Thigh Injury

What kind of damage to soft tissue? Where in your thigh? Which tissue groups? Pretty much everything apart from bones are soft tissue, you are talking very generic there.

The damage as far as I know is between the muscle and fatty tissure on the upper outer right thigh. I have had many scans and am now going for a MRI to get more detail. It was explained that there is a track in the soft tissue. Does this help?

sogood said:

What kind of damage to soft tissue? Where in your thigh? Which tissue groups? Pretty much everything apart from bones are soft tissue, you are talking very generic there.

Judith Gamble said:

The damage as far as I know is between the muscle and fatty tissure on the upper outer right thigh. I have had many scans and am now going for a MRI to get more detail. It was explained that there is a track in the soft tissue. Does this help?

Not really.

If you had a significant traumatic injury, then obviously there's been some damage to the subcutaneous fat layer and muscles underneath. But fatty tissue regenerates very quickly and hardly causes any problems (just look at those sculpted people who had liposuction). As for muscle, fascia, ligaments and tendons, these also tend to recover, but can have permanent scars and functional limitations in the long run depending the exact nature of the injury sustained. And 18 months is more than long enough for repair and regrowth of these tissue. In any case, I don't quite understand the purpose of having so many scans (assuming they are CTs) while all this talk you mentioned nothing of the symptoms and functional limitations you've experienced. There are many people out there who have bad deformities and look terrible on XR, CT, but can function well without problems. So I'd suggest that focus on your perceived problems in the form of symptoms and restrictions and treat those rather than some grey scale image generated by high tech medical equipments that may or may not be relevant to your symptoms.

I will need to work on the muscle strength as I do favour it all the time because of the pain. I do still have a lump and swelling but doctors say there is nothing they can do with the look of it. Do you know if massage can improve this?

sogood said:

Not really.

If you had a significant traumatic injury, then obviously there's been some damage to the subcutaneous fat layer and muscles underneath. But fatty tissue regenerates very quickly and hardly causes any problems (just look at those sculpted people who had liposuction). As for muscle, fascia, ligaments and tendons, these also tend to recover, but can have permanent scars and functional limitations in the long run depending the exact nature of the injury sustained. And 18 months is more than long enough for repair and regrowth of these tissue. In any case, I don't quite understand the purpose of having so many scans (assuming they are CTs) while all this talk you mentioned nothing of the symptoms and functional limitations you've experienced. There are many people out there who have bad deformities and look terrible on XR, CT, but can function well without problems. So I'd suggest that focus on your perceived problems in the form of symptoms and restrictions and treat those rather than some grey scale image generated by high tech medical equipments that may or may not be relevant to your symptoms.

Judith Gamble said:

I will need to work on the muscle strength as I do favour it all the time because of the pain. I do still have a lump and swelling but doctors say there is nothing they can do with the look of it. Do you know if massage can improve this?

General or targeted exercises certainly will strengthen those muscles, ligaments and tendons that have regressed during the down times following your injury. It's often the key part of the rehabilitation. As for the treatment of the lump and swelling, well, that depends on what those lumps and swellings are. Are there cysts, granulomas, bone deformities or others? Obviously the treatment may be different whether it's massage, exercises, topical ointment or other invasive surgical approaches. And then there'll be a time when one just have to live with the consequences of injuries and trust time heals. But the first rule of thumb of any treatment you care to try is... Do no harm. So go ahead and try some massages of a gentle kind and see if it can reduce your symptoms. If yes and there's no harm done, then keep going and move up an intensity level. If no effect, then spend your money elsewhere.