My lad buckled his wrist bone (Torus fracture) today...

[schmalex]

And we go on holiday on Saturday

Anyone with any medical knowledge know roughly how long it'll be before he can start doing gentle swimming in the pool?

[Slink]

I would recon at least a few weeks from a broken wrist, 6 weeks perhaps?

[schmalex]

The x-ray at A&E showed no break, so after studying the pictures many times, the doctor surmised a buckle. It was pretty badly swollen (although that is reducing pretty rapidly) & by all accounts should have broken, but it seems like he was very, very lucky

[Puggit]

Lucky! We've had the whole Basingstoke A&E broken wrist experience - he was thumping his sister within 24 hours and jumping off the furniture - so don't worry about swimming with that!

[K77 CTR]

We normally plaster buckle fractures, has he not got any form of immobilisation on there?

[schmalex]

Hopefully, all will be OK. He was the goalie & saved a power shot from a 13 year old, which bent his wrist right back & apparently stretched a few ligaments & stuff, hence why the doc was surprised he hadn't broken it and thinks it might be a buckle (although the X-rays were pretty inconclusive on that (he said that if he looked really, really hard, he could just about make out what he though could be a buckle(

They're bloody good at Bstoke A&E. We've spent many a family evening up there in Paeds while he's been stitched back together!!!

Edited by schmalex on Wednesday 8th August 23:50

[schmalex]

K77 CTR said:

We normally plaster buckle fractures, has he not got any form of immobilisation on there?

Yes. The Doctor has given him a removable splint (kind of like a glove with Velcro straps and a metal rod between the wrist and palm) and told him to keep it on.

Edited by schmalex on Wednesday 8th August 23:48

[K77 CTR]

A futura splint, did you not ask the consultant about swimming? The problem you have is he wouldn't be able to keep the splint on in the pool and how do you ensure it's only gentle swimming?

[schmalex]

I had to leave just after x-ray, so didn't get a chance to speak to the consultant. My wife did & he advised to remove the splint for swimming & replace with a tubi grip for when in the pool. We can manage his activity, as we are at a villa, so no worries about him getting boisterous with other kids there. I just know how much he loves to jump in the pool & hope that we can gently manage an increase in activity levels to somewhere near normal during the course of the fortnight (obviously condition depending)

[K77 CTR]

I can't imagine the tubigrip would be of any help once it's wet. Could you get one of those neoprene type splints as that would dry out easily and still provide support when wet.

As long as he's not smashing his wrist against the water and no boisterous play I wouldn't think it'd be a problem but probably give it a week to toughen up a bit.

(I'm not a doctor though just a nurse practitioner)

[schmalex]

Good thinking, I'll try & source one pdq. Thanks for the advice. I was kind of hoping that by week 2, he might be able to increase his pool activity depending on how it looks / feels of course

[BlackVanDyke]

I'm sure my cousin ended up with a ?plastic/fibreglass type cast on that could safely be got wet when he broke his arm playing football. Worth ringing up and asking them?

[Famous Graham]

With regard to the arm itself (rather than the protection), one can easily swim one-armed in a pool. You look like a spazz, mind, but it's just that sideways breastroke thing.

[Bill]

You can get covers for casts to allow swimming etc, but I'd give them a call and ask.

[sneijder]

Bill said:

You can get covers for casts to allow swimming etc, but I'd give them a call and ask.

We had those when I was younger, but Morrisons shopping bags have holes on them now.

[Vieste]