Help! Severe bruise?!

Help! Severe bruise?

I have been going swimming a lot lately and have been doing a lot of flips and stuff of the diving boards with friends. Well yesterday I landed funny while doing a flip resulting in a little pain from landing wrong. When I went to bed that night I noticed my stomach in a small area was a little sore so I turned on the light to look at it. When I looked at it I noticed a HUGE deep purple bruise toward my groin area (below the stomach where it goes into a V before going to the privates) on the right side. Its slightly swollen but only hurts a very little bit. I wasn't too concerned about it but I showed my mom and she freaked out. I am calling the doctor tomorrow but I was just wondering if it is something serious that I should be concerned about or if it is probably nothing and what I should do to help it. Thanks.

Your bruise is probably just from the way you hit the water. If its a deep purple and rather large with a little bit of swelling it could possibly be a haematoma. If you have pain during active or resisted hip movements you may have injured or pulled the tendon or muscles in your groin region. If you have moderate to severe pain at rest you may have injured abdominal organs etc and it would be advisable that you seek medical advice immediately.

If you have little pain then I would suggest you begin to ice the area to help draw out the bruise. Ice for 15 minutes every 2 hours for the first 72 hours. After 72 hours you could start to massage the edges of the bruise and heat it gently. If you have substantial pain or your Mum is worried visit your local doctor to check everything is in order, better to be safe than sorry!