Who knows about broken bones?

CHI-06 · May 2012

My daughter broke her arm yesterday and it is in a temp cast.

The ortho she saw this morning wants to sedate her and reset and cast tomorrow morning. This is a general orthopaedic dr...not pediatric.

I called the childrens hospital too for an appt. They said with fractures they don't even see them until 7-10 days after to let the swelling go down before casting. They are treated by a nurse practitioner too.

So....who is right? Best to wait or best to set right away? I am trying to research online but thought some people here may know too.

JourneyToBaby · May 2012

My son broke his leg and when we left the ER they told us to wait 4 or 5 days before seeing the ortho. Being concerned, I called the ortho early the next morning and was told that he needed to be seen ASAP and they had me come it an hour later. Listen to the ortho, imo.

*Also, the ortho that my son saw did not specialize in pediatrics but I was very happy with the care I got.

muppet.fan · May 2012

E's break was a compound (through the skin) fracture and they immediately operated, but even with the severity of the break, they did a plastic mold wrapped in ace bandages -- they wouldn't put a hard cast on until a week or so later, because of the swelling. So that sounds similar to what your children's hospital is saying.

We were at a children's hospital, but as it turned out, the ortho on call that night was not a pediatric ortho, just a regular one. So he did the initial surgery/setting and we did all follow up appts and the second surgery and casting through him.

I wish now that we had pushed to be transferred to a pediatric ortho after the initial surgery. The ortho we had was completely competent, but had absolutely no experience (he even admitted it) dealing with/treating kids, especially toddlers. I still get mad just thinking about how he treated E.

kgs0505 · May 2012

As an adult I broke my ankle. It was Saturday night (me vs tramoline aided with wine....), anywho, I broke it in 3 places. They temp casted me and sent me home with some pain meds with instructions to call the ortho on Monday. They wouldn't see me until 5 days after the break because of swelling (Wednesday), and surgery was scheduled for Friday to set the breaks and put in hardware. I still was in a temp cast until a couple weeks after the surgery so they could remove the staples before hard casting.

So the swelling part is a big deal, but it only takes a few days (4-5). If she doesn't need surgery, I would go with the regular ortho, unless the person you talked to at the children's hospital is a pediatric orthopedist.

LucyPevensie · May 2012

I would defer to the Children's Hospital every time - but would also ask to speak with a pediatric ortho.

AimeeL85 · May 2012

DS broke his leg 2 months ago and they casted him with a permanent cast right away, I think it was probably because there wasn't much swelling at all. They didn't even see the fracture on the x-ray when they first decided to cast him, they found it later. One of the nurses had been confused and told us that they would do a permanent cast later, but then the pediatric orthopedist said no, this is a perm one. So I think it varies by case. 7-10 days seems like a long time to allow swelling to go down, but I'm no Dr.....I think as long as she is in the temp cast, she should be ok.

Sorry I don't have much advice other than being a fellow member of Moms of Broken-Boned Toddlers...

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Who knows about broken bones?

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