Yesterday Jasmyn was playing tether ball at recess and she bent her finger backwards. The joint swelled up and by the time she got home her finger was purple around the joint. 
But she could still bend her finger and while she "babied" it she still used it. I gave her some Motrin hoping that would help with the swelling. As the evening wore on she started getting more emotional and upset. I really thought it was because she did not want to go to bed, and lately she has been a bit of a drama queen. To appease her I crafted a splint out of some popsicle sticks and some tape. I splinted it up and sent her to bed. She went to bed willingly and slept well. In the meantime I went onto Facebook and asked my other Mom friends what they would do. Most of them said to take her in to get an X-ray. I decided I would take her in to the Doctor in the morning.
So this morning I got the 2 older boys off to school and then called our pediatrician. He suggested taking her into an Urgent Care facility so that an X-ray could be done. Our Pediatrician does not have x-rays in the office. We went to our local Urgent Care and after waiting for a very long time they took her back to get an X-ray.
I was SHOCKED to discover that her finger was in fact broken.
Here is a quick picture I snapped with my cell phone of her finger X-ray.
This picture shows the break. Her finger got bent backwards. So the fracture is right above the growth plate. You can kinda see how the bone snapped and then got jammed in. The Dr said that children's bones are like a green stick. They do have some "bend" in them. This is the case for Jasmyn's break.
The Urgent Care Dr recommended we follow up with an Orthopedic Dr. so that it could be properly splinted and followed up on until it heals. The Urgent Care Nurse put on a make shift splint. It was a horrible splint job. Jasmyn could still move her finger side to side which could make it worse, since the bone is not stable. We already have worked with an Ortho Dr. for Jasmyn a few years ago when she broke her wrist. I called them when we got home and they were able to see her that same day.
The Dr said that Jasmyn's finger is in good position to heal properly. It does need to be stabilized to protect it while it heals. But at the same time he does not want her to lose mobility in her finger. Since the break is above the joint he felt that moving the joint a few times a day would help her maintain the mobility in her finger but still allow it the stability to heal. So he put her in a finger splint that is removable. Her little finger just slides in and out of the plastic form.
Then to stabilize it on her hand we use Coban to wrap it. Coban sticks to itself but not to the skin. It is perfect for keeping it in place and easy removal.
The Dr wants her to take the splint off 3-4 times a day and just make a fist and then extend her fingers. She is to repeat it in sets of 10. We will do it before school, and after school a few times and then right before bed. This also means that she can remove it for bathing, hand washing, etc. In fact the Dr said that if she was willing to wear the splint in the water that she could even finish her last 2 swim lessons this week. :) She was willing to try it today and did great in her lesson! We just took the splint off after she was out of the pool and dried it off really well. After her hand was dry I just re-wrapped it. Easy Peasy.
Dr wants to see her again in 10 days to take another X-ray. We will then see how she is healing and how long she will have to wear the splint.
She is in good spirits and for now is enjoying getting out of some of her chores since her finger is broken. :)
Never a dull moment in the Bray Bunch household!
