My son broke his arm on Saturday. We went to ER, got a temporary splint and are currently waiting for our appointment on Wednesday to have a cast put on. I had to explain to my SO at least 6 times that they would not put on a cast until the swelling went down.
At any rate, today SO was talking to a doctor friend, and now SO claims that Dr. Friend told him there is no reason for a cast, that the splint will do the same thing. I say he is wrong, because he often hears only what he wants to hear. SO keeps griping about the cost (although he seems to be able to afford to go out to eat and keeps the fridge stocked with beer).
If it were I, perhaps I would forego the cast, but I have a problem experimenting with an 11 year old’s arm.
Anyone know the Straight Dope on this? Or, is it a medical opinion?
It depends. On where the fracture is, what type, etc. etc. Some types don’t need casting. Some don’t even need splinting, including some fractures of the humerus.
But if Doctor friend did not examine the patient and the x-ray, Doctor friend has no business telling anybody what type of treatment it needs.
i would go to the appointment and ask the docter “what type of break is this? is a cast nessisary for this? why?” asking questions is always a good thing. if nothing else, you can learn a little bit more about different types of broken bones from a cartified expert.
as always, i’m not a docter, but Qadgop the Mercotan is and he (she) has always seemed to give good advice in the past.
Disclaimer: I am neither a doctor nor an orthopedist. Just someone who has raised three kids.
How old is your son? IMO, if he’s younger than about 16, he needs a cast just to help keep his arm bones still while they mend properly. And if he’s younger than 8, he needs a permanent cast, because otherwise sooner or later he’ll take the splint off–because it itches, because the kids in the lunchroom wanna try it on, because it got wet in the boys room at school, or just because he’s tired of wearing it–and he’ll possibly damage himself permanently.
An Eleven definitely needs a permanent cast. He can’t climb trees, ride bikes, and torment the neighbor’s cat effectively with his arm in a removable splint.
Besides, you can’t autograph a splint with Magic Markers the way you can a cast. And when it’s time to take the cast off, the saw is way kewler than just taking off the splint.
I was going to keep the appointment regardless of what my stupidhead SO said, but you never know, maybe medicine had changed and this was a radical new idea.
DearSon is already complaining that he cannot do anything with the splint, AND was outside today running around and tripped! I can just see him reaching out with the injured arm and breaking it again. And, he is looking forward to the cast, he was dissapointed he couldn’t get it that day, and has already planned a cast signing party
Thank you for all the opinions, when the SO breaks something, I will let him be the one to go without a cast. Mr. Blue Sky - good one! I didn’t even notice that.
Here’s my broken arm anecdote - when I was about 8 I broke my arm just below the shoulder, and dislocated the shoulder at the same time. I had a cast that ran from wrist to elbow with a 90 degree bend. It stopped well below the break, it was there to apply traction. So as the good doctor said, different breaks need different treatment.
Wow. I broke my arm when I was about that age, and the pain kept me from doing too much with the arm (I had a cast put on the day it was broken). From my experience, the pain of a broken bone is unique, so later on I always could tell if I broke a bone or not.
I’ve broken the collarbone twice and never had a cast. Of course, I’m not sure that a cast could be put on for that. All I had to do was try to keep the shoulder immobilized till the bones healed. For the first few days, it was weird feeling the bones move around.
Five days after I broke the collarbone (for the second time), I was feeling restless and went for a hike in the hills. I stumbled, fell to my left, and tried to catch myself by putting my left arm to the ground. It worked, but the pain was bad (and I was feeling more than a little bit stupid). I decided to give the collarbone a bit more time to heal before I tried to do anything again. I’d at least let the doctor know that your son is still active. Perhaps a cast will help prevent injury while the arm heals.
This is not medical advice, just an interesting observation.
Jockeys (who are just about the toughest bastards in sport) often do not get broken limbs plastered because they heal fractionally faster. They are doing this because getting back in the saddle a week earlier can be very important if you are riding in multi million dollar races. When jockeys do this they don’t even wear a splint - it is the movement of the muscles that aids healing. So it all depends where the fracture is - if it needs plaster, it needs plaster.
Sometimes, if a fracture is super-duper severe, a cast isn’t the best way to go. Seven years ago I shattered my left tibia and fibula, and instead of a cast, I got an open reduction and internal fixation with a plate, screws, and a hybrid external fixator – basically, I looked like a shish kebab for six months. I had shattered the bones into such small fragments that a cast would not have held them in place; they needed to be held together internally. So, lucky me: I got pins running all the way through my ankle and out the other side, held in place by an external frame anchored by a metal bar drilled into the front of my shin. Boy, was that fun.
On the bright side, at least my skin was exposed, so I could wash, scratch, etc. With a little ingenuity and some Velcro, I stitched together a sort of ersatz leg cover so I wouldn’t freeze to death when I went outside (I did this over Thanksgiving, so I was out of commission all winter/spring). So really, in the general scheme of things, a cast isn’t such a big deal (I had one previously for a broken wrist, plus one on the leg after they removed the fixator – the bone still hasn’t healed entirely, plus after 6 months non-weight bearing I had basically no muscle left; my poor muscles were so atrophied that the calf looked like a stick with a bit of flab covering the bones). Think of the cast as a rite of passage. Plus it’s much cheaper; I think my medical bills for my leg totaled around $100k, and that was with the PPO discount.
This is not MPSIMS. No responsible doctor will give medical advice over the web (other than very general statements). We don’t need non-doctors trying to give medical opinions here even qualified with IANAD, it’s just a bad idea.
Visit a medical doctor in person. Let him/her decide what is best. This is closed.
