Medical question - broken fingers - symptoms?

[janette]

My 11yo DD got her fingers slammed in a drawer. They are starting to swell but she can still move them. Of course this would happen after the doctors office is closed.

Wondering if I should wait until tomorrow and see how they do or take her to ER for xray?

 

[kejoda]

I would take her to the er. I broke my finger a couple of years ago and it didn't set right. Might of waited to long to go. Better safe than sorry. Let us know what happens.

 

[DisOrBust]

I am an RN and my DH hurt his finger playing volleyball. I being the compaionate soul I am told him to quit whinning and take some advil. The next morning it was purple and swollen went to urgent care and found out he had shattered a bone and required an external pinning! That was the last day I practiced medicine without a licence, lol!

If she says it still hurts and its swollen I would get it checked out better safe then sorry.

 

[Colleen A.]

My 11 yr old daughter fell from the sliding board Monday evening andher middle finger seemed to take most of the impact. I called the doctor and they told me to have her soak it in ice water, 20 minutes on, 20 off for awhile. She said if in a couple hours, she was crying in pain to take her to the ER, otherwise, keep it in a splint and call them back if it hurt in 48 hours. Well, it still hurt today, she can not bend it very much and it is ver swollen. I called the dr back and needed to take her to the hospital for exrays. Naturally, the radiologist was already done for the day so we won't know anything til Friday!

Don't they have such wonderful timing!?

 

[janette]

I called the doctor, we have changed doctors since I last made an emergency call and these doctor's actually return calls Our last doctors had nurses answer pages.

She said that since the joints are okay and there is no visable alignment problems it won't hurt to wait. I'll keep ice on it and give her advil for the pain. Hopefully it will be better in a couple of days and we won't have to do anything further.

Yes Colleen the timing is always wonderful. She's broken a toe once a few days before vacation, split her lip and required stitches another Thanksgiving holiday. Her sister has spent 2 xmas eves in the hospital once for dyhdration and once with asthma. Holidays are wonderful

 

[Kermit]

I hope she feels better soon!

If it's already swelling, you might be better off waiting anyway. As long as it's not visibly shattered or broken clear through, fractures frequently don't show up on x-rays anyway unless you get them done right away. It's best to wait until the swelling goes down so the radiologist can actually read the x-rays.

 

[RNMOM]

Have her keep it elevated too. That helps the pain some. Good for sympathy too!

 

[#1 Disney Fan]

No real advice as to what the symptoms are, but this certainly does remind me of the time I hurt/broke my finger (still not sure exactly which) and eventually ended up going to the specialized sports injury medical center. Waited hours in the waiting room to finally have x-rays taken and have the doctor put them up on the screen and say to me: "Hmmm... hard to tell if it's broken or not. What do *you* think?" LOL, I was something like 14 years old... I have no x-ray reading skills, all I knew was that it hurt *a lot*... he was supposed to tell me if it was broken or not!

Pixie dust to your DD! ~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Hope her fingers feel better soon! (And my advice to her... try not to get them slammed again while they're still sore... believe me, that hurts! LOL)