[tle]

Some of you may remember my post last month about my DD's broken arm. Briefly, I took her to hospital A which x-rayed and diagnosed break. They put a half cast on, told me it would need to be on for a minimum of 2 weeks and referred her to a GP in a weeks time. The GP said she didn't treat breaks and hospital A should have referred me to the fracture clinic at Hospital B so she gave me a referral for there (and another x-ray referal to have done before visiting the fracture clinic). I phoned the fracture clinic and they refused to see DD because they only take referrals from hospitals, not GPs. Back to hospital A who can no longer help because she has been discharged and referred to GP.

So, in a nutshell, neither hospital A, hospital B nor our GP will see DD about her broken arm (which has been in a cast and not painful to her).

Now that it is almost 6 weeks I don't know what to do. General consensus seemed to be to take her to a physio who will remove the cast so I called in to see one yesterday and he told me that yes, he can remove the cast but only if I'm sure the fracture is healed.

My question is, how do I find that out? She had the x-ray done this morning and the reposrt says:

"They're are healing greenstick type fractures of the distal radius and ulna with some periosteal reation. Detail is obscured by overlying plaster.
There is mild focal deformity on the dorsal aspect of the radial fracture but no significant displacement of angular is seen.
The alignment of the ulna fracture appears to be essentially anatomical."

Based on that, do you think it is safe to remove the plaster? I know the standard response is to seek expert medical advice but given that neither of the 2 nearby hospitals, nor our GP or physio will give advice I need to decide myself.

This post has been edited by tle: 23/11/2012, 03:42 PM

[howdo]

Can the physio read the report?

[soontobegran]

Take the report to the physio and they will confirm it is ready to be removed.

[tle]

When I spoke to the physio he told me he could remove it at a cost of $10 but I nedded to know myself whether or not it was safe to do so beforehand.

[Tenacious C]

Can you see another physio - all the physio's I have seen have been happy to review x-ray reports and determine whether a cast should some off.

[tle]

There is a 2nd physio in town. I might stop in with the xray report tomoprrow and see what she said.

[Green Fairy]

Can you see another GP? DD saw the fracture clinic once after her break and then our GP ordered the final xray and removed the cast.

[Overtherainbow]

When I broke my arm, the GP at the hospital (country town) removed my plaster. My arm was re-xrayed to check all was fine. Remember I'm old so this was 20 years ago.

When DD broke hers it was removed by an orthopaedic surgeon, x-ray done to check all had healed. Not a bad break but still referred to an ortho.

I wouldn't remove it without a medical professional telling me it's fine. Is there a health number you can ring who can tell you where to go?

[Chelli]

How awful you've been given the run around so badly by the professionals who are supposed to help you. I would not take the plaster off myself though as I can not read an xray report.

Good idea to see the other physio. Good luck with it.

[doctorseuss]

What an awful situation. Is there another GP? Otherwise turn up at Hospital B's ED - they will be able to get you into fracture clinic.

6 weeks should be fine for it to heal but the site of the fracture should be examined for tenderness - if it's really sore when pressed its not ready for the cast to come off.

Write complaints to both hospitals - utterly appalling.