Question:

In early jan. and again last week (3/5) my middle finger on my right hand started turning black and blue mostly on the inside of my finger near my ring finger. On the first day I felt a pinching in the middle section of the finger, it swelled up and then the rest of the finger started to discolor. It gets numb when i am outside in the cold and sometimes takes an hour to “thaw out”. My dr. said it was strange and took blood tests the first time it happened. Apparently they came back fine. I haven’t called him back this time because I’m not sure he was much help. It is still black & blue now (3/10), not as much and only the tip of my finger was numb after being outside. It is not swollen anymore. Any suggestions about what kind of dr. to see or what might be causing this?

Answer:

Swelling with black and blue discoloration indicates that bleeding has probably occurred. Numbness could be caused by pressure on a nerve from the swelling. You should think very hard about activities you did which could have caused an injury to the finger. (For example, bowling or working with some sort of tool.) Bleeding into a finger without an injury of some kind would be unusual. It sounds as if your doctor made an honest effort to look into this problem for you. You might want to call him, let him know that the problem has recurred, and confirm that your blood tests were all normal. If this happens again, I would suggest that you see your doctor while the swelling and discoloration are present and ask him if he thinks that referral to a specialist is indicated.

For more information:

Go to the Hemophilia and Inherited Bleeding Disorders health topic.