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Senile purpura bruises and treatment options
Skin Health | Last Active: Oct 17 7:31pm | Replies (107)Comment receiving replies
To everyone: thank you for all the helpful suggestions. Arnica stands out, will try that. And will look for dermablend. Usually I’m not too worried about the discolorations, but with my 70th coming up I don’t want to look like 80 during the celebrations!
Regarding JK’s comment that it might be actinic purpura, I will check this out. It does look very much like what I have, it is limited to my forearms, but it only seems to happen when there is a trigger (like when I brush against branches while pruning a shrub, like being lazy and sticking my arm into a tight, half-open container and scraping the skin (without breaking it), those kind of situations. So perhaps it’s a combination of senile bruising with a cause?
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Instead of the golden years for some of us it’s the purple years.
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@ellerbracke I neglected to include that it does generally have a slight cause, as in a minor bump or something that you would never think would cause a bruise. Also, it fades differently than a typical bruise and sometimes leaves a light brown spot where it had been, and is pretty much confined to forearms and hands. Those are the only places where I have gotten them, so definitely true to the information I have found.
More info here:
https://www.healthline.com/health/senile-purpura
The prescription that I have from my dermatologist, tretinoin cream, is very expensive and Medicare does not pay for it because it is cosmetic. I think the regular retail is around $250 for a tube but if you have the app "GoodRx" and look it up it will give you places that have it the cheapest and often provide a coupon. I was able to get it through GoodRx for about $60 at CVS. I have not tried Dermend but I am thinking about it. I do not think that is a prescription. I have been using tretinoin for about 2 and a half months now and didn't think I had seen a difference but right now my forearms do not look too bad. I am not sure if that's simply because I have not been as active as usual, or if it really is working. I too have an incentive, my son's wedding in August. I figure that in the process of traveling to Denver from NH I will be bumping things a lot and if this cream is not working I will be covered with these unsightly blemishes. They seem to crop up overnight.
JK