To say dd cannot go swimming and need to go to A&E instead?

[Sarkyharky]

She came home from school yesterday and said 'I've broken my finger!' she bent it backwards playing netball. It did look a bit swollen so I said lets go and get it x-rayed. She said oh no, I haven't really broken it, look, I can bend it.

Today it is still swollen and sore. She is desperate to go swimming tonight as she has a competition at the weekend and she is very dedicated.

Although I would rather not have to go to A and E in the early evening when it takes forever, I am beginning to think perhaps I should make her go and say no to swimming!

do they do anything for a broken finger anyway?

She said oh no, I haven't really broken it, look, I can bend it.

My mum used to tell me that if you could bend something, it wasn't broken. I walked around for 3 days with my arm broken in 3 places because I believed her!

I'd get it checked out.

Our GP would just send you on to A+E with a rueful shrug for it. Walk-in closed (but they'd tell you to take two paracetamol if you had your head hanging off - I used to call them the "Two Paracetamol and Walk Off Centre").

They don't always X-ray hand injuries though - DD1 trapped her hand in a really heavy fire door last year and I took her down to A+E straight away as I was obviously concerned about it and she was in pain. They looked at it, said they were fairly confident it wasn't broken from their general knowledge of that kind of injury and sent us off with instructions to Calpol her up. DD1 was most annoyed cos she wanted to see her bones.

I am willing to bet hard cash on the fact that if I turned up with a 12 year old with a painful swollen finger with bruising at the base that they would x-ray it. It's not just "sore".

No one is saying they won't X-ray it. But you should not be overly confident that it's an absolute. Regularly fingers and toes are left without X-ray.

Obviously I hope your DD gets her X-ray and all is ok, but you would be risking that hard cash to bet she will get one.

They may not let her compete with taped fingers? Depends on the officials at the gala really, I’ve seen kids allowed and not.

I don't think they will let her compete, no. She'd have to untape her fingers for the races

My daughter was allowed to carry out normal activities after the bandage, we were off on holiday next day and they said she could do everything. I don't know about a swimming competition but think mine was allowed to swim, maybe ask them.

My mum used to tell me that if you could bend something, it wasn't broken. I walked around for 3 days with my arm broken in 3 places because I believed her!

^^ This

Against my better judgement I allowed my then 8-year-old to stay with my DB and his children. When I went to collect her the next day she looked a bit wan and I asked what was wrong. She'd fallen out of a tree the day before, my brother said "Can you bend your fingers? Then you're fine." Arm had to be re-broken and re-set under GA. 😡

I am willing to bet hard cash on the fact that if I turned up with a 12 year old with a painful swollen finger with bruising at the base that they would x-ray it. It's not just "sore"

You’ve lost there.

My 10 year old dd hyperextended her finger at gymnastics doing a flip. Bruised, painful, swollen. Went to MI, they assessed range of movement and pain levels, and concluded that even if it was broken, they were as certain as they could be there was no avulsion (bone piece broken off), and it was a simple fracture.

As there is nothing to do for a simple fracture but rest and let it heal, they decided against an x ray as it would have made no difference to treatment and outcome.

The finger healed with no issue, as predicted.

X-rays are radiation. They are harmful. They do not get dished out on request.

If OP's daughter needs to avoid tape, then provided there is no skin break, she could wrap the finger in lint wadding and cover it with a roll on finger bandage, if that is allowed in the competition. It renders the finger pretty much immobile, and there would be absolutely no chance of anything falling off into the water then. I currently have my own left ring finger in one, with a plaster and non adhesive gauze beneath, after I dislocated and burst open the top joint when I fell from a chair on Monday. (I never want to see globules of my own sc fat again. ) A visit to MIU, reset and five stitches later, and it's safe and comfortable under its "condom". I did have it buddy taped for the first two or three days, but the dressing and bandage are keeping it near rigid and giving me more manoeuvrability now that my middle finger is free.

Just something for OP to consider for her DD, if suitable.

My GP surgery no longer refers you for an X-Ray for that kind of thing. I would be told to go to A&E. The walk in centre can't refer either. 111 would tell us to go to A&E.

We have a MI unit in our A&E but you have to go to A&E and see the triage nurse before you are sent there.

In some areas it is more than acceptable to go straight to A&E for this kind of thing.

Strapping fingers up might do it, but alternatively different treatment might be needed.

We went to minor injuries. Their X Ray dept is being refurbished so they couldn't x -ray. Nurse gave her a clever double finger bandage thing which keeps the fingers together. Said it was inconclusive one way or another, it could be broken. If absolutely no improvement by Tuesday 'go to A & E for an x ray' - her words!

When I was in school I had a similar injury, went to the GP and was sent straight to our local A&E where they x-rayed it.

Luckily it wasn't broken in my case, but they strapped it up really well.

Point being, I suppose, that it's not automatically wrong to go to A&E just because you're conscious and walking about.

You have done the right thing.

When I was ten I fell off my bike.
My wrist swelled and the under part of it turned black with severe bruising.
My parents were too wrapped up in their own worries (in the process of breaking up) to notice.
They didn't take me to A&E and it wasn't X-rayed.
I couldn't use it for a month.
It wasn't until years later that I began physio due to that wrist never having been the same and a complex X-ray was taken that they detected the old break from my childhood.