Dr Hive: broken pinky finger, or just bruised?

[wapiti]

DD9 just reported to me that several hours ago, at school, she hurt her pinky finger when it was hit by a football. It's bruised lightly below the bottom knuckle. It hurts to straighten it fully and hurts generally/randomly.

 

More likely to be just bruised, or broken? Do we really have to get it x-rayed? I'm planning to buddy-tape it to the next one for tonight (unfortunately on her writing hand). Is there really any point to finding out whether it's broken, i.e., is it likely to need a splint? And do we even need an x-ray to get the splint?

 

I'm thinking about waiting till tomorrow morning and then going to the ped for a splint - DH is on an airplane for a couple more hours and I'm not taking five other kids to the ER at bedtime for a broken pinky.:tongue_smilie: Or, if waiting overnight would be bad, we could go after DH gets home, after 9 pm.

 

thoughts/suggestions?

[gardening momma]

It could have been jammed. I don't know if that's a technical term or what would be a more accurate term, but I've had jammed fingers before, and they really hurt, but get better on their own. And it could easily get jammed by a ball.

[jenn-]

I would wait it out for the morning, but if she is still complaining it hurts, I would get her seen. This is her hand you are talking about, you don't want it to heal improperly if it is broken. One of DD's gymnastics teammates had to have her finger reset 3 times trying to get it set right, so if they had just buddy taped it without the x-ray, she could have been in serious pain a lot longer.

[wapiti]

We decided that Dh will take her in the morning. He's pretty sure it's broken. I had buddy-taped it, and now a few hours later it looks a lot more bruised.

 

Now I have to look up whether urgent care does x-rays or not....

 

thanks ladies!! :)

[wapiti]

Update, it is a buckle fracture. And we've been referred to orthopedics. Who knew this was going to be so much fun.

 

The funny thing is dd isn't bothered much by it - DH sent me a picture from his phone at the urgent care place with it all wrapped up, and she's laughing. I'm sure I'll here the complaining/whining later though because it's her writing hand (she's left-handed).

 

Now I'm trying to come up with ideas for keeping her going on piano - they said it'll be 6 weeks. At least she can play with her right hand.

[JudoMom]

Update, it is a buckle fracture. And we've been referred to orthopedics. Who knew this was going to be so much fun.

 

The funny thing is dd isn't bothered much by it - DH sent me a picture from his phone at the urgent care place with it all wrapped up, and she's laughing. I'm sure I'll here the complaining/whining later though because it's her writing hand (she's left-handed).

 

Now I'm trying to come up with ideas for keeping her going on piano - they said it'll be 6 weeks. At least she can play with her right hand.

 

My ds10 broke his arm (left, of course, since he's a lefty) a week before a piano recital. Most of the melody to his songs was on the right hand, so it wasn't too awful.

 

I hope she continues with the good attitude!