Is it possible for a hairline fracture to go unhealed for months?

[Gravitycollapse]

As some of you know, I was in a motorcycle accident last September which resulted in a hairline fracture in my wrist (although the radiologist contested the doctor's claim).

While the swelling, immobility and acute pain has gone away, an aching persists. I would say I can only lift about half as much weight with the injured hand than I could before the accident.

In the past couple of weeks, the pain has been increasing and now it seems to be a sort of radiating pain coming from the bone. I can press on all the parts of my wrist without any pain at all. My range of motion is normal. But when I lift something, it hurts.

I was with a friend a couple weeks ago who is in medical school and she took a look at it and suggested that the fracture might not have healed if I did not properly immobilize the wrist for the prescribed amount of time. I only had a brace on for about a week before it drove me insane and I threw it in the corner of my room.

[hobbit709]

1. You guessed it.

Bones don't heal overnight.

[raven mad]

2. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

About 4 years ago, I (the consummate klutz) slipped on some wet stairs and banged the dickens out of my left knee. The spousal unit dragged me to the ER, where, with all efficiency and no delay, they told me it was "twisted". Wrapped it up, prescribed ibuprofen and a pain med, turned me loose. Long story short, about 3 months later, while at work, my boss noticed I was still limping and sent me off to see a REAL doctor. Went to an orthopedic surgeon. Turns out the underside of my knee was broken! No surgery, fortunately, but I had been walking on a broken knee for over 80 days! Then was in a "walking cast" for 4 months. Fortunately, it was winter (I'd have been really pissed if it had happened during motorcycle season)!

See an orthopod. It's worth the extra $$.

[Aristus]

5. Point of order: the doctors practicing emergency medicine are real doctors, too.

Just as the PA's and ARNP's who practice EM are real PA's and ARNP's.

I don't work in emergency medicine, but I have a great deal of respect for those who do. They are horribly overworked, and a lot of them are burned out. That doesn't excuse them from misdiagnosing you, but they are still real doctors.

All medical providers make mistakes, but that by itself doesn't delegitimize their study and training.

Did they order an x-ray of your knee? If they did, and missed the posterior patellar fracture, the radiologist has to share some of the blame.

[raven mad]

6. I didn't mean to dis our ER docs -

They're terrific and put up with a lot of weird stuff here - weirder than most ER's! No, it was just too hurried, and the X-ray tech (in-room, not in the X-ray dept.) was about 12. We're very, very understaffed and underfunded. This is only 3 years after the only hospital in the Interior went to for-profit; care has suffered exponentially since then. Our ANP's and PA's here are fabulous as well; I admire their dedication.

I'm just trying to encourage anyone who is doubtful about a dx to get another check. I found out the hard way that even the best care can be wrong on occasion!

[Aristus]

7. Okay. Thanks for clarifying.

Whenever I'm not sure about a diagnosis, and the patient is not showing any signs of getting better, I encourage him or her to get a second opinion. It seems funny that a profession which suffers when egos get in the way of ethical practice draws so many ego-maniacs. One can't be too proud to admit that one is wrong.

[raven mad]

8. Aristus, my regular doc

is a great-looking, arrogant MF, and I love him! This incident was just the one. When my hubby had a heart attack in '09, we didn't even have a cardiac care unit - he had to be airlifted to Anchorage, at a cost of (no, I'm not kidding) $13,000.00. Great medevac folks, too - they're used to it here! Now, we have a cardiac unit - but in a for-profit hospital that discharges folks way too fast. Not the doctor's or other caregivers faults - it's the corporations.

[Aristus]

9. One of these days, we'll kick for-profit medicine to the curb, and keep it there.

Every day, I get pre-authorization requests from health insurance companies. They require both the patient and the provider to jump through hoops before they'll pay a claim. I hate that. As far as I'm concerned, a pre-authorization form should have just one check-box, and that it should read: "BECAUSE I SAID SO!"

I just want to grab a medical insurance adjustor by the lapels and tell him: "You pay the claim!; I'll do the medicine, thank you!"

[raven mad]

10. Can I watch? I'll have your back!!

Seriously, medical providers are stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. Most deeply want to provide great care - and then the insurance company says, "do whatever, but we won't pay". For the medevac? Under our BC/BS insurance, which costs us (through spouse's job) $475 a month, they paid $150.00 for the medevac. The idiots had no clue how far Anchorage is from Fairbanks, and that it takes 12 hours to drive there in winter, through the tallest mountain range in the US (right past Denali, through Denali National Park).

[Aristus]

12. Sure. I'll even let you help out. You have a personal beef with them, obviously.

People who run large corporations are so stupid. It never seems to occur to any of them that even if we go to a national health system, they will still be able to sell supplemental policies to anyone who thinks he or she deserves gold-plated medical care for being rich and stuff. Or, failing that, they could always sell some other kind of insurance.

Health insurance isn't going to go anywhere just because we get a single-payer system. Anymore than private retirement savings accounts were going to disappear when Social Security got started.

[raven mad]

13. I don't really mind some for-profit medical centers.

But we don't have a choice here. There's only one hospital - and Banner Health (a/k/a MF'ers) own it now.

Until it went for-profit, we had some of the best ER folks ever. Granted that the docs/aps/pa's came up for temporary stints, they did so because of the diverse situations, and weird stuff - many stayed after their temp jobs were through. My husband's doctor did, and he wound up providing great end-of-life care for my father-in-law (Alzheimer's). The doc is now known as the go-to guy for older patients, and no one minds paying a little more out of pocket for his services.

[davidpdx]

3. I broke my ankle and it was a fracture

I had to have a cast on and convinced my doctor here in Korea to let me wear a boot in place of it. The accident happened in late July and I believe I wore the boot until October. It was two weeks before I was suppose to fly from Korea back to the US for vacation and six weeks before having to be in China (I flew back to Korea for a week and then to China). What a pain in the ass that was. On top of that when I got to the US I ended up with pneumonia.

I swear next time I travel I'm going to have insurance.

[Raffi Ella]

4. I did that to my ankle a few years ago.

I jumped off a log and landed wrong, my foot twisted under. I coulda sworn I heard it crack, I was afraid to get up because I just knew it was broken.

It wasn't, but just like you described, it didn't hurt when I walked or touched it but if I put my foot down in a certain way or god forbid banged my heel on the ground while playing with my dog or something- omg. the pain would be excruciating. I didn't have full range of motion either.

It took months for it to heal.

I never went to the Dr, but I did massage it and made sure to put my ankle through its full range of motion as much as I could while it healed. It's fine now.

I would wrap it during the day if I were you and take an OTC pain killer. Or go to the Dr if the pain is really bad.

[Arugula Latte]

11. I'm worried about that with my son.

X-ray was inconclusive but he's on crutches and the pain got worse yesterday rather than better.