DD injured knee - when to know whether to seek medical advice?

[ChocolateCrepe]

I’ll start this by saying I have depression and anxiety and my childrens health is a trigger for me and I’ve always struggled with catastrophising this and not knowing when to go to a doctor/A&E and when to treat at home, I always worry I’m going to miss something and they’ll get worse

So DD fell over on Saturday night, cut her knee, it was quite a big cut but no big deal (or so I thought) cut to today, her knee is very very swollen, she is struggling to straighten it and struggling to put any weight on it (she can, just not fully)
Shes also a little bit unwell and is off school with cold symptoms and a little bit of a temperature
She also has type 1 diabetes just in case that’s relevant in any way

So in my head she’s fractured the bone and the temperature is a sign of infection so I want to take her to A&E for an x-ray - DH thinks just continue to ice it and she’ll be fine, but he has a tendency to be a bit lax and I’ve had to overrule him several times and turned out to be right

Prepared to be told I’m over reacting (I’m not expressing my concerns out loud to DD btw) but what would other normal parents do?

She needs an xray, it is relevant that she has diabetes as that can affect healing. Please get her seen today.

I would take her to the walk in centre, always better to get checked out. No one will bat an eyelid or think you are overreacting. Hope she feels better soon.

Thank you both for responding
I’m just Googling to see if there is any walk in centres nearby, I remember there being a mass closing of them all a few years ago

I now also feel terrible that she’s been in pain all weekend because I ignored my instinct to get it looked at in case I was being dramatic 😩

I did similar, eventually went to dr after 3 days of hobbling around and struggling to sleep, was sent for an X-ray and mri. Turned out I had chipped a bit off my knee cap and done some ligament damage. It didn't make the healing any faster but did make me take it a lot slower and make sure everything was fully healed before getting back into exercise etc.

Yes that should need checking as it could very well be infected (the symptoms do match) and the diabetes increases the risk of bacterial skin infections

It can be confusing when to seek help when it’s not yourself but in this instance I woke get the child checked out as there may be an infection.

As a child my same age friend fell over and cut her knee whilst we were out playing. Cut didn’t look that bad but the next day she was in awful pain and a doctor attended the house (mid 60s when house calls were routine) and it was discovered that a stone had got up inside the cut which was not visible until a bit of delving around was done!

Hope your child will be seen to quickly and will be ok.

Try a minor injuries unit if you have one nearby. They’re usually able to do an x-ray. Our local minor injuries unit is further away than a couple of paediatric A&E’s, but it’s way faster to get seen. Less than an hour to be seen, x-rayed, and given crutches.