ER or Urgent Care?

[Beth76]

My 5yo son fell at the playground last night and hurt his foot. DH said he cried for a few minutes and then kept playing for awhile. They walked, but when it was time to leave he said he couldn't walk on it, so I had to go pick them up in the car. Last night we iced it, but it didn't look swollen. DS said it still hurt and couldn't walk on it. So we decided to see if he would wake up and forget about it. Well this morning he's hopping around on one foot and says it hurts and he can't walk on it. It's not swollen or bruised or anything. But, if he says it hurts I have to do something. So here's my question, would this be a better thing for Urgent Care or the ER?

 

[mom23boys]

I would say ER. I do not know much about Urgent Cares thought.

But an ER could cast it if it is broken and xray.

I hope he feels better soon.

 

[taylor1293]

As long as the urgent care does xrays, I'd take him there. Much quicker and much cheaper .

I hope nothing is broken and he feels better soon.

Teresa

 

[HERSEY]

You can go to the urgent care if they are open call first if not go to the ER for a xray. Better safe than sorry.

 

[MorganLeFey]

any place that has an orthopedist and x ray equipment.

 

[Mercy]

Well, I would probably go with the one that your insurance will cover. I had a minor problem the beginning of the year. Urgent care wanted like $100-150 to walk in the door, plus other expenses. I ended up going to the ER and it was covered in full except for the deductible.

Call your ped. dr. and see they he/she says.

 

[ntburns22]

Well, I would probably go with the one that your insurance will cover. I had a minor problem the beginning of the year. Urgent care wanted like $100-150 to walk in the door, plus other expenses. I ended up going to the ER and it was covered in full except for the deductible.

Call your ped. dr. and see they he/she says.

I have to say the same thing.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Personally, I prefer ER, though it may involove a longer wait on a holiday weekend. When my DS was 6, this happened to him and his foot became swollen until it hurt to put his shoe on. There was a hairline fracture and they did cast it, but only to "slow him down" as the doc said, so it could heal (it was optional, but recommended). Cast came off after 3 weeks. Good luck.

 

[Beth76]

Wow thanks for all the responses. I wasn't expecting that on a holiday! Yes the Urgent Care does do xrays. It's a lot closer too, so I guess we'll go there first. They can always tell us to go to the hospital.

 

[Christine]

Urgent Care. Let us know how he's doing when you get back!

 

[llp479]

A couple of summers ago my dd broke her arm. I knew immediately just by looking at her that it was broken. I chose to go to the Urgent Care center, which is staffed by ER docs, affiliated with our hospital and peds office because I knew she would get seen immediately, as opposed to going to the ER where we would have to wait. At the time, DH didn't agree with me.

Long story short, it was broken and would require surgery to set it. Before we left the Urgent Care we had a surgeon lined up and an OR and went from the Urgent Care center straight to the hospital and surgery. The nurse that met us at the ER entrance told me it was a good thing I didn't go there directly, that there had been a major car accident and had we gone there, we would have waited for hours before even getting xrays.

 

[coinkc]

When my daughter broke both her wrists last month, I tok her to Urgent Care. It was the same type of scenario where I didn't realize they were broken as she was using them/playing/etc. The next day though she said they still hurt so off we went.

At the Urgent Care, they were able to do the x-rays and splinted both arms. Then the next day we went to an orthopedic doctor to have them casted.

I don't know if we had gone to the ER if they would have casted them right away or still made us go to the doctor. I was happy with our service and insurance paid for the majority of the bill. Plus it wasn't near as scary for her as the Urgent Care was in a pediatric hospital.

 

[Keli]

You know, I just wanted to comment about how many kids can have broken bones and the parents not realize it. That exact thing happened to us when our dd was six.

DD had fallen but it was on grass and her wrist looked absolutely fine to me. DH thought it was maybe, sorta, kinda swollen in one little tiny spot. We were sure she was fine but she kept fussing about it, not really crying but she'd whine every few minutes that her arm still hurt for about an hour which was really unusual for dd.

We finally decided to take her to ER even though we were sure she was fine and guess what? It was fractured.

I would have never believed that a parent wouldn't know an injury was serious if it hadn't happened to us. Before that I was sure that broken bones were much more obvious.

 

[YourMajesty]

Good luck...I think urgent care is a good choice. We only have to pay a regular office visit co-pay at ours. Hopefully you can avoid the ER and the long wait and mess that usually goes with it.

 

[Beth76]

OP here, DH just called from Urgent Care. They're taking xrays right now because they do think it's broken. I really hope they're wrong.

It's interesting what the previous poster said. It really doesn't look like anything's wrong with it. No swelling or bruising. There's not even a little scrape.

 

[Christine]

OP here, DH just called from Urgent Care. They're taking xrays right now because they do think it's broken. I really hope they're wrong.

It's interesting what the previous poster said. It really doesn't look like anything's wrong with it. No swelling or bruising. There's not even a little scrape.

I fell and really twisted my foot badly. It was even swollen (but not bruised or anything). It wasn't broken but felt like it was. Let's just hope is a strain of some sort.

 

[grlpwrd]

I am glad to hear he is at Urgent Care. I, too, would have questioned which one to go to , though, yes, I do think the Emergency Room may have been a longer wait because of the holiday.

Healing thoughts to him!

 

[Beth76]

DH just called and it's just sprained!!!!!!!!

 

[Talking Hands]

When my oldest was about 10 she broke her foot. A girl fell on it at church. We didn't realize it was broken for 2 weeks but she was complaining about it being tender so we took her to the doctor and it was broken and it was casted and she was put on crutches.
Three years ago when I shattered my leg they found the 5th metataursal broken as well. I had broken it a week before when I tripped in a hole in the back yard. Just had slight bruising and didn't pay any attention to it. Should have listened to my kids and gone to the doctor then and not waited. Maybe I wouldn't have shattered the leg.

 

[RUDisney]

Our DD sprained her ankle very badly in March (3 days before our trip to Universal.) I watched it the first night and took her to the ped the next day when she said it was still hurting. He thought it was broken. Took her to a podiatrist that evening and it was "just" sprained. Luckily, her growth plates weren't affected, but he treated her like she had broken her leg. She had a soft cast and a boot for 3 weeks. The soft cast was removed after a week.

Although I'm thankful that it was sprained and not broken, sometimes the sprains are just as hard on our little ones. I hope your DS is feeling better very soon. I'm guessing he has crutches that he things rock at this point.

Actually, the best thing for her was the trip after the sprain. It would have been much harder on her in school instead of being pushed around in a wheelchair at a theme park.