Doctor speak

[usernamealreadytaken]

DS1 had a slight accident yesterday which landed us in A&E. Dr was great, checked him and sent for a spinal X-ray as a precaution, had a minor head injury and didn't need a scan. X-ray clear, sent home with head injury advice.

I had a call today from a consultant at the hospital. Apparently the radiographer had to report on the X-ray today and was concerned about something - T6 superior end plate, slight anterior wedging. Consultant assured me I was probably nothing to worry about, but asked me to bring DS back for review, not urgent, but can we come this eve. I explained the difficulty not our local hospital, 40 min drive away but could come later), so she has instead arranged for us to go to our local hospital this evening.

I am not panicking as she was really reassuring, and I assume if they were really worried they would have called him straight back in - is that a reasonable assumption? Now starting to just worry a little, and keep checking on him (mum, stop fussing, I'm fine!).

TIA

How is he OP?

Reviewed by doctor after three hours on hard chairs. Sent home with an appointment to come back to fracture clinic next week to be on the safe side. I still assume that is positive but worried they do still think it might be a fracture

Hi, try not to worry, it really isn't serious. X-rays of the spine taken from the side show each vertebra as being a roughly square shape. The front of the 6th Thoracic vertebra, about mid chest level, has been slightly squashed to give a mild wedge shape. It can happen from a fall and does not have any effect on the spinal cord or any nerves. All they want to check is that there are no other clinical issues as it is not something that can be diagnosed except by an X-ray. It is extremely unlikely that it will need anything done about it. Hope that helps.

Thank you alias, that's pretty much what I thought but then the mum panic crept in. We've been referred to fracture clinic next week and he's very sore today (sent home from school) so just R&R for him this weekend.