Yet another broken arm and the dreaded fracture clinic

[rebl]

My ds has gone and broken his arm AGAIN. The fracture clinics are full and they've apparently put him into a full clinic as extra number 20 . Last time we had to deal with fracture clinic ds couldn't cope. All the waiting, all the people, no toys. The waiting times in fracture clinic everytime we went were upwards for 2hrs. By the time we saw the dr ds was screaching and head banging . Even after the horrendous 1st experience they didn't make it better for us the 2nd time and the 3rd time I ended up paying to go privately because I couldn't put him (and me) through it again. The other problem was that the orthopedic dr didn't understand that ds doesn't feel pain and they said that because when they proded his arm that he didn't complain it must be fixed and didn't x-ray to confirm. And here we are again, exactly the same place broken.

What can we do, if anything? They have no understanding of my ds's issues and have no interest in making the clinic visit easier for us all.

A&E dr also said that ds needs more investigations because he's now had 5 injuries requiring A&E / hospital treatment in as many months and thats too many. Do I call CAMHS about this (he's currently having a full assessment by them) or do I call his general paed?

Anyone?

sorry to hear that rebl, your poor ds. Have you tried contacting PALS, they really should be doing more to accommodate his needs. Can you call both camhs and paed, I think I probably would.

Oh your poor wee ds. You need to contact CAMHS and ask them to fax the hospital alerting them that ds has extra needs and won't manage the waiting and isn't reliable at indicating a pain response.
Ds is seen immediately at GP and CAMHS because they are aware he doesn't do waiting. You need to have a thick skin as you hear the queue jumper comments but I have had worse so tend to give them this face

Sorry, rebl. No fun. They don't sound very disability conscious.

What do they mean, too many injuries? Are they implying that they think they're suspicious? Make sure they understand properly about your DSs SN. That's all you need!

Absolutely, tell your health visitor and any professionals in your support circle what's going on. They need to know, before the hospital get the child protection services involved (because that is what the DR meant if you didn't know). And when the children's services come to do their risk assesment and such they'll be met by a team of professionals who know your child, and know that the injuries are not your doing.
Good luck.
So sorry for all you have to go through at A+E, you sound like a good parent to actually go to the lenghs of paying for private treatment to save your child more distress. (not that you should have to do this)

I'll call PALS this morning and see what I can do, thanks for that suggestion.

I struggle to see how it's going to be seen as suspicious. 3 of the 5 injuries have happened in school, 2 at home. The only thing thats suspicious is why the heck the paed has never listened to me and the physio (when he was just 9 - 18months old) that he has no saving reflex. Thats why these injuries are so bad. Plus the fact that he just falls from standing for no reason occassionally and again why the paed has never investigated that and done anything about it.

What will child protection actually do? I mean, he's got a large team around him and I even told CAMHS about the falling. Plus more injuries in school than home, surely they can't point a finger at us can they?

The social worker from child services have to do a visit and then a meeting, before discharging it, or if they decidee to keep a case open for a bit, then visit every few weeks and will just attend your usual meet ups (if you have CAF or another form of meetings).
If 3 out of 2 injuries happned in school, that's saying something, lol. I'm sure you'll be fine!

We've got a CAF meeting on Monday. Unfortunatly the paed won't be there. I think I might call the paed today. I've also called the GP and asked for a call back because I think we need better pain relief than just calpol but also because they could call the paed and try and get them to start taking this all seriously.

Tell the clinic nurse he is disabled, has had 5 fractures and that child protection may be assessing him soon. But if you aren't seen within half an hour you will hve to leave as he can't cope with waiting.

Should get you fast-tracked to the consultant!

i'm sorry rebl, i think i would try what mariamagdalena wrote.

maria thats a good idea as well.