Still bruised after a year?

I was kidding around with my friend last year in gym class, and something that I said offended him, so he punched me right in the shoulder (right at the top of my armpit pretty much). It was a black bruise, and it slowly went to brown, and to this day it's still there.

It looks like a birth mark, but I never had it before that incident. Is it possible that a birth mark just "appeared" (I always assumed it was called a birth mark because it came at birth), or is it still bruised? Is that even possible?

 

Are you diabetic by chance?

May also be low Iron.

 

No I am not diabetic.

 

You might be anemic, never heard of that happening though..

 

I know this is unlikely, but is there any chance you acquired another bruise in the same sort've spot?

 

It could be a cause of several things, some severe and some that you shouldn't have to worry about. Have you been tested for diabetes? You may have it without showing extreme signs, or you may have developed it recently. The fact that the bruise won't go away is usually because the blood vessels that were broken from you getting punched won't heal fast enough or sufficiently enough and every day wear and tear keeps them open and bleeding, or because your blood is abnormally thin and therefore able to leak through the partially healed vessels, OR because you have a low platelet count and the vessels won't congeal. All of which could point to diabetes.

It could be a blood cancer such as Hodgken's disease but that's an extreme.

Alternatively, it could just be an unexplained discoloration to the skin, and the actual bruise healed long ago. I read online of a person who's bruises from the sport he/she played eventually started to refuse to fade completely. After he/she went through a battery of tests, the doctors concluded nothing out of the ordinary about her condition besides the discoloration. No disease or disorder.

Then there's acanthosis nigricans. It's an onset of dark discoloration in the armpit, groin, and/or neck. It's something you see more often than not in African Americans, but it's also a condition caused by diabetes.

If you're truly worried, go see a physician.


EDIT: Another possibility is that since the injury was near your armpit, the bruise could be consistently irritated from use when you move your arm.. there's a lot of muscular movement and skin-on-skin friction in that area that could keep the bruise irritated

EDITEDIT: for a mark to be considered a birth mark, it would have to have been present at birth I'm pretty sure:>

 

Yeah, you might want to see a doctor for that.
If it's still there after a year, I'm really surprised you haven't already.
You'll probably be alright though, because it hasn't really 'harmed' you in a year.

 

Probably turned into a scar of some sort somehow, or perhaps your friend actually managed to slightly fracture the bone? Lol, who knows, best bet is seeing a doctor.