Testosterone boy said:
They did a leg ultrasound to rule out blood clots for the leg symptoms(mostly a football sized bruise in a highly unusual location I think).
The tech was brand new by the way, a more experienced tech looked on.
They ruled out a blood clot (which can be lethal I hear).
I found a 1 1/2" section of artery that is very, very firm at the top of this enormous "bruised" region.
What do you think?
Location? 4" below the knee joint on the inside of the left leg. The leg with the cracked pelvis and hip.
Before anyone jumps to conclusions....I seen the doc yesterday which led to the ultrasound...yesterday.
What they did was a Deep vein thrombosis study to rule blood clots in the great veins of the legs. Those blood clots or DVTs can break off and hit the lungs and cause pulmonary embolism, its a life threatening condition and it can be very lethal. People get DVT from injury, immobility like sitting to long on a plane, genetically, or lying in a hospital bed after surgery. Its only a positive test 10% of the time. The test is done if there is any swelling or discoloration of the leg. Its such a serious condition that it is done routinely.
Its a good thing you dont have it but it wasnt likely that you did and it is one of the easiest things to do so no worries on a newbie doing it with someone watching.
As far as the artery being atop of a bruised section, you have to be mistaking it for something else. Arteries are deep so you wont feel them and they arent hard, they have some musclelike structure to them and are elastic unlike veins but not hard. I dont know what you are feeling, it could just be the way the blood irregulary in the bruise, I really cant tell given what you have said.
Now, there is superficial phlebitis, you could have a blood clot in one of the smaller superficial veins. THere is no concern per se with those, they are just painful to some and are hard to the touch. It could just be because of the trauma. Also varicosity of the veins can result from injury, actually for those susceptible, you can get it from having a job standing too long.. Just simply varicose veins where the one way valves of the veins become incompetent and lead to blood travelling back down and the veins puff out. Unlike the arterial system there is no blood pressure per se. So blood in the legs is pushed up through one way valves in the legs, then the valves close behind it, or blood is pushed up against gravity by the calf pump, basically walking and the calfs working act as a muscular pump to return blood to the heart. Ok, well I can go on forever here.
Just, one. Congrats on not having a DVT, statistically you were unlikely to have one.
Two. Arteries are not on the top of the skin, they are deep and couldnt be what you are describing
Three. It could be a varicose vein caused by all of this trauma or it could be superficial phlebitis that is where a smaller vein forms a blood clot, it is annoying but not dangerous at all.
Four. Im sure your physician was aware of this and chalked it up to some idiopathic tissue swelling that was uninportant. Basically, its not worth the time to run tests but he's not sure what it is to tell you, but knows that its no big deal.
Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
get better soon sweety
