Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Original poster

DD9 broke her collar bone and I sent her to school on a spoon of Calpol!

145 replies

JeSuisPrest · 03/12/2019 16:11

DD (9) fell out of bed last night at midnight (fast asleep, not messing about). She complained of a painful shoulder and was pretty upset. She could move both arms but one was obviously painful. She can be a bit of a drama llama so I made all the right noises, gave her some Calpol and she settled after a while. It was agony this morning and I had to help her dress. I said we would go to the local walk in straight away, but she had an event at school this morning she didn't want to miss and said she wanted to go in. If it was still painful she would tell a teacher. I got the call at lunchtime to say she was very upset. I took her to the walk in - broken collar bone. I feel like the shittest mum in the world.

Please make me feel better and tell me about times when you've not believed your children were ill/injured and packed them off to school with a dose of Calpol and the time honoured phrase "The teacher will call me if I need to come and get you" ringing in their ears... 😳

OP posts:

Chocolatecake12 · 03/12/2019 18:52

My friends a nurse and she sent her daughter to school with a broken wrist.

I sent my ds to school with a broken toe, then I spent the day at the spa at a birthday celebration.

We’re all human - please don’t beat yourself up.

DeadButDelicious · 03/12/2019 18:52

I went 3 days with a broken wrist as a child, I was a touch... dramatic... shall we say as a child and made the same level of fuss over a grazed knee as I did over a broken bone as it turns out so I'm not surprised my mum thought I was fine and just milking it. Did me no harm, my wrist is fine, I even learnt to write with my left hand, a skill I still have to this day. Don't beat yourself up. You've got it sorted now and a lesson has been learnt.

JoGose · 03/12/2019 18:52

DS1 is the boy who cried wolf, always complains he feels ill, always before bedtime. One night he was calling for me saying he felt sick and I thought I wouldn’t go in as then he’s know he can get my attention. Next thing I know I can hear him wrenching all over his bed sheets. I felt awful

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Children's health Families General health

MitziK · 03/12/2019 18:54

I argue with at least one parent a week to come and get their kid - I'm not doing it for fun, it takes all of five minutes to scoot a child back to class (and whilst it would be nice to have a ten minute break after working seven hours straight, which I can't do if there's a child in Medical, I've probably got another ten waiting to be seen if it's break/lunchtime) - if they've got a temperature of 40 Celsius, look awful, have vomited profusely over the corridor or their ankle has turned bright blue and they can't weightbear, they need to be collected.

Fortunately, my wrong calls have only been for pukers, not actual physical damage.

Top tips for parents, though - teach your kids to NOT do the barely there, whispery, at-Death's-Door voice. It's usually the number one signifier of somebody who wants to go home and watch telly, not somebody who is genuinely ill. Oh, and don't let them get away with crying at you to get you to do what they want. That's the number two trying-it-on sound. There's a huge difference between the tears/sound.

HavelockVetinari · 03/12/2019 18:57

@CottonSock tell me you've had your DC checked out since then??! She could have a blood clot or skull fracture with fragments that need surgically fixing!

Original poster

JeSuisPrest · 03/12/2019 19:07

Thanks all Am leaving thread now. DD tucked up in bed and a large glass of 🍷is calling. Tomorrow is another day.

OP posts:

RoLaren · 03/12/2019 19:13

My husband was sent to school with meningitis, and on another occasion, a broken wrist. The seventies was a different time!

ScribblyGum · 03/12/2019 19:16

Oh god don’t worry. Dh (GP) and I (physio) thought dd1 had an annoying cough while we were camping on Anglesey. I even made her a fucking spacer out of a pringles tube, her persistent chronic cough was so bloody annoying.
Lobar pneumonia.

We felt bad.

RuffleCrow · 03/12/2019 20:37

Michelle, if my posts 'scare' the op into taking action next time her daughter is in agony, i will consider it a job well done.

I think this thread is mainlt full of shit, quite frankly. I recently had to collect my child from school with a broken bone. She was trembling, white as a sheet and on the verge of going into shock. A lot of people are saying they 'didn't know their child was walking around with a broken bone' here but that's clearly bullshit. Broken bones hurt like hell 99 times out of 100. They're not simply things you can ignore and get on with your day with, unless you have the pain tolerance threshold of King Kong. I've never been so sure that MN was mostly horseshit as i have since i started reading this thread. I'm actually appalled at how far standards have slipped that MNHQ now allow people to encourage one another in neglecting their children.

She knew she was in agony ffs

Nat6999 · 03/12/2019 20:46

My mum sent me back to school after having chicken pox, I was sent home two days running with a temperature & feeling weak, my mum accused me of faking, turned out I had measles.

DinosApple · 03/12/2019 20:53

I thought DD1 had really hurt herself when she slipped at the pool edge during a lesson (skipping ). She went down really heavily straight onto her knee, then refused to get back into the pool or bear weight on it and it swelled up a bit.

I took her to hospital and helped her hobble hop across the car park to A&E. Got to triage and... It was just a bruised knee. Diagnosed by a school mum working there.
DD1 then skipped out. Words were had. Little bugger.

I never get it right OP.

PrtScn · 03/12/2019 20:56

I had a greenstick fracture when I was about 9. My mum just thought I was being a drama queen and didn't take me to A&E until the next day as I was relentless with my moaning.

Blacmange · 03/12/2019 20:57

My parents never thought to get me checked over at any stage for the following consistent symptoms that were noticeable from around the age of 1: late walking, unusually tired - I used to ask to go to bed each evening; having to lay on my stomach after eating due to the pain, frequent bruising; tendinitis, sprained ankles, cricked neck, cyclical vomiting. I was eventually diagnosed in middle age with a genetic condition after I spent my 20s being mid-diagnosed. I don’t think my parents would have got a correct diagnosis at the time but the fact they never thought to see anyone about these things. I wasn’t a drama llama either.

RufusthebewiIderedreindeer · 03/12/2019 21:03

A lot of people are saying they 'didn't know their child was walking around with a broken bone' here but that's clearly bullshit

Not bullshit in my case

She tripped up a step, she was pale and trembling and i gave her a hug

There was no swelling, no bruise, if dd had been in agony we’d have popped to the minor injuries unit

But she wasnt

Aragog · 03/12/2019 21:04

This is the issue when children get very dramatic over every small thing - as many like to do so!

I sent dd to school with a broken foot a few years back. She tripped over her own foot in the house. She complained it hurt, but then when smaller she would have done so even for something small. School called me in the end and i took her to A&E and it was broken. We had a chat about over reacting and the consequences it can lead to - she got much better about it.

My sister sent my nephew to school after he bumped his head. School called - turned out to be a biggish gash which needed glueing at the hospital. She couldn't see it in the dark and, as he has short hair, it didn't need brushing in the morning and he was saying it was sore and didn't want her to brush it.

I think many people make these kinds of mistakes. We see it all the time at school where I work. We don't judge.

Scbchl · 03/12/2019 21:04

Our dad fell at brownie camp and they called to inform me and say she was moving it fine and they were sure she was okay but she wanted to come home but they thought she was using it as an excuse to get home. Spoke to her and went and got her. As they said, she was able to move it and didnt seem in much pain at all. Couple of days later after not really having mentioned it, she fell off the trampoline and was screaming in agony.

I said I was taking her to be xrayed.. my dh started saying she was moving it and I was wasting my time would be up there for hours. Turned out it was broken and the doctor reckoned it had been fractured at brownie camp and falling off the trampoline had made it worse 🙈 luckily it healed really quickly but I felt so shit and the brownie leaders did too.

Seriously79 · 03/12/2019 21:09

My son was about 6 and 'hurt' his ankle on the trampoline, there were tears but he could still move it. During the night it swelled up and he was moaning - but still carried on jumping on the trampoline and playing football.

Slept all night, the next morning it was still hurting, but he would still walk, and I told him 'well I s'pose I could take you to a & e, but if your messing the drs around they will be cross'

I take him to a & e, stopping for petrol on the way, the dr takes one look at it and say 'yeah that's a broken ankle' I wanted the ground to swallow me up! I was mortified! 😢

The nurse asked if he's had any neurofen or calpol and I I just looked and her and said 'no' she looked at me in utter disgust! At this point my son bursts into tears 'I told you mummy! I told you hurt but you didn't listen'

He's prone to being a bit dramatic, and he'd carried on jumping and playing all night - how was I to know? Worst. Mother. Ever!

bikinibottommuffintop · 03/12/2019 21:09

My big brother broke his wrist in the park when he was 11. DM insisted he was fine, it was 10 days later at a swimming meet a coach noticed he wasn’t holding it quite straight and DPs took him to a&e. DM was a nurse!

BarbaraStrozzi · 03/12/2019 21:09

A lot of people are saying they 'didn't know their child was walking around with a broken bone' here but that's clearly bullshit

Not the case - it even happens to adults. I had a friend who was notorious for avoiding doctors/hospitals at all costs. Total opposite of a drama llama, more of an "it's just a flesh wound" type. She turned an ankle doing a sport we both took part in, and it was so sore and swollen, I and her husband forced her to go to hospital.

Her DH phoned me later, simultaneously cross (in a fond sort of way) and amused - they'd x-rayed it and said "Just a bad sprain... and it looks like your last broken ankle has healed really well..."

She hadn't even known it was broken at the time, just strapped it up and kept hobbling around on it.

RaymondStopThat · 03/12/2019 21:13

I broke my fibula and dislocated my ankle on a Saturday teatime. I was 8. My parents went out that night as usual, leaving me with the babysitter. They didn't consider taking me to hospital until the Monday! Nearly 50 years on you can still see the deformity in my ankle

Aragog · 03/12/2019 21:16

Broken bones hurt like hell 99 times out of 100.

Well an awful lot of people, including children, seem to manage to not spot them. I have dealt we have children who get up and brush themselves off and go back to playing after a brief cry of shock.

When I broke my own bone and dislocated my elbow it did hurt a lot. I was surprised at how much - especially as I have seen children just bounce up and go on playing. I thought i had a high pain threshold, but it was so painful - though it was the dislocation which hurt the most, not the break it has to be said.

It definitely isn't nonsense though that a lot of breaks, especially in children, are masked by the patient themselves. You only have to watch the odd A&E TV programme to see that.

aliphil · 03/12/2019 21:16

My mother, who is a GP, once insisted I (7) go to a birthday party because I'd said I would, even though I'd told her I didn't feel well enough. (It was a Saturday; I'm sure she'd have made me go to school on a weekday!) The following day I ended up in hospital with a severe kidney condition. You are not alone!

BertieBotts · 03/12/2019 21:18

Broken collarbones are notoriously hard to notice. When we were kids my sister and I and our cousins were larking about and the youngest fell off a double bed. Cried, was comforted, nobody thought much of it. They went off on a holiday where they went horseriding all week and only when they got home and she was still complaining of a painful arm took her to the doctor - broken collarbone.

It's because the pain refers to the arm/shoulder but then isn't anything obviously broken in the arm itself it is missed.

Thedonkeyhouse · 03/12/2019 21:24

I think it's really hard to know what to do sometimes in these situations.

If you take them to the Doctors and it turns out to be nothing you feel like 'that mother'.

If you don't take them and it turns out you should have, you feel like 'that mother'.

You just have to trust you judgement and hope for the best, you can't always get it right.

I remember one morning my son was limping. He limped at home, he limped to the doctors but for some reason the limp mysteriously wore off as soon as we got in the doctors office. I felt like a right pillock.

Bigsighall · 03/12/2019 21:25

Not all breaks are agony. My family have broken several things between us ... sometimes it’s agony, other times it’s not

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6