Broken finger - X ray needed, when would you go??

[casualbikeride]

Just been to a walk in centre with ds. The doctor is very sure his finger is broken after a fall. It's strapped up and he said to go back there on Tuesday morning for an x ray.

WIBU to take him to the bigger hospital on Monday for the x ray?? Tuesday is back to work and school. Also, I do want it checked. Kicking myself for not going yesterday but it was one of those 'should I shouldn't I injuries'.

Yes it would be unreasonable, it's still a BH on Monday. The doc said Tuesday, so go on Tuesday. It's strapped up. An x ray a day earlier won't fix the bone.

Why didn't they take an X-ray at the time? Monday is a bank holiday so services at the walk in centre may be restricted till Tuesday?

The walk in centre x ray is only available Monday to Friday and not bh's. I didn't take him to the big A and e because I knew it would busy this weekend and wasn't sure if I'd be wasting their time!

I'd go now. It's a broken finger. DH's finger is a perfect example of why you shouldn't leave broken fingers. He can't straighten it now.

i'd go sooner rather than later tbh

ds2 "broke" a finger, came home from school with it black and blue....we buddy strapped it, next morning it was HUGE, so off to MI we went, they said it might be broken, it might not, but buddy strapping was the best thing to do, along with a sling to keep it elevated, or it was a 60mile trip to the A&E to xray and the outcome would be to continue with buddy strapping/elevation

It was still as big if not bigger and blacker after the weekend, so they said they could xray it at the MI....not a bloody mention of that for the past week

gist of it was, as soon as they had the xray they sent us hot foot to the orthopaedic surgeon who was most unimpressed it had been faffed with for over a week
They wanted to go in and reset it but once he was under the GA they decided that might not be wise, so that was teh end of that.

Sooooooo, yes, go get it Xrayed

Often a fracture is left until swelling and soft tissue damage reduces so the bone injury can be treated better. For example casting straight away often means a recast in fracture clinic 3 days later as swelling goes down and the cast is loose.

There may well be good reason for tuesday. He may intend to refer you straight to fracture clinic which runs tues am, or similar.

If you go monday they'll likely do everything the wi did. They may not xray until tues anyway dependinng on their x ray dept. Then you'll have to wait for a fracture clinic appt a few days after that.

Stick to tues. Don't use twice the nhs resources for the same injury.

Oh god really. I told my Exdp what they said. He questioned why they even want to x ray it 🤔 The dr at the walk in said the big a and e has a 7 hour wait time today! That's why I thought about going early on Monday morning. Also avoiding the drunks etc tonight and tomorrow.

It is still swollen. There was a small bruise but that's gone now. He doesn't use it at all which is what made me go today. I feel awful now, he can be slightly dramatic at times hence I waited 😞

The reason for Tuesday is purely because their X-ray will be open again.