the eyes or on the inside of the arm, will look darker, because there is less tissue between the blood and the surface. A bruise on thicker skin, or deeper in the tissue, may look paler at first, and it may take longer to show. The colour also depends on the skin itself. On darker skin, a bruise may be harder to see at first, and the blue and purple stages may be less obvious, though the tenderness and swelling are the same.
During these first days, the bruise is often sore. Pressing it hurts, and moving the part of the body that is bruised can be uncomfortable. That soreness is a sign that the tissue is damaged and inflamed, which is the body’s normal response to injury. Inflammation is the word for the process in which the body sends extra blood and fluid to an injured area, to bring in the cells that will clean up and repair the damage. It is the same process that makes a sprained ankle swell, and it is a sign that healing has begun, even though it feels uncomfortable. The soreness usually eases after a day or two, as the swelling goes down and the body starts to clear the blood away.
The Green Stage: Blood Breaking Down
After a few days, usually around day three to five, the bruise often turns green, and this is where the colour story becomes most interesting. The green colour comes from a substance called biliverdin. When the body starts to break down the haemoglobin in the trapped blood, it first turns the haemoglobin into biliverdin, which is green. This happens because the body needs to clear the blood away, and it does so by breaking the large haemoglobin molecule into smaller pieces that can be carried away and reused or removed. Biliverdin is the first of those pieces, and its green colour shows through the skin.
This stage is a good sign. It means the body is actively cleaning up. The immune system has sent in cells called macrophages, which are the body’s clean-up cells. They surround the trapped blood, take in the old red blood cells, and break them down inside themselves. As they do this, the haemoglobin is changed into biliverdin, and the biliverdin is then changed again, into the next substance in the chain. The green colour is often patchy, because the blood is not cleared evenly. One part of the bruise may be green while another part is still purple, and the edges may turn green first, while the centre stays dark for longer. That patchiness is normal. It simply shows that the clean-up is happening at different speeds in different parts of the bruise.
The green stage usually lasts for a day or two, and the soreness is much less by now. The swelling has mostly gone, and the bruise feels less tender. Some people find the green colour alarming, because green is not a colour they expect to see on their skin, but it is a normal and healthy part of healing. It means the body is doing its job. If the bruise was large, the green stage may be more obvious and last a little longer, because there is more blood to break down. If the bruise was small, the green stage may be brief, or it may be barely visible, passing quickly into the next colour. Either way, the appearance of green is a sign that the bruise is moving forward, not that it is getting worse.
The Yellow and Brown Stage: Nearly Healed
After the green stage, the bruise usually turns yellow, and then a golden brown, and this is the final stage before it disappears. The yellow colour comes from a substance called bilirubin. Biliverdin, the green substance, is changed into bilirubin, which is yellow. Bilirubin is the same substance that makes the skin look yellow in jaundice, but in a bruise it is only present in a tiny amount, in one small place, so it simply gives the bruise a yellow tint. The golden brown colour that follows comes from a substance called haemosiderin, which is a form of stored iron left over from the broken-down haemoglobin. Haemosiderin is golden brown, and it is the last visible trace of the blood before it is fully cleared.
The yellow stage usually appears around day five to seven, and it can last for several days. By this time, the bruise is rarely sore. You may be able to press it without pain, and the swelling is gone. The yellow patch may look like a faint stain on the skin, and it may spread out a little as the bilirubin and haemosiderin are carried away. Some people notice that the yellow colour seems to move downwards, especially in a bruise on the leg or arm. That is because gravity pulls the fluid carrying the broken-down blood products down through the tissue, so the colour can appear a little lower than where the original bump was. This is normal, and it does not mean the bruise is spreading or getting worse. It is simply the last of the blood being carried away.
Eventually, the yellow and brown fade, and the skin returns to its normal colour. The iron from the haemoglobin is either reused by the body to make new red blood cells, or it is stored safely, and the other parts are carried away by the blood and removed. The skin itself is not stained permanently. The colour was never in the skin. It was in the blood trapped beneath it, and once that blood is gone, the skin looks as it did before. A small bruise may heal completely in a week. A larger bruise, or a deep one, may take two weeks or more. The last faint yellow shadow can linger for a few extra days, especially in older people, whose clean-up process is slower, but it will fade. If the colour does not fade after several weeks, or if the area stays painful, it is worth having a health professional look at it, because that is not the normal pattern.
Why Bruises Differ From Person to Person
Not all bruises look the same, and not all heal at the same speed, and there are good reasons for that. Age is one of the biggest factors. Older people bruise more easily and heal more slowly, because their skin is thinner, the blood vessels are more fragile, and the tissue under the skin is less able to hold the vessels in place. A small bump that would leave no mark on a young person can leave a large bruise on an older person, and that bruise may take longer to go through its colour changes. Children, on the other hand, often bruise easily because they are active and fall often, but their bruises usually heal quickly, because their bodies repair tissue fast and their blood vessels are strong.
Skin thickness and the place of the injury also matter. A bruise on the shin, where there is little fat between the skin and the bone, often looks darker and hurts more than a bruise on the thigh, where there is more soft tissue to cushion the blow. A bruise near a bone, such as the elbow or the knee, can be more painful because the tissue is pressed between the hard surface and the bone. A bruise on the face, where the skin is thin and there are many small blood vessels, can look dramatic, with a large dark patch, even from a light bump. That is why a black eye looks so alarming, though the injury itself may be minor. The appearance of a bruise is not a reliable guide to how serious the injury is. A small, pale bruise can be over a deeper injury, and a large, dark bruise can be over a minor one.
Some people bruise more easily than others for reasons that are part of their normal body. People with fair skin show bruises more clearly, because the colours contrast more with the skin. People who take certain medicines, such as blood thinners, may bruise more easily, because their blood clots more slowly, so more blood leaks from a broken vessel before it seals. People with low levels of certain vitamins, or with conditions that affect the blood vessels or the blood itself, may also bruise more easily. That is not something to diagnose from a bruise alone, but if a person notices that they are bruising very easily, with large bruises from light bumps, or bruises that appear without any bump at all, that is worth discussing with a health professional. For most people, though, easy bruising is simply a part of how their body is built, and it is not a sign of illness.
What a Bruise Can Tell You, and What It Cannot
A bruise can tell you that a small blood vessel broke under the skin, and its colour can give you a rough idea of how old it is. A red or purple bruise is usually fresh, a day or two old. A green bruise is a few days old. A yellow or brown bruise is a week or so old, and nearly healed. That is useful in everyday life, for example when you are trying to remember when you bumped yourself, or when you are watching a bruise to see whether it is healing as it should. The colour changes are a timeline, written on the skin, and they are fairly reliable for a normal bruise that is healing well.
But a bruise cannot tell you everything, and it is important not to read too much into it. The size of a bruise does not tell you how serious the injury underneath is. A large bruise can come from a minor bump, and a serious injury can leave only a small bruise, or no bruise at all at first. The pain of a bruise is also not a perfect guide. Some bruises hurt a lot, others barely hurt, and the difference often comes from where the bruise is and how much tissue was damaged, not from how bad the injury is. A bruise on a muscle that you use often, such as the thigh, may hurt more when you walk than a bruise on a place you rarely move.
There are also signs that a bruise is not a simple bruise, and it is worth knowing them. If a bruise is very large, very painful, and the limb is hard to move, or if the swelling is severe, the injury underneath may be more than a simple bruise. If a bruise appears without any bump or injury, especially if it happens often, or if bruises appear in unusual places, that is worth noting. If a bruise does not change colour or fade after two or three weeks, or if it keeps growing, or if the pain gets worse instead of better, that is not the normal pattern. This is general information, not personal advice, and it is meant to help you tell a normal healing bruise from one that needs a health professional to look at it. Most bruises are simple, they follow the colour timeline, and they heal on their own. The ones that do not follow that timeline are the ones to pay attention to.
Helping a Bruise Heal and Looking After It
There is no way to make a bruise disappear overnight, because the colour changes are the body breaking down the blood step by step, and that process takes time. But there are simple things that can help in the first hours and days, and they all work by limiting how much blood leaks and by helping the body clear it away. The most useful step is to rest the injured part and, if possible, to raise it above the level of the heart for a short time. Raising the limb reduces the blood flow to the area, so less blood leaks from the broken vessel, and it helps the fluid drain away, which reduces swelling. A cold compress in the first day can also help, because cold narrows the blood vessels and slows the leaking. Hold a clean cloth cooled with cold water, or wrapped around ice, against the bruise for ten to fifteen minutes at a time, with a break in between, and do not put ice directly on the skin.
After the first day, gentle movement is usually better than keeping the limb completely still, because movement helps the blood flow and carries the broken-down blood products away. That does not mean using the injured part hard. It means moving it gently, as comfort allows, and avoiding heavy use until the soreness eases. It also helps to avoid pressing or massaging the bruise hard, because that can break more tiny vessels and make the bruise larger. Light, gentle care is better than firm rubbing. Keeping the skin clean and protecting the bruise from another bump is also sensible, because a second bump on the same spot can restart the bleeding and make the bruise last longer.
There is no need for special creams or treatments for a normal bruise. The body knows how to break down the blood and clear it away, and it does so reliably. Eating a normal, varied diet with enough fruit and vegetables supports the body’s repair processes, because the body needs vitamins and protein to rebuild tissue, but there is no single food that makes a bruise heal faster. Time, rest, cold in the first day, gentle movement after that, and protection from further bumps are the honest answer. The colours will change, the soreness will fade, and the skin will return to normal. That is the body’s own timetable, and it works well when it is left to do its job.
It is also worth thinking about how a bruise looks from the outside at different times of day, because light and temperature can change how obvious it is. In bright daylight, the colours are easy to see, and the edges of the bruise are clear. In dim light, the same bruise may look like a faint shadow. In cold weather, when the blood vessels in the skin narrow, the bruise may look a little darker, because less blood is flowing through the skin around it. In warm weather, when the vessels widen, the bruise may look a little lighter, because the skin around it is flushed. None of this changes the bruise itself. It only changes how we see it. The same is true of movement. When you first wake up, a bruise on the leg may look darker, because fluid has settled in the leg overnight, and the blood has pooled a little. After you have been walking for a while, the fluid moves, and the bruise may look slightly different. These small changes are normal, and they do not mean the bruise is getting worse or better from hour to hour. The real measure is the change over days, not the change over hours. Day by day, the red fades, the blue softens, the green appears, the yellow takes over, and then the skin is clear. That slow, steady change is the true timeline, and it is the one to watch. If you look at a bruise several times a day, you will see small differences that mean nothing. If you look at it once a day, in the same light, you will see the real pattern, and you will be able to tell, with confidence, whether it is healing as it should. That patience, looking once a day rather than worrying all day, is a small habit that makes living with a bruise much easier.
My Take:
If you ask me why bruises change colour, my answer is that the colours are the body’s clean-up work, made visible. A bruise is not a stain. It is a small pool of blood trapped under the skin, and your body has to take it apart piece by piece, and each piece has its own colour. Red, then blue, then purple, then green, then yellow, then brown, then gone. I find that strangely beautiful. It is a quiet, orderly process, happening under the skin without you having to do anything, and the colours are like a progress report. You can look at a bruise and read how far along the healing is, just by its colour, and I think that is a wonderful thing to understand about your own body.
I also think bruises teach us something about how patient the body is. We want injuries to heal at once. We want the mark gone by tomorrow. But the body works at its own pace, breaking down the haemoglobin into biliverdin, then into bilirubin, then into haemosiderin, and carrying each piece away. You cannot rush that. You can help it a little, with rest, with cold in the first hours, with gentle movement, but you cannot make it happen in a day. I think that is a useful lesson, not only for bruises but for healing in general. The body is not a machine that you can switch off and on. It is a living system that repairs itself step by step, and the colours of a bruise are the visible evidence of those steps.
What surprises me most is how much the colour tells you, and how little it tells you at the same time. The colour tells you how old the bruise is, and whether it is healing as it should. A green bruise is a few days old. A yellow bruise is nearly healed. That is useful, honest information, and you can see it with your own eyes. But the colour does not tell you how serious the injury was. A huge, dark bruise can come from a small bump, and a serious injury can leave only a faint mark. I think people often judge a bruise by its size and colour, and worry too much about a dramatic-looking bruise, or worry too little about a small one that is actually painful. The bruise is a sign, not a diagnosis. It tells you that a vessel broke, and that the body is cleaning up. It does not tell you everything that happened underneath.
I think about children when I think about bruises, because children collect them constantly. They fall off bicycles, they bump into tables, they knock their shins on steps, and they come home with a new bruise almost every day. A parent sees a purple knee and worries, but the child has already forgotten about it and is running again. That is how it should be. Children’s bodies heal fast, and their bruises are a normal part of growing up and learning to move through the world. I think the kindest thing a parent can do is to look at the bruise, check that the child can move the limb, that the pain is easing, and that the colour is changing over the days, and then let the child get on with playing. Worry is natural, but a bruise that follows the colour timeline, that turns from purple to green to yellow, is a bruise that is healing, and that is a reassuring thing to see.
I also want to be honest about the people who bruise easily, because they often worry about it quietly. Older people, people with thin skin, people who take blood-thinning medicines, they can get large bruises from small bumps, and they can feel embarrassed by them, or worried that something is wrong. I think it helps to know that easy bruising is often simply a part of how the body is built, and that it does not always mean illness. Thin skin, fragile vessels, slower clotting, these are real reasons, and they are common. But I also think it is right to pay attention if the pattern changes. If bruises start appearing without any bump, or if they are very large, very often, or do not fade, that is worth discussing with a health professional. Not because it is certain that something is wrong, but because a change in pattern is the kind of thing that deserves a proper look. That balance, between not worrying over every bruise and paying attention when the pattern changes, is the sensible middle ground.
There is another thing I notice about bruises, and it is that they are often more painful than they look, or less painful than they look, and that mismatch can be confusing. A bruise on the shin, where there is little flesh over the bone, can hurt for days, even though the bruise itself is small. A bruise on the thigh, where there is more muscle, can look large and dramatic and yet hurt very little. I think that is because pain depends on where the bruise is, how much tissue was damaged, and how often you use that part of the body, not only on how much blood leaked. So judging a bruise by its appearance alone is not enough. You have to listen to the pain, to the movement, to whether it is getting better day by day. If the pain is easing, the swelling is going down, and the colour is changing, the bruise is healing. If the pain is growing, or the limb is hard to move, that is a different story.
I will also say plainly that there is no magic cure for a bruise, and I am glad there is not. The body already knows what to do. It sends clean-up cells, it breaks down the blood, it carries the pieces away, and it rebuilds the tissue. Our job is simply not to get in the way. Rest it, raise it, cool it in the first day, move it gently after that, protect it from another bump, and then wait. That waiting is the hardest part, especially when the bruise is on your face or somewhere visible, and you wish it would vanish before an important day. But the colours will change, and they will fade, and the skin will look normal again. I think there is something reassuring in that. The body does not need our help to heal a bruise. It needs our patience, and our willingness to leave it alone.
So here is my final view, in plain words. A bruise changes colour because trapped blood under the skin is broken down step by step, and each step produces a different colour. Fresh blood is red, then it loses oxygen and turns blue or purple. Then it is broken down into biliverdin, which is green, then into bilirubin, which is yellow, then into haemosiderin, which is golden brown, and then it is gone. The whole process usually takes one to two weeks. Some people bruise more easily and heal more slowly, especially older people, and that is normal. A bruise that follows the colour timeline and fades is a bruise that is healing. A bruise that does not fade, that keeps growing, or that becomes more painful, deserves a proper look. That is the whole story, and it is a good one, because it shows the body repairing itself in plain sight, one colour at a time.
I also think about the bruises we get and never notice happening. You wake up in the morning, you look at your leg, and there is a purple mark, and you have no memory of bumping into anything. That is common, and it is not a mystery. We bump into things all day without noticing, the corner of a table, the edge of a chair, a door frame, and the bruise appears hours later, when the blood has had time to leak and show through the skin. I think that delay is part of why bruises feel strange. The cause and the effect are separated in time, so the mark seems to appear from nowhere. But there was a cause, even if it was small, and even if you were too busy to notice it at the time.
There is also the question of why some bruises hurt far more than they look as if they should. A bruise on the shin, where the skin is thin and the bone is close, can make walking painful for days, while a bruise twice its size on the thigh may barely ache. I think this is because pain depends on what lies underneath, and on how much you need to use that part of the body. A bruised muscle that you use with every step will hurt with every step. A bruised place you can rest will hurt less, simply because you are not pressing on it. So the pain is not a measure of the bruise. It is a measure of the place, and of how much that place is asked to work while it heals. That is why resting the injured part, even for a day, can make such a difference.
I want to say something about the way we treat bruises in the first hours, because the first hours matter most. When a vessel breaks, the blood leaks for a short time, and then it clots and the leaking stops. Anything that slows that leaking, such as resting the part, raising it, and cooling it, means less blood trapped under the skin, and a smaller bruise. Anything that keeps the blood flowing fast to the area, such as using the limb hard, or pressing the bruise, means more blood leaking, and a larger bruise. I think many people do the opposite of what helps, not out of carelessness, but out of habit. They rub the bump hard, they keep walking on a bruised leg, they carry on as if nothing happened, and then they are surprised when the bruise is large the next day. A little rest in the first hours is not weakness. It is the simplest way to keep the bruise small.
I also notice how quickly we forget a bruise once it starts to fade. The purple stage is dramatic, and we look at it, and we show it to others, and we remember the bump that caused it. The yellow stage is quiet, and we stop looking, and one day the skin is normal again, and we cannot remember when it went. I think that is a good image of healing in general. The loud, painful part gets all the attention, and the quiet, final part happens without us noticing. But the quiet part is just as important. The body is still working, still carrying away the last of the blood, still rebuilding the tissue, even when we have stopped watching. Healing does not end when the pain ends. It ends when the colour is gone and the tissue is whole again.
One more thought, about the bruises that do not follow the usual pattern. Most bruises follow the colour timeline, and they fade, and that is reassuring. But a bruise that stays dark and painful for weeks, or a bruise that appears without any injury, is a different matter, and it deserves attention, not panic. I think the right response is calm and practical: note when it appeared, note whether it is changing, note whether the pain is easing or growing, and if the pattern is not the normal one, ask a health professional to look at it. That is not overreacting. It is simply paying attention to what your body is telling you. The body is good at signalling when something is not right, and a bruise that does not heal is one of those signals. Listening to it early is better than ignoring it and wondering later.
Finally, I think a bruise is a good reminder that the body is always working for us, even when we cannot see it. Under the skin, cells are cleaning up, breaking down old blood, carrying it away, and rebuilding tissue, all without any instruction from us. We do not have to think about it, and we do not have to manage it. We only have to give it time, and a little care in the first hours, and it does the rest. That is a reassuring thought, and it is one I come back to whenever I see a bruise changing colour. The colours are not a problem. They are the proof that healing is happening, one step at a time, exactly as it should.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “Why Do Bruises Change Colour as They Heal” really mean?
It means asking why a bruise does not stay one colour, but moves through red, blue, purple, green, yellow and brown as it heals. The answer is that a bruise is blood trapped under the skin, and your body breaks that blood down step by step. Each step produces a different substance with its own colour. Fresh blood is red, blood without oxygen looks blue or purple, the first breakdown product is green, the next is yellow, and the last is golden brown. So the changing colours are the visible signs of the blood being cleared away.
Why do so many people search for “Why Do Bruises Change Colour as They Heal”?
People search for it because the colour changes look strange, and many people want to know whether they are normal or a sign of something wrong. A green or yellow bruise can look alarming if you do not know what it means. Parents also search for it, because children get bruises often, and they want to know how long a bruise should last and what the colours mean. It is also a question people ask when a bruise looks different from the last one they had, and they want to know why.
How long does the feeling behind “Why Do Bruises Change Colour as They Heal” usually last?
A small bruise usually heals in about a week, and a larger or deeper bruise can take two weeks or more. The red, blue and purple stage lasts for the first few days, the green stage appears around day three to five, and the yellow and brown stage appears around day five to seven and can last for several days. The soreness usually eases after the first day or two, and by the yellow stage the bruise is rarely painful. The last faint yellow shadow can linger for a few extra days, especially in older people, but it does fade.
What makes “Why Do Bruises Change Colour as They Heal” feel stronger on some days?
The colour changes feel more obvious when the bruise is large, because there is more blood to break down, so each colour stage lasts longer and is easier to see. A bruise on thin skin, such as the shin or the face, also shows the colours more clearly than a bruise on thicker skin. Age matters too. Older people heal more slowly, so the colours may last longer. If a bruise is bumped again, or pressed hard, more blood can leak, which can make the bruise darker and the healing take longer. The colour itself is not a sign of pain, though, and a brightly coloured bruise is not always a painful one.
Can daily habits change anything about “Why Do Bruises Change Colour as They Heal”?
Daily habits can help a bruise heal well, but they cannot change the colour sequence, because that sequence is the body breaking down the blood step by step. Resting the injured part, raising it, and using a cold compress in the first day can limit how much blood leaks, which can make the bruise smaller. Gentle movement after the first day helps carry the broken-down blood away. Protecting the bruise from another bump stops it from getting worse. A normal, varied diet supports the body’s repair, but no single food or cream makes the colours change faster.
When should I pay closer attention to “Why Do Bruises Change Colour as They Heal”?
Pay closer attention if a bruise does not change colour or fade after two or three weeks, if it keeps growing, if the pain gets worse instead of better, or if the limb is hard to move. Also pay attention if bruises appear often without any bump or injury, or if they appear in unusual places, or if you are bruising much more easily than you used to. These can be signs that the injury is more than a simple bruise, or that something else needs a proper look. This is general information only, not personal advice, and it is meant to help you tell a normal healing bruise from one that a health professional should check.
