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Post by shamrock on Mar 1, 2023 17:43:44 GMT
Anyone every break the tip of their finger?
DS is in the middle of high school baseball tryouts. He’s a catcher. Took a bad ball off a finger (right hand not glove hand) yesterday. He can move it. The finger tip is swollen. Looks bruised. He says it hurts but “not bad.” He thinks the ball hit off the nail.
He doesn’t think it’s broken. I don’t think it is. But not really sure what I’m basing that off of. I feel like it’d hurt a lot more if it was. He doesn’t want to go get it checked out. At almost 17 I’m trying to let him call those shots a bit more. Plus DH thinks it’s just bruised bad and he doesn’t need it checked. I told DS he at least needs to talk to coach and let him know.
Anyone have experience share?
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Post by scrapmaven on Mar 1, 2023 17:57:48 GMT
I can only share my ds's story. He was playing basketball and came home w/a green, bruised finger. I wanted to take him to the doctor, but dh was convinced that it was just bruised. Dh is very reasonable, so I erred on his side. 5 days later ds was still sore, but not in bad pain, by any means. So, I took him to the doctor. They had to align his broken finger that is now misshapen. That was years ago and he never let's us forget it. When in doubt call the doc.
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momto4kiddos
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,153
Jun 26, 2014 11:45:15 GMT
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Post by momto4kiddos on Mar 1, 2023 17:58:41 GMT
My 6th grader was catching a game, came over and asked me to get him some ice for his hand. I did, he continued to catch a couple more innings before coach pulled him (ds thought he was fine.) He had a broken thumb!
If he says he's fine, i'd give it a couple days unless you're concerned.
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Post by dnkmmw on Mar 1, 2023 18:06:46 GMT
I broke my middle finger at the top joint a few years ago. It hurt a lot when it happened, but my fingernail had also bent over, and I thought that's why it hurt. It didn't hurt very bad, and I was able to move it as usual. I did not think it was broken and my husband, in his non-medical opinion, didn't think it was broken. After about two weeks, I mentioned to a friend that it still hurt. She said, you should probably go in. I went in later that day and x-rays showed the break. I would have expected a broken finger to hurt more.
Dawn
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Post by ScrapbookMyLife on Mar 1, 2023 18:12:25 GMT
I'd go on the side of caution, and go to urgent care, just to make sure it's not broke or fractured.
I'd get him a finger brace, so at the very least.....it has support and protection.
It's always when one is trying to be careful of a minor injury, that it seems to gets bumped on anything and everything.
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Post by busy on Mar 1, 2023 18:16:27 GMT
I'd buddy tape it and let him make the call from there.
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Post by Basket1lady on Mar 1, 2023 18:26:57 GMT
I’d take him in. DD hurt her foot and complained off an on for a few weeks that it hurt. She could move it fine and she continued to wear heels daily (to school!) so I shrugged it off thinking “how bad can it hurt if she’s wearing heels?” We finally went in to get it X-rayed and yup, there’s a fracture. She was on crutches for weeks and now at 23 has hip problems from walking weird.
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RosieKat
Drama Llama
PeaJect #12
Posts: 5,538 
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Post by RosieKat on Mar 1, 2023 18:46:58 GMT
How long are tryouts? If it's just another couple of days, I'd probably tell DS we'd wait till the end and then go to get it checked out. I know the unfortunate reality of how tryouts work and how he might be screwed if he can't complete them due to an injury. The objective fact is that getting it checked out is the best scenario, but he's also 17 as you've said. You can force the issue, of course, but in less than a year, you can't. I'd rather tell him your thoughts, let him decide within reason, and tell him that if there is ANY pain after tryouts are over, you're taking him in. If tryouts are still a couple of weeks, then I'd probably push him to go in now.
It seems like for 95% of these things, they just splint it or buddy tape it anyway.
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Post by Lexica on Mar 1, 2023 19:14:47 GMT
I would urge him to at least have it X-rayed. He is young and has many many years left to need full use of those fingers! I had a finger injury where I fell and jammed it into the nearby wall. The finger from the knuckle to the tip was facing off at an angle like a flag on a pole. Because I depended on my fingers to make a living (I was in court reporting) I went to a hand specialist. No broken bone, but the joint was badly damaged. They pulled it back into the joint and splinted it.
After several weeks in the splint, I had to have this apparatus put on that slowly put pressure on the finger to get it to bend again. It was frozen in a straight line. After the gadget got it to bend again, I couldn’t straighten it out all the way again, it was frozen in the bent position! I had to keep going back and forth between working on getting it straight and then getting it to bend. They eventually made this little gadget that I had to use several times a day for a certain time period and continually make a fist with it on. It had springs on it to force the finger straight and then bent again. It was like doing sit-ups with my hand. It hurt like hell, let me tell you. I couldn’t type for a solid year! But I worked that motion gadget religiously and eventually I could use my finger without pain. It still took some time to get a full range of motion back to where you could not tell it was ever injured. And all this hassle was with no actual broken bone!
I understand wanting him to make his own decisions, but at 17, he wouldn’t appreciate the consequences of not having it looked at. If it isn’t broken and the joint is fine, great! If it is, then he would be better off getting started on the rehab process.
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Post by shamrock on Mar 1, 2023 19:25:45 GMT
The joint is totally fine. He can grip a pencil, baseball and bat. He can make a fist. If I had any thought that joint was compromised it would have been looked at yesterday. I cut my pinky tendon with a table knife while cutting lemon bars years ago. Looked like a tiny paper cut but was so much worse. DS knows if movement is compromised at all it’s something that needs to be checked!
DH had PT today and talked to his therapist about it (specializes in arms and hands) about DS injury. He said based in the description it’s probably badly bruised, but he hasn’t seen it of course.
I checked in with DS at lunch. He says it’s doing ok. Whatever that means in 17 yr old speak. He did agree to let coach know what’s going on. So that will be another set of eyes on it and possibly have the trainer check it out (trainer isn’t always around for baseball 🙄)
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Post by shamrock on Mar 1, 2023 19:28:59 GMT
How long are tryouts? If it's just another couple of days, I'd probably tell DS we'd wait till the end and then go to get it checked out. I know the unfortunate reality of how tryouts work and how he might be screwed if he can't complete them due to an injury. The objective fact is that getting it checked out is the best scenario, but he's also 17 as you've said. You can force the issue, of course, but in less than a year, you can't. I'd rather tell him your thoughts, let him decide within reason, and tell him that if there is ANY pain after tryouts are over, you're taking him in. If tryouts are still a couple of weeks, then I'd probably push him to go in now. It seems like for 95% of these things, they just splint it or buddy tape it anyway. This is how we’re handling it so far. DS knows that it can be looked at asap if he feels it needs to. We’ve gone over the pros & cons so to say. For now he’s choosing to wait. That may change after tryouts but we’ll see later. |
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Post by shamrock on Mar 1, 2023 19:30:00 GMT
I broke my middle finger at the top joint a few years ago. It hurt a lot when it happened, but my fingernail had also bent over, and I thought that's why it hurt. It didn't hurt very bad, and I was able to move it as usual. I did not think it was broken and my husband, in his non-medical opinion, didn't think it was broken. After about two weeks, I mentioned to a friend that it still hurt. She said, you should probably go in. I went in later that day and x-rays showed the break. I would have expected a broken finger to hurt more. Dawn What did they do for it? |
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Post by dnkmmw on Mar 1, 2023 22:18:23 GMT
I broke my middle finger at the top joint a few years ago. It hurt a lot when it happened, but my fingernail had also bent over, and I thought that's why it hurt. It didn't hurt very bad, and I was able to move it as usual. I did not think it was broken and my husband, in his non-medical opinion, didn't think it was broken. After about two weeks, I mentioned to a friend that it still hurt. She said, you should probably go in. I went in later that day and x-rays showed the break. I would have expected a broken finger to hurt more. Dawn What did they do for it? I was splinted for 6 weeks. I had x-rays every two weeks. It wasn't healing quite right, so they curved the split for the last two weeks. Dawn |
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blue tulip
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by blue tulip on Mar 2, 2023 13:18:46 GMT
 my son broke his fingertip in basketball last year. i forget the type of fracture it was, but the end joint and nail bed was smashed down and under the second bone. we thought it was just jammed at first, and didn't go in for about a week. but the swelling didn't go down and localized, and he couldn't bend it.. so eventually we went in to the urgent care at the local orthopedic office. good thing we did, because by then it was infected and it would have created some big issues soon. they had to numb it, pull it back out, rotate and splint it. luckily he avoided surgery and it healed well, but it was close because we had waited so long. the pain wasn't very bad for him either, but he's never been bad with pain. the infection wasn't obvious visually because the nail had been smashed so far down into his finger, everything looked messed up. i'm glad i pulled the mom card and we went in, because if he and his dad had had their way, he's still have his fingertip bent at 60 degrees and lost sensation permanently. |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 5, 2024 7:33:31 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2023 13:33:50 GMT
My son broke his finger 4 weeks ago, catching a ball. We thought it was just bruised, went to the doctor same day. we were sent for Xrays - turned out he had not only broken his finger, a piece of the bone that had sheared off. Had surgery, pins sticking out/is in a cast. He is getting the cast off today, then another 4 weeks of no sports to go. The pain was bad when he 1st broke it, but after that wasn't bad. He couldn't move it well. I am glad we went.
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blue tulip
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,005
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Post by blue tulip on Mar 2, 2023 13:37:49 GMT
i'm not sure if these will show for you , because they don't for me. but sometimes the board's pics look like this for me, and i can tell by the comments that other people can see them, so..  this is what it looked like before we went in.  and this is the xray. i had forgotten til i looked up the facebook post, that it affected his growth plate too.  |
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Post by auntkelly on Mar 2, 2023 14:21:20 GMT
I would take him to an orthopedic doctor who specializes in hands.
I’ve had two broken fingers. The first one was a very bad break when I was about 25. I went to a bad surgeon and it did not heal properly. (After I started practicing workers’ compensation law, I learned what a terrible reputation the doctor had). I had a couple other surgeries by a different surgeon to try and fix what the first surgeon did. The second surgeon greatly improved my range of motion, but I still have problems with that finger and it is badly scarred.
My second break on a different finger was not nearly as bad. We were at the lake when it happened and I went to a small town emergency room. The doctor X rayed it, then gave me a little splint to wear and said it would be fine in six weeks.
When I returned to the workers’ comp court on Monday, my collègues insisted I go see an orthopedic hand specialist. He put a soft cast on my hand and arm which completely immobilized my broken finger. I went back in a few days and even I could see that my broken finger wasn’t healing straight, even with the support of the cast. The doctor operated and I haven’t had any problems at all with that finger.
Hopefully, your son’s finger isn’t broken and it will heal, but if it were me, I would have it checked out.
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Post by shamrock on Mar 2, 2023 18:17:22 GMT
Update today
Finger feels better he says. Swelling has decreased. Still some discomfort. He says it hurts but isn’t painful. He has full range of motion. Can make a hard fist. Whatever that means lol! Coach and trainer looked at it yesterday before tryouts and cleared him to play. He knows if anything changes or it doesn’t keep improving then we’ll take the choice out of his control and get it looked at.
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Post by kmcginn on Mar 2, 2023 22:08:56 GMT
Glad he's improved.
If the trainer cleared him, I'd say he's good. Unless of course it starts up again.
But it sounds like he knows that and will let you know if that happens.
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