How would I know if broken?

[tazmo]

Dd2 got the top third of her finger trapped in the car door on Tuesday. Took her to the treatment room (where nurse triages the urgent cases at gp surgery) and she gave it a wash, dressed it and said if she wasn't using it or seemed bothered by it then to take her back in an hour. A bit vague if u ask me and felt like over concerned parent and within the hour, she seemed ok, so just left it.

Anyway, just taken the plaster off and it is still quite swollen. She will bend it from the middle of the finger but is ultra sensitive if we try to get her to use the top joint in the top third of the finger. Should I take her to go again? Nurse said she thought it was a soft tissue injury. It was q nasty at the time. The top third joint was 'flat'. She shut the car door on herself so there wasn't much weight behind it. There was a little cut too. Know it's not life or death... But...

I am a trauma nurse, and the general rule of thumb (no pun intended) is that if the joint comes out in a bruise, it is normally due to a little break. Just swelling and no bruising is not normally indicative of a fracture. Obviously there are exceptions to every rule though!
Unless it is broken and actually displaced (out of line) the only treatment would be to strap it to the neighbouring finger for 6 weeks and only re-X-ray if it was still problematic at that point.
Hope that is of some help. If in doubt, take her to a minor injury unit for an x-ray, but realistically, is probably going to be just fine :)

It is v bruised! Should I get it checked again? I'm concerned she tried to pull it out a bit after shutting the door on herself?

Oh bless her! How old is she? Has she used it when you aren't asking her to (and drawing her attention to it)? Normally children are braver than adults - if it isn't broken they just carry on as normal unless they are reminded of it. Obviously the older they get the more wary they are of using something that looks like it should hurt even if it doesn't really.
If you're still concerned, get someone to have another look. If you are worrying about nothing, so what, that's your job and it is their job to have a look and tell you that :)

I'd get it checked. Ds1 had two fractured wrists which did not bruise or swell. I was told by a+e that he was fine. I was very as I just knew they were broken. But we went home and perservered for a week. Took him back to a+e, got original xrays out and both wrists were fractured, 'clearly visible on xrays don't know how it was missed' (words of consultant)! Ds2 had fractured collarbone which only had small bruise. Turned away from a+e without xray basically because he didn't scream enough. Went back following day, he screamed at nurse, who then ordered xray (with look of disdain on her face) cue a look of shame when broken collarbone was detected. Dd2 had fractured wrist (twice) each time with no bruising or swelling.
Docs at hospitial told me it's always best to get a suspected broken bone looked at (even if they won't do anything) just so it can prevent arthritis forming in the future.

DS age 2.9 broke his finger a few weeks ago, it was a bone near the top of finger. I just thought it was badly bruised by DP insisted we should take him to the minor injuries unit. The nurse there tried to get him to grab a teddy and she said when he was grabbing it he wasn't moving the injured finger at all so she sent us down to A&E for an x ray. While we were waiting for x ray he was playing with the toys and seemed like there was nothing wrong with him, i was tempted to go home and felt a bit of a fraud getting him xrayed but DP said you might as well hang on as we were there. I was so sure they would say it was badly bruised but it was broken. They strapped it to the next finger and then he had to go back after two weeks to check it was better (which it was.) its a couple of weeks after the check now and its still tender when he knocks it although this may also be due to the nail not being fully grown back yet

Hi she's 3 in may. Dh tried to get her to fist her hands - shell do it rh but not the hand in which she trapped her finger. Another reason am concerned is she's been v clingy, regressed past couple of days in potty training (had 3 accidents today where she was doing well). Just been v v v v v v VOCAL! She sis anyway but generally when she is ill!