Potential broken arm

[putonyourdancingshoes]

I have potentially broken my arm (X-ray this week to confirm). Looking for people's experiences. Upon injury and for first few days there was minimal pain but now i have a dull ache most of the day, I had thought if it was broken it would be agonising immediately. Been told not to do much with it so I'm not at work. It is also my dominant hand.

If you have had the same what was the pain like? Were you able to drive?

And (very shallow of me I know) if you had to get a cast, did you have the option of the colour ? And what did you choose?

[lljkk]

Yup, you get option of colour!!
How long ago did you have the impact that would have caused a break?
They don't always hurt hugely, ime, but there's a kind of "Wow what a shock" feeling in the body for at least a day afterwards. Usually swelling & limited mobility is what made me realise about one break, rather than anything else.

[putonyourdancingshoes]

It was Thursday. Not much pain Thursday Friday or Saturday but after that it's been aching. Just can't wait to have this X-ray and figure out one way or another!

[FrancesHouseman]

Why the delay in the xray? Usually you show up to A&E, get an X-ray and you know one way or another there and then. I don't get why it's booked in for "this week".

[distantstars]

I had something similar... it wasn't broken,was quite disappointed, OH had built my hopes up for a pink cast!

And if your hospital is anything like mine, I had to wait 4 days for the results so by time you have x Ray, get the results they prob won't do anything anyway!!!

[putonyourdancingshoes]

I had an X-ray on the Thursday but they couldn't see anything, however it's an apparently Awkward bone to diagnose a break straight away and can usually only be seen after 10-14 days

[llangennith]

Go back to A&E.

[JohnHunter]

@llangennith Why back to A&E?

[Oddcat]

Radiographer here, what bone are they querying ?

[endofthelinefinally]

I had to wait 2 days for my x ray. I knew I had a fracture so I got a big scarf, put my arm in a sling and kept it still. I think it is important not to do more damage until you know.

[JohnHunter]

@Oddcat Presumably a scaphoid?

[FaithEverPresent]

Scaphoid fractures are notoriously difficult to spot on an initial x-Ray and are generally not picked up until days or even weeks later. Often they will assume it’s broken and x-ray again after a couple of weeks.

I don’t think you should drive if you’re struggling. I would use a scarf like endofthelinefinally suggests to give it support.

I would definitely have the purple!

[Oddcat]

I thought scaphoid but Op said arm.

[lljkk]

I had to google scaphoid, couldn't it feel like an arm problem & how would OP possibly know the difference?

[Oddcat]

It's more wrist , I'm just going by what we would be asked to X-ray if scaphoid fracture was suspected.

[Moggie45]

I chose my cast colour - pink and they also added glitter on top! I was passed a swatch of colours to choose from (Frimley Park Hospital) It was perfect for summer and was gutted when I had it cut off!

[Oddcat]

They do some fab plaster casts , we have Christmas ones and ones with footballs on.

[lljkk]

My wrist is part of my arm. I wouldn't know the difference.

All my breaks were top of arm near the wrist, actually. If you told me that they were wrist I would believe you.

[JohnHunter]

The OP said "arm" but then wrote "dominant hand" in their post. I can't think of any other bone in the upper limb that's prone to occult fractures and routinely re-imaged 10-14 days later. @putonyourdancingshoes - come back!

[Oddcat]

I was trying to help the op and to a radiographer if someone says 'arm' that would be just 2 bones (radius and ulnar) , wrist includes many more bones.

[Oddcat]

Lets just hope it's not the scaphoid , awkward little buggers !

[JohnHunter]

Hmm. "Arm" to me would mean humerus and the radius/ulna would be "forearm". Thankfully "XR arm" isn't an option on our system otherwise it's anyone's guess which part of the patient would get irradiated ;-)

[putonyourdancingshoes]

Hey guys, ahhh yes I fear the scaphoid was mentioned! The pain radiates from thumb to elbow so that's why I mentioned arm. Starting to feel it more on the underside of my wrist.

[TheEmmaDilemma]

Broken my wrist back end of March. Still not driving, another couple of weeks. But I needed surgery also. To be far that didn't happen until 2 weeks after the break but I was in cast all that time. 4 casts in total, I only got to chose the colour for the last hard cast for 2 weeks!

[TheEmmaDilemma]

That was radius and ulna.

[JohnHunter]

@putonyourdancingshoes I wouldn't get too excited about the colour of your cast, then. Only a fifth of patients with normal scaphoid x-rays end up having a fracture and most of those are a chip off the radius bone rather than the scaphoid itself. Hopefully they will be able to provide some final reassurance this week.