How would I know if I've fractured my nose?

[MamaFi]

Doc said go to A&E, but I can't do that until later when I have someone here to look after the boys.

I gave my face quite a whack with the corner of the car door against the bridge of my nose very hard this morning, lots of blood and it almost knocked me out cold - I had youngest son in the car so I kept it together... someone passing by suggested ambulance.. I was like no- must get home. Drove home, ice pack on face, bleeding has now stopped. Pain not tooo bad, when I touch one side it hurts, it's more numb than anything now... have stopped hyperventilating and crying now.

Anyone ever actually fractured/broken nose? Would it be much more painful? Does what I've described sound like I shouldn't be too worried?

Feel like a proper idiot.

Oh you poor thing! Get it checked out! I broke my nose and remember the numb feeling, but that may have been because I had a snow pack on my face made up of snow and a handkerchief. Can you breathe ok now? Its not dreadfully urgent, but you may want to get it looked at to make sure you don't end up with a nose like a boxer!!

If it makes you feel any better, I got head butted in the eye by my dog this morning and have a swollen grazed eyebrow thats still throbbing!

oh you poor thing.. nothing worse than banging your nose!

from what I can remember with the ds's ( who'd have boys huh?) If you pop to A+E later on it's probable that they wouldn't get a clear xray because of the swelling anyway.. so are more than likey to just make sure it's straigh and you have feeling in all the right places etc.. and the refer you to maxiofacial in about 7 to 10 days where they can just check you out.

Unless you look like a rugby play crossed with a boxer that it.

pop a long later on when you can.. get it checked.

maxiofacial .. might just be ENT lol.. sorry we had cheek bones go as well here. < shakes head>

Can I suggest that if you can breath ok in & out of each nostril you wait for any swelling to go down and have another look at your nose 5 days after the accident. If its not straight / got any bumps you need to get your GP to refer you to ENT. If anything needs to be done there is usually a 14 day window from the injury. In my experience A/E depts dont xray (because of the initial swelling & its difficult to see what is going on) & also because of the radiation dose to your head that would be required - requests for xrays of a nose usually have to come from the ENT team.
Good luck

Thanks ladies... ok I will get it checked out later. I have taken some ibuprofen and my 4 year old gave me his blankie to make me feel better, bless. I keep crying thinking I'll have a big fat boxer's nose now to complement my existing "ski-jump" as my lovely fiance calls it.

Bridge of my nose still feels very weird.

Sounds like your sons were in the wars BCNS, how awful. Who'd have dogs or children hey Elsa? My dog required saving from a river a few weeks ago - really hurt my leg doing that!!

Thanks Ali - you sound like a nurse? thank you! Spoke to nurse at surgery as soon as it happened, she said to go to A&E to be x-rayed/checked... Will see how it feels later.

Thank you again.

I hope the swelling goes down soon!

Well, I'm waiting for the 3rd thing to happen now...Second dog walk of the day. Put dogs in car, same dog that head butted me managed to trap an appendage of his on something in the car- cue lots of shrieking, so bad that a neighbour ran over the road thinking a baby was being attacked...I got the boot open thinking what the hell has he done, trying to identify the source of the pain and minimise damage on the howling crying, shrieking dog (wondering how quickly I ca n get him to the vet) when my other dog leaps out of the car in a bid to escape the howler- fortunately, she was forestalled from running into the road by the running neighbour, who, thinking that she was vicious because all he could hear was what he thought was screaming baby, wouldn't touch her, but his presence was enough to stop her. Meanwhile I clambered into the boot to rescue head butter dog, knowing that, in his panic, it was highly likely I'd get bitten. He freed his trapped whatever it was, and I did indeed get bitten on the forearm for my troubles, but my soothing noises shut up the screaming. Fortunately I had my coat on, so his teeth just left pretty impressive indentations, but no broken skin. It now really hurts and is swollen and bruised. I drove to the woods crying from the shock of it all....Oh, the dog's fine. Leapt all over the place on his walk.....

BTW, he's a perfectly lovely spaniel, really soppy, just a massive bundle of energy and accidents waiting to happen as he is a teenager...