Experience with Arm Fractures

[Pinkprincessmom]

My dd fell Sunday evening. We have a steep hill in our back yard and she loves to run down it. Well, she fell and caught herself with her hands. Her forward momentum still caused her to scrape up her lips and nose...

She let out quite a shreik and held onto her left arm. She cries easily, so it's hard to determine when she's really hurt. I saw the fall, so I know it was bad. Anyway, we checked out the arm Sunday night and didn't think it was broken. She had trouble getting to sleep and woke a few times during the night crying in pain. Monday it was a bit swollen, but no bruising. We decided to have it x-rayed. The x-rays were negative, but the doctor seems to think there might be a small fracture.

She's at school today. I went during lunch. She's not crying in pain anymore, but she's not using it at all. Her fingers and hand are starting to look bruised. The dr. did wrap it in a bandage. I plan to take it off and look at the arm when school is out.

Just wondering if any of your kiddos had ever broken an arm and what your experience was.

Thank you,
Pink

 

[FergieTCat]

I broke my wrist at camp many, many years ago in the same way that your daughter hurt her arm. Going down a steep hill and used my hand to break my fall. I recall being put in an "air cast" until the swelling went down. Then in a regular cast for the rest of the summer.

Can she move her fingers? Does her hand look bruised, or swollen and discolored? I think those are some of the signs of whether or not an arm or wrist is broken.

 

[Straitlover]

I've heard not all fractures show up on an x-ray. Also, they're sometimes missed. I broke my arm in a boating incident back in 1994 when I was at the beach on vacation. I was holding onto the edge of the boat looking towards the back when the driver cut into a big wake which slammed me up and back down on my hand/arm. At the hospital, they saw the big break; the outside bone (radius or ulna? get them mixed up!) was broken clean through. When I got back home and had my appt w/ the ortho, he also saw where I had several small fractures in the bones in my wrist (Colles [sp?] fracture) that the hospital completely missed.

If it is more swollen when you check it later, it wouldn't hurt to have someone else check it. Another incident for me: Last year, I was walking and my ankle gave out, my foot rolled completely inward, and I went flying into the street (fortunately there was no traffic!). I wa son my way to church to cook supper and went ahead. After a little while, it was really swollen, so I went to the urgent care (it was around 6 PM). They only xrayed the ankle, and said it was a sprain. However, to this day, I have pain in my foot where it rolled and bruised the worst, and I'm thinking something cracked and they never caught it and it has not healed right. I wish I had went to see someone else the next day or at least in the couple of weeks after it happened.

Hugs to your DD. hope she gets better soon!

 

[hydster]

My dd broke her arm trying to jam a picnic table umbrella into the grass while standing on a plastic chair. She came in crying and holding her arm very gingerly. I gave her some Ibuprofen, put some ice on it and gave her some ice cream thinking she'd be ok. Later that night she was screaming in pain so I took her to the walk in clinic and they sent me to the ER down the street.

It took 3 radiologists to find the "greenstick" fracture that she had. It's a fracture but it doesn't go all the way through. Think of a green stick and trying to break it...it bends but is hard to break all the way apart and that's what my dd had.

Her doc put her in an ace bandage for the night and we were told to ice it every hour for 20 min for that night and the next day to keep the swelling to a minimum. Then we took her in for her cast and her fingers were extremely bruised and painful. Thankfully the swelling wasn't bad and they were able to cast her and we were on our way. She did much better once the cast was on.

I think I'd have another opinion from someone about your dd. She could very well have like my dd had in a greenstick fracture!

I do hope you can figure it out and get her feeling better very soon!
Heidi

 

[cheerful chickadee]

My ds broke his wrist last year, he fell off the slide on our swingset and put his hands out to brace his fall, his wrist landed the wrong way and broke. His little arm was floppy looking and swollen. We went right to the ER and they confirmed it was broken and put it in an air cast overnight. We went back the next day for them to set it in a real cast. His arm nor fingers ever turned black & blue though, they did swell a tad though. I hope you can get to the bottom of your dd's pain! If it still hurts I would take her for a 2nd opinion just to be sure it's not a break.