Is it broken?

S

Sporty

New member
I hurt my arm while sledding on Saturday. At first I thought it was broken just because it hurt so bad, but then the pain subsided a little bit and I could move my fingers, so I decided that it was just bruised. A large bruise formed between my wrist and elbow - closer to my wrist. It also swelled up a bit. I noticed that the skin was even broken a tiny bit.

It got to the point that it didn't hurt very much at all, unless it was touched. When touched, it hurt very bad.

Later that night, when I went to bed, it started to hurt a lot. It hurt the entire time I was sleeping (or trying to sleep.) I think I spent many hours laying half awake, in pain. After getting out of bed, it started to feel better again.

All day, it hurt bad when touched. I also noticed that it hurt when I used my arm, so I decided to loosely wrap it in a bandage hoping that restricting movement would help it heal faster. I kept the bandage on all day while using my arm. It did hurt less when bandaged.

A few hours ago (I stay up late), I noticed that my wrist was hurting, so I took the bandage off to look at it. The bruise had gotten bigger, I had red spots that looked like blood pooling up just below the surface of my skin, and it was swollen up larger than before. I kept the bandage off and continued to use my arm.

I noticed that it hurt most (other than when being touched on the bruise) when doing things like twisting my arm to open the door, moving my fingers to type on the keyboard and moving my wrist and fingers around to move the mouse. I also noticed that when I twisted it a certain way, I felt tingling/numbness in my hand, wrist and fingers. I then felt around and noticed that if i touched my arm on the side near the bruise, I also felt this tingling/numbness.

Now I am a little worried that it might be slightly broken. My dad doesn't want to take me to the doctor because he thinks it's not broken, but I am feeling concerned. It seems like just a bruise wouldn't cause my arm to hurt inside and feel tingly while moving my fingers and my wrist.

Do you think it could be broken? Or is that not possible, because I can use my hand and I'm not in severe pain?
 
It is possible there is a fracture, or it could be a severe sprain (they hurt worse than fractures). Although you are able to move your arm/wrist, you should get an x-ray to rule out any type of fracture.

I have experience with not thinking something is broke, when the arm actually had a fracture. My daughter seems to be accident prone, she had fractured her wrist approximately 1.5 years ago. Symptoms not even quite as severe as yours, mainly a lot of complaints of some pain. Sure enough, took her in, her wrist was fractured.

If your dad doesn't want to take you, is your mom able to? Are you old enough to take yourself? I think it should be looked at, just in case.

Good luck.
 
ditto on what the above poster just told you. you seriously DO NEED to have this x rayed and fully evaluated by an actual DR at this point just to make certain there is no possible breaks or cracks in what makes up many different hand and wrist bones we just have in that area? there are many, trust me. there is also the possibility of soft tissue damage too with what you are describing. we have t4endons ligaments and muscles that all work togehter to jijust 'use" our hands at all. if any of those streuctures become damaged,it will impact your abilitys with more fine motor movement? the mere fact that you are actually experiencing ANY numbness or tingling with that swelling being there too, it just NEEDS a full evaluation by a doc in an ER at the very least. they just know how our hands and fingers "should' be able to move and when something just does not feel right or look right either. thats why your dad really needs to just take you to the local ER? what you are describing just NEEDS to be checked out fully and also x rayed for ANYthing that could have been impacted with even cracking?

its just very crucial with what YOUR current symptoms are and how you stated this actually looks right now that this get looked at as soon as possible. especially if the hand is feeling colder than the other or any level of numbness and tingling is present. if your dad wont take you find someone else in your family who will. you just really need to make certain that everything is okay in there and you cannot do that at home. if something IS wrong and its not fixed properly you can lose some of the hand functions. hopefully once you really show your dad again how bad this looks and tell him everything about your symptoms he will get you to at least your family doc or the ER today? i wish you luck with this and hope it is not serious but it does NEED to be evaluated in order to know that. please let us know how things are going. FB
 
Hello

In my humble opinion here I think you need to go and get it xrayed. I spent 2 days this past summer with a broken wrist, walking around like it was fine, well it was not fine and it was indeed broken. I was in a cast for 4 weeks longer simply because of my silliness in not getting it looked after immediately.

If no one will take you, can you call a friend, take a cab, maybe the bus? I would make sure I had it looked after today so I could sleep tonight. You don't need to go through that agony if it is not necessary. Some things need to be looked after and this is one of them.

Good luck, get yourself to the Doctor, it will all work out fine once you have been xrayed and know what you are dealing with.

JackiesLost
 
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