WAG Injury Question

[iwannacoach]

and the radiation exposure is not near as much as the public has been lead to believe by groups and organizations that are not qualified/credible. so much out there that is not true.

Cell phones kept in pants pockets are more likely to affect the reproductive organs than will an occassional x-ray. So parents, tell your kids to dump the cell phone...and hop in line for another x-ray......when needed.

 

[iwannacoach]

I don't know whether to immediately make an appointment with a doc or to give it time.

I suspect that even if she see a doc, the answer is going to be "give it time" so I guess that's why I'm not even sure it's worth seeing a doc. (And it's possible I won't be able to get an appointment for days anyway.)

Last Wednesday my 16yo son called me for a ride home from school, which was odd because it was smack in the middle of the school day. When I asked him what's up, he told me he'd been skate boarding after lunch, fell off the board, and put his hand down to catch himself. He sounded pretty distressed so I asked him what hurt....his elbow he says....but no big deal, it just hurts too much to stay at school. So I'm thinking yeah right, any excuse to take an afternoon off.

While driving to pick him up I figured a quick trip to the urgent care center for an xray, because you never know....until you know. So in and out in an hour.....the xrays show a fracture in one of the fork shaped bones that create the socket to hold the ball in place.....no big deal but advised to see an ortho in 3-5 days after the swelling (minimal) went down to get it re-checked and casted.......so the urgent care folk put it in a splint and we're good to go. Well, I said you never know until you know, and when we went to the ortho on Monday we found find out how much we still didn't know.

I'll just finish with this ending to the story.........What the urgent care doc thought was no big deal turned out to be a very big deal, that just came home after a delightful afternoon of reconstructive surgery , as the ball had broken off and rotated (I think) in the socket as well.

There's some concern that the fracture may not heal because the ball was separated from it's blood supply for those extra days, as the first doc advised, while waiting for the swelling to go down. On the bright side......if it heals, every thing will be alright with potential to regain full extension.....and set off metal detectors.

So you really don't know....until you know....but sometimes you still don't know........

 

[Deleted member D3987]

man...i'm sincerely sorry to hear that. bummer.

 

[iwannacoach]

yeah....I don't know what to think about the blood flow aspect. I've had one team kid do about the same injury years ago on a release move.....she went straight to the ortho and all was well.

Have you ever heard of complications resulting from the ball not being returned to it's "rightful owner" in a timely manner.

 

[lovelife]

The advice that I always give to the cargivers of my patients is to trust your gut. If you are concerned that there is something wrong talk to a doctor.

I want to echo what was said before - gymnast are difficult patients because they have this incredible ability to mask pain. The mechanism of injury is very important with gymnast

To the poster that was concerned about the radiation exposure - yes this can be a valid concern. As a doctor we must weigh the immediate risk of danger with the potenetial for future consequences with radiation. The immediate risk was too great. You did the right thing.

If you have a childrens hospital / sports med / ortho doc, take advantage

 

[gymgal]

iwanna: sorry to here of the injury. I hope it all turns out well for him. The ortho may have caught it right away but you never know with the swelling. Our ortho has said that it is tough to read the xrays on the day of the injuries because of all the swelling. We are very lucky to have urgent care ortho clinics in our area where we can get same day ortho appts but often times, they make the patients come back in a few days for new xrays to be sure they have made the right diagnosis.