Feeling like a terrible and neglectful parent

[Notagoodtime]

Dd who is 12 caught her hand 2 weeks ago in a car door. A little swollen and bruised but after icing for a couple of hours she seemed fine. She has mentioned infrequently that her hand is still tender but I thought it probably would be for a while. Yesterday she mentioned that her have felt sore to touch and she could feel a lump. I’ve taken her to minor injuries tonight and they suspect a fracture of metacarpal bone. I feel so awful and neglectful. Have I ruined her chances of a good repair? She has to go back tomorrow as X-ray dept closed.

You’ve not been awful or neglectful, you just didn’t realise. But yes, any injury like that needs to be seen asap. I’m sure she’ll be fine.

A fracture typically heals well, as it's not a complete break. If she doesn't have any severe swelling, loss of sensation or mobility in her hand, she should be fine. Sometimes the body surrounds the joint with fluid to protect it which can create a painful sensation on nearby nerves.

You're not a bad parent, be kind to yourself. X

if it makes you feel any better, I took my DD then aged 10 years to school with a broken metatarsal. In my defence, the only accident that she’d had was falling out of her low-level bed (not a bunk bed) during the night. She did not even wake up properly, although I heard the thud. The school asked me to collect her halfway through the day when she complained about her foot hurting in PE. Even the doctor at A and E said that it was unlikely that her foot was broken as she was walking on it and did not seem in particular pain. She ended up being in a cast for several weeks! She is in her late 20s now and still finds it funny to embarrass me by telling the story as an example of my parental neglect.