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Decisions... shoulder injury

tkradtke

tkradtke

Professional Brainstormer
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Dec 28, 2009
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So my daughter (15) dislocated her shoulder at dance. She popped it back in herself. Her dance instructor told her to go to the chiropractor to get everything realigned. We went today and he was concerned by the numbness she's having. He thinks that it could still be somewhat out of socket. He wrote us a prescription for an x-ray, if it comes back dislocated, we will need to go to the ER to get it fixed (?). My dilemma is, do we do this or do we just skip the middle step and go straight to the ER first thing in the morning? I tried talking to the doctor about this and he claimed to have no opinion and acted as if the thought of going straight to the ER never occurred to him. I think there are pros and cons to both...

If we go to the imaging lab first and it's not dislocated, we're done.... super easy and we avoid the usual 3 hour ER ordeal. However, if it is, then we have the 3 hour ER ordeal on top of the time spent at the imaging lab. ER is more of a known... 3+ hours involved dislocated or not. But we will be sitting most of those 3 hours in a waiting room with patients that who have various contagious cruds.

Clara's general M.O. is to present like one thing, but not be it. So I'm leaning towards the imaging lab. Clara wants to go to ER, so it's one wait and done.

Thoughts?
 
That would be a hard call. But, I would be worried about the numbness for sure. Will they do X-rays again at the ER? If so, I would just go straight to the er

I cut my finger tip off with a rotary cutter 1 minute before my insurance urgent care closed. I called the ER to see how much it would be and it was 200.00 just to walk in the door. There was another urgent care out of network that I called and it was 169.00 to be seen, but there was a good chance the wait time was shorter. I went ended up in and out in an hour with a bill of 250.00 for everything. Had I went to the ER the wait time was 14 hours! Our ER's are overwhelmed here.

And the out of network billed my insurance and I ended up with a 75.00 refund. So glad I choose the route I did.
 
Oh no! All I have to say is, this stinks. :( I'm sorry she's having numbness.
I will say that when G broke her thumb 2 weeks ago, DH wanted to take her to an urgent care but I said Nope cuz if it is broken, she still has to end up at the children's hospital ER (and some of my worry was paying for the urgent care and then the ER, kind of like Katrina lol). So personally, I guess that means I'd say to go to ER? But I think you should do what you think is right. The other thing is, where is the place where you get X-rays? The waiting room for G for getting her cast is the same waiting room as for sick kids (not the ER, but like a separate waiting room in the middle of 3 different "care" areas, if that makes sense, and one of them is the "cast room"). And that's the same waiting room as for X-rays.
Anyway, whatever you decide, it'll be the right choice for you and for Clara. My thinking is, if the chiro is nervous about the numbness, then why doesn't he say just to go to ER? Like, why get the X-ray first? Did he explain the chances of the numbness being a problem vs it being part of normal recovery?
 
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But, she just got out of surgery!!! Tell that kid to slow down!
Another consideration is how long it takes to get xrays back. In ER, you usually get them back right away. In our radiology dept, they're read by the radiologist & forwarded to the GP/referring dr to give the results.
 
Thanks @KatrinaHunt13 @Tree City and @jesskab... you all make good points. I'm now leaning towards the one stop shop of going to the ER (at the children's hospital). It's not as bad as the regular ERs around here and we thought we would go fairly early in the morning before things get too backed up (is that possible, or are we just fooling ourselves?).

Sara - that is an interesting point. If he thought it was dislocated, why didn't he just send us to the ER? I don't know whether that was a statement on what we would find with an x-ray or not.

Jess... I know!!! But regular ER and urgent care visits are par for the course with this girl. The appendicitis is a random thing, but dance injuries happen on a regular basis. Her joints all hyper extend, so she goes a bit too far every once in a while.... that's what happened here. At teacher told her to throw her arm back harder to get around on a turn they were doing... so she did.

My husband is getting ready to get on a plane home from Dubai and my son is in Missouri at my parents' house... so looks like our girls' day out will be spent at the ER... good times! :-)
 
Thanks @dawnmarch! At the ER now. Thinking that going this route first thing in the morning was the right call. We've been here 30 minutes and we're already in a room and have seen the first doctor.

@NancyBeck I thought about that, but the appointments were too far out. :-/
 
Sounds like you made the right choice and so glad that you are being seen so quickly. I hope everything turns out ok.
 
Hopefully you get out in enough time to enjoy lunch and something! For your girls day.
 
Ok the ER was the right call. It's not dislocated and they explained that with shoulders they're either obviously dislocated or not. Her joints hyper extend so she just moved her shoulder out of alignment within the joint during dance. They did all the imaging in the ER and it's just soft tissue. Rest and ice. So even though she didn't get any treatment we left with greater piece of mind. We got a referral for an orthopedic doc but mainly to get a physical therapy prescription.

So two and a half hours later we're already sitting at Water Tower with our lunches!!

Thanks everyone!
 
Enjoy your lunch, and I'm glad you know what's going on. Now she can rest it as prescribed and you can hopefully take a breath! :) She's probably been in a bit of pain, so hopefully resting it will help her feel better!
 
just reading this..... so glad to hear it is only soft tissue that needs to heal, and you are out enjoying lunch together! Is she able to rest it so it will heal?
 
We enjoyed lunch and enjoyed a bit of time at Sephora too! :-) Thankfully spring break for dance starts today and she has a note excusing her from gym for the week. We are also currently binge watching 13 Reasons Why, so she's got something to sit still and watch. However, she leaves for Guatemala on Thursday for a school mission trip... the first few days are low key though and then they start with their mission work. I already notice a difference in her attitude since going to the doctor...I think we're going to be okay!!
 
OH shoot! I wish I had seen this earlier! Being an x-ray technologist and all I would have suggested going to the ER right away since you're in the right place if any other procedures need to be done. I always choose ER if it's injuries that would need treatment sooner rather than later and clinics when it's something chronic... I hope she's doing ok.
 
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