Anyone had a child break a bone and not bruise or swell?

[SarahFair]

Easter morning one year I got a frisbee. The dew was still on the ground when I went out to play in my plastic flat soled lion king slippers. I threw it WAY down the hill in our backyard and went to chase it. I fell backwards and tried it use my hand to stop the fall but the weight of my body broke my wrist. I let out a scream that had the neighbors coming out..
My dad didnt think I broke it because it didnt swell or bruise and I almost didnt go to Egleston but I couldnt stop crying because the pain was SO bad.

We had to wait hours and hours there and my wrist never swelled..
I came out with a hot pink cast

 

[zDoc]

Wow,

I sure hope all is well....keep us posted.

 

[horsejody]

My daughter had a riding accident when she was 12. There was no bruising or swelling. However, the bone was completely crushed. It took two surgeries to repair. Despite the lack of bruising, we knew immediately that the injury was bad (the arm was crooked and she couldn't move it). I don't know if your child broke anything or not, but somestimes it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[australorpchick]

When DD was 10 she fell backwards in the playground and landed on her palm. There was no bruising or swelling. This DD is my drama queen, so I figured if she wasn't having hysterics it wasn't too bad. I felt horrible a couple of days later when I looked at her thumb and it was a weird yellow/brown, like an old bruise. Turned out she had a small break in her thumb and had to get a cast.

 

[paddock36]

When my oldest son was 5 years old he fell off some monkeybars at daycare and broke his wrist. There was a doctor there that looked at my son's wrist and said it was not broken. I felt differently and took him to the ER to have it checked. After waiting 5 hours in the ER I began to think it wasn't broke either since my son was being his usual self and climbing around using his wrist as normal. We'll it was confirmed by x-ray that it was diffinitely broke. They called it a green-stick break because childrens bones are more flexible and sometimes when they break it's like breaking a limb on a tree that cracks but doesn't break in two pieces. There was no bruising and maybe just the slightest of swelling but if you didn't know him you couldn't tell it was different.
My advise is to get it checked. It's better to be safe than sorry later.

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

jossanne, hope everything turns out OK.

paddock36, I did the same thing when I was in the 2nd. grade. It was pretty obvious that my right arm was broken though. It's kinda hard to hide a bone that is sticking through the skin...lol.

Back in 2004 I was in an accident(no fault of my own)and shattered my pelvis in 7 places. The noise it made when it broke is like nothing you would think could come from the human body. The 2 other guys with me also heard it. It sounded like you snapped multiple 2x4's in half with your bare hands. I also learned that day why the Dr.'s and nurses want you to rate your pain from 1 to 10...because when it gets to 11 you pass out.

 

[patnjess]

yeah the pain with my son and myself was severe. I cried and cried and cried and couldn't take it. My son was 3 and he was sick with the pain, couldn't sleep or eat, and would just cry.

but I had a little boy break his nose at my house yesterday, he didn't cry, it was swollen and bruised, this same little boy broke his thumb so badly at my house last year that it was turned around, and he didnt cry either. He was 6 then

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[chicken_china_mom]

Different people have different pain threshholds. Perhaps your son's threshold is higher than your daughter's, and therefore his body didn't go into shock like hers. I know my ex's nephew has the highest pain threshold I've ever seen in anybody, ever. When he was younger he broke his collarbone. Never once cried about it, though it was obvious to look at that it was broken. His parents took him to the hospital and he had to be put in a brace. Well, he didn't like that and shortly after they put the brace on him, he ripped it off and refused to let anyone put it back on him. He didn't seem to feel any pain with it. Not sure if it makes a difference, but he is also severely autistic. His younger brother is also autistic, but he reacts like any other kid if he gets hurt! With my own kids, thankfully neither have broken any bones yet (they leave that up to me

), however, they have both had to have stitches for various things. My younger one reacts like you are killing her, yet my older daughter could sit in the emergency room getting stitched back together with a good book in hand. Like I said, every kid is different. I suspect your son has a hairline fracture. I've had several of those, and they are no fun. I've broken 2 toes, both shins, the outside foot bone on both feet, and 2 skull fractures that were hairline. And the two toes, the feet, and the shins were all at the same time. Long, painful story on that one. The skull fractures were when I was a kid. I got hit in the face with a football when I was 10, right under my right eye. My mom took me to the doctor after I began having terrible headaches. The second one was when I was 15 and a girl that I thought was my friend hit me so hard in the face that she broke my glasses, my nose, and fractured my skull. And she hit me open handed! (She was a BIG girl!) The nose bothered me more than the skull fracture did, but the doctor said both were broken. I didn't go into any shock with any of my breaks, but I agree with Tala that the pain of a bone break is in a league all it's own. Let us know what the doctor has to say. I don't think they do too much casting of broken bones anymore. Now I usually see splints and soft casts, so I don't know exactly what they will do for him. They didn't cast or stabilize anything I broke, not even my nose, but that's because she broke the bone, not the cartilage, so there was nothing that could be done. However, I tore the ligament in my right ankle 10 years ago and they put me in a brace for several months til it healed. I nearly severed it, and that was the method of stabilizing it at that time. My cousin Ashley broke her forearm when she was 4 and complained of a little pain, but there wasn't much, if any, swelling, but my aunt didn't feel right about the way my cousin was favoring that arm, so she took her to the ER, and they discovered she had a hairline fracture. She fell off the monkey bars at the park. I hope he feels better soon. You might want to give him some Motrin, cause even if it's a bone bruise, that hurts a lot. I'll say prayers that it isn't broken, though I suspect it is. Tell him to get lots of rest (I know, next to impossible with kids!). Good luck to you at the doctor's, keep us updated!

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

i fractured part of my knee when i was 10 and i was able to hobble home with little pain. about an hour or 2 later it was swelling and horribly painful because i never told my mom what had happened or how it happened.

it might not have been so painful for him at first since you put ice on it right away. that keeps the swelling down a lot from the start.

 

[NurseELB]

From the perspective of an ER nurse- I'd say it's broken. If he landed with his hand outstretched there could be a buckle type fracture that only swells a little. It's called a Tarus fracture (sp?). The only concern of a distal radius fracture is if it involves the growth plate. That can cause problems later in the development of the bone. I'm interested to hear what the xrays show! Good luck, you are doing all the right things!

BTW-I've been an ER nurse for 10 years, my daughter slipped and fell on a friend's boat ramp and hurt her wrist. I braced it but never took her in, thinking she was exaggerating. 2 years later she had an xray for another reason, and they found an old fracture! No harm done, she healed fine.

Good Luck!