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My nearly 3 yr old was in A&E for X-rays on his left leg. He had an innocuous looking fall down a couple of stairs. Nothing showed on X-ray of leg. Charge Nurse saw how much pain he was in when trying to stand up and said 'there is clearly something wrong we can either treat it as a fracture or wait and see'
We are waiting and seeing but have a few questions if anyone can help. Are we doing him harm by not getting a cast? Could it be something else other than a fracture? He is in no pain at all until he tries to stand up. The nurse felt down his shin no reaction. Moved foot in every direction and only one direction hurt Alex.
Alex has left side hemiplegia (reduced movement and strength in left side) which means we really don't want to make wrong decision! And the worry is a cast might weaken his left side.
A&E on Saturday evening at 8pm
Not a doc, just a dad of a nearly 3 year old, I'd have the cast on a get him comfy, it can always come off early?
Thanks, all advice welcome! We cant get an appt with GP today, hopefully a Dr will ring us. Its feeling like we might have to just go into A&E again, I want to know what our options are, it seems like we might be getting a cast just in case.
The confusing thing for me is he is happy crawling walking on knees moving legs around etc he just cant put weight on leg - at all not even for a second! No pain otherwise.
it might be psychological and he associates standing with pain BUT in all honesty get another professional opinion either at GP or hospital. better safe than sorry.
Muscle injury?
Joint injury?
Not a doctor myself you understand, but with a child and a difficult injury make sure you get the paediatric doctor of the right specialism.
Thanks chaps. I went to the hospital on sat thinking a twisted ankle or broken bone in foot. Injury seemed to be in foot. At hospital I was made aware that bones in feet are not fully formed at 3 so must be a broken bone in leg! But what about as you say strains etc. I think now it might be his Achilles, off to A&E now to find out...
Care at hospital was great not complaining I just want to get this right
When my 2yo broke his leg he didn't complain and the only way we noticed was that he suddenly wouldn't put any weight on it. Paramedics in the ambulance were very sceptical that it was anything serious and even suggested that we were being soft.
The spiral fracture down the full length of his right femur soon put that into touch though!
The bone doctor we saw once it was cast said that little kids are very straight forward about these things, they don't MTFU and just get on with it like some adults would, and they also aren't hypochondriacs. If it hurts they stop doing it.
So, long and short, if he wont put any weight on it then something is wrong. Get the Drs to sort it out and don't accept anything else.
Could be a small buckle fracture. Get thee to kids hospital a&e if you have such a thing nearby.
Around here (N Wales), Xrays get reviewed by a Radiographer within a few days, and they may spot something that the duty consultant didn't.
May be worth a call to the Emergency Department (A&E) to see if this is the system around your way, and if so, to make an appointment to see someone after the review.
He's probably still under the care of the Emergency Department, so you should be able to make appointments directly (I think).
Yep spot on Radiographer has reviewed it and said no break can be seen. Decided to give it a few more days to see if he gets better.
I went to A&E to discuss the options, GP phoned us but didn't want to give an opinion without seeing him and no appts available.
Was thinking no cast is necessary now thinking why not just get a cast?!
Did an A&E doc review X-ray or just the radiographer ?
Bit confused if you have been back to A&E again or not?
GP won't be able to help unless they can see the X-ray
Went to A&E on saturday originally and went again today. X-Ray has been reviewed by a radiographer (and maybe somebody else -its been signed off) since saturday. Spoke to charge nurse today and we decided to give it a few more days to see if he can get better without cast.
If you think this is OK or a bad idea let me know!
I asked 5 times "is this OK, is there any chance it will get worse?" and was assured it was OK.
I'm in no way qualified to comment. However if the X-ray has been reported, then a doc has reviewed it.
FWIW when I broke my hand, I was given the same choice but told that current thinking was it would be better for me to not have a cast if I could avoid doing anything silly with it, as I wouldn't then have issues with having the muscles/joints immobile - it's better to have some motion as long as you don't make it worse.
So I guess that might be an argument against the cast, though I dunno about kids and I'm not a doctor*! Just wanted to point out ther might be reasons they'd want to avoid an unnecessary cast - worth asking your gp perhaps.
*well, I am, but not a medical doctor. If he's actually a robot then I can help more 😉
Ha!! Its funny you say that as he has been going round the house (pre injury) saying "I am a magical robot, I am a magical robot"