My fall:(

I fell on my arm yesterday busting up my wrist and elbow. I can't get in to see a doctor. It looks worse than it hurts. Any one had anything similar happen and what ended up being wrong? Thankfully I am right handed. Any advice would be appreciated. Here's a link to some pictures of it.

https://s940.photobucket.com/albums/ad246/Kate2456/

Kate2456 wrote:I fell on my arm yesterday busting up my wrist and elbow. I can't get in to see a doctor. It looks worse than it hurts. Any one had anything similar happen and what ended up being wrong? Thankfully I am right handed. Any advice would be appreciated. Here's a link to some pictures of it.

https://s940.photobucket.com/albums/ad246/Kate2456/

why not just go to emergency... doesn't look good.

Dr google( My 11yo child) says it is "badly bruised and could lead to cellulitis"

IMO I would see a Dr, even an ER dr.

If it was me, I'd go to the ER. You could have a fracture, but it could just be a bad sprain. Either way, I'd get it checked.

I have an appointment scheduled for friday just trying to get by until then.....any advice?

I have been without insurance so I know what it's like to not want to go to the ER only to have them tell me to put ice on something. It can be SO expensive. If you can wiggle your fingers well and can bend the wrist without intense pain it's probably not broken. Take ibuprofen (prescriptions for it are for 800 mg so do not take more than that) which will help with both the pain and the swelling. Then put ice on it to keep the swelling down. In the picture, the bruising had stripes. It looks like you had an ace bandage on it. Since your arm is swollen, the bandage is probably too tight. It should be snug, but not tight. Otherwise it interferes with your circulation. Sleep with the arm elevated above your heart because that reduces the blood pressure on it and helps with swelling.

If the pain is very intense, or if you don't have good movement in your fingers or wrist, you need to go to the ER. If it's broken you don't want it to heal wrong because it could give you problems for the rest of your life.

I would go to the ER or Urgent Care or somewhere like that... a family friend went over his handle bars on his dirt bike and landed on his wrist. it ended up that a couple of blood vessels burst and if he hadn't of gone to the ER just in case, well he would have lost his arm or more. He could move his fingers and everything fine, but it got really swollen fromt he blood collecting in his arm. they cut it open and drained it, but then had to let it heal naturally...quite painful and long healing process!

its always better to go get it checked out sooner rather than later was my point.

I think I'd be going to the ER, but I don't really know if you'd have to pay and if so how much. It's pretty nasty looking though. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a fracture there! In the mean time I think ice and ibuprophen are probably your best bets.

Rebecca1340 wrote:I think I'd be going to the ER, but I don't really know if you'd have to pay and if so how much. It's pretty nasty looking though. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a fracture there! In the mean time I think ice and ibuprophen are probably your best bets.

In the US, most Dr. visits cost $50-$100 not counting prescriptions. Most ER visits cost $500-$1000. Also even if you have insurance, you'd still have a deductable and a co-payment.

Yeah if I didn't have to worry about cost I would have gone to the ER for sure. Friday can't come fast enough! Thanks all!

Yikes! That's sad and scary! I can't get over how much medical care is down there!

Rebecca, I've taken over paying my Grandma's bills, and despite having dual insurance, BC/BS and Medicare, the bills are trickling in. She will get a bill from each Dr. who saw her while she was in the hospital, bills from lab work, from x-ray...you name it! So it's $42 here, $85 there, and it all adds up! These are just co-pays, or amounts that the insurances did not cover.

I hate to say it, but that makes the high taxes we pay here worth every penny!

Kate, how are you doing?

I am sore but its still pretty swollen. I got into a doctor today and likely they will make me run around town getting x-rays and what not. I just hope that what ever it is it can be dealt with quickly and start recovery soon. I wish we had some time of universal medical care here because I would have liked to deal with it sooner rather than waiting....will post an update when I can.

Kate, and others, if people would just listen ... and beleive, we could use a universal heath care in the US... it's gotten out of hand. My DH had to go to emegercy last week for some horrendous stomach pains... after xrays, blood test (twice because the ward nurse blew it when she drew blood) and urine, to be told it's probably Gallstones... but they didn't do an ultra sound, which the ER doc refrerred to him to a specialist. So he goes to the specialist this week and he was flabbergasted that the ER doc didn't do the ultra sound... so today, we go to another facility for that. We still haven't gotten any bills... all being billed to insurance... but we are scared to think about what insurance pays and what we'll pay. And he still has to go back to the specialist. Insurance or now, it's going to cost us a pretty penny... but then, when you think about it, his life/health is pretty important, so yeah, we'll bitch, but we'll pay.

The US definitely needs to adopt the Canadian (and England other others, I suppose) form of universal medical care.!

Kate2456 wrote:I am sore but its still pretty swollen. I got into a doctor today and likely they will make me run around town getting x-rays and what not. I just hope that what ever it is it can be dealt with quickly and start recovery soon. I wish we had some time of universal medical care here because I would have liked to deal with it sooner rather than waiting....will post an update when I can.

I'm glad you're at least getting care. Hopefully it's just bruised and sprained and nothing that you won't heal from on your own.

Rebecca, it's hard to grasp how crazy our medical system can be if you aren't a part of it. Doctors don't generally pay attention to the cost of the treatments or prescriptions they give, so unless you pay attention you can wind up getting a $3000 MRI when a $300 ultrasound would have done the same job. And our hospitals bill in the craziest ways. You would think that if an MRI machine costs $5,000,000 for the hospital to buy, and it will last through 10,000 uses, they would just charge each person $1000 and double their money over the lifetime of the machine. Nope. They figure that some of the people won't pay their bill, so they charge everyone more for each use. Then they make deals with insurance companies. It's good for both companies since that means the insurance can say they're accepted more places and the hospital can get more customers who might have gone elsewhere. But in the terms of the deal to accept a particular insurance, they agree to offer a discount on the MRI billing to the patients with that insurance. And it's a different discount to each company. So for the exact same MRI, someone with Humana insurance pays $1500, someone with Blue Cross insurance pays $900, and the poor guy with no insurance is expected to pick up the bill for those who don't pay so he's charged $3000.

Then the insurance is also crazy. My sister in law is ex-Navy and she got the dental plan because it provided good coverage for her kids. But the coverage it provided for her? She pays $100 per month and the maximum amount it will cover is $1,200. A lot of companies are notorious for taking payments but cancelling your coverage if you actually get sick. Even the best companies can demand that you prove that a procedure is medically necessary before they cover it. Sounds reasonable, but it means that they can refuse to pay for procedures that aren't exactly required but will greatly improve your quality of life. Like if you have schizophrenia, some patients get depression as a side effect of the cheaper drugs. But since the drug treats the schizophrenia, the insurance doesn't have to pay for the more expensive drugs that don't have as severe a side effect.

I would SO be willing to pay higher taxes to have a better system.

Me too.

We have insurance, very high deductible. Our HSA is out so I am about to become one of those people abusing the ER when we are sick enough for a dr. The next $4500 is OOP (well $3900 now but...). I can go to the ER for $225. They write off 69% of it and let me do payments on the remainder. The dr office charges $100, well the Ped does, and it MUST be paid BEFORE she will even see them. My doc is cool, and will work something out for the $65 office visit but wont see kids.

6 weeks ago, they sent me for an ultra sound and blood work. I about died when the bills showed. $119 for the ultrasound and over $600 for ONE vial of blood at the lab.

I just can't get over it! I can't imagine getting hurt, knowing I need medical care, but second guessing because of the cost. There are definately flaws in our system -- lots of long wait times, sometimes having to travel to bigger cities to get more specialized care, and getting a health card is a pain, but at least I know that when I have my surgery later this year the only cost will be the $6 for parking and whatever Mike grabs from the cafeteria!

I agree, when my Mom was sick, she had ALL and died of it, she needed a Bone Marrow Transplant. I was her donor BUT neither of our insirance companies would pay for the procedure. They would pay for her to get my bone marrow, but not to suck it out of me. I paid out of pocket, and MD Anderson ain't cheap.


I will never ever forget the day Dh and I were in the ER with Kristin, she was 4, and we were told she had Toxic Viral Synovitis, which can be fatal. BUT, they would not admit her without $3000 cash , because we did not have insurance

Erin, that is AWFUL! It's a wonder that ER doctor is alive today. I'd have thought you'd shot him by now.

Rebecca1340 wrote:I just can't get over it! I can't imagine getting hurt, knowing I need medical care, but second guessing because of the cost. There are definately flaws in our system -- lots of long wait times, sometimes having to travel to bigger cities to get more specialized care, and getting a health card is a pain, but at least I know that when I have my surgery later this year the only cost will be the $6 for parking and whatever Mike grabs from the cafeteria!

People in the US die every day because they didn't seek treatment or didn't take prescribed medications trying to save money. It's hard especially for the elderly on a fixed income. Sometimes they feel they need to choose between paying their rent or paying for their medications.

Our family has been so fortunate. We make just under the allowable amount for medicaid (socialized medicine for the poor -- it only covers kids and pregnant women). Even this past year when Scott had a good paying job teaching, it started in '08 and ended in '09 so we didn't go over the limit for either year. Because of that, our kids have good insurance and we'll never have to come up with cash to recieve treatment for them. Scott and I have crappy insurance problems, but the kids are 100% covered. In theory, an ER has to treat all life-threatening conditions regardless of your ability to pay. But they can try to claim that your risk isn't immediate.

Drug companies charge way much more for meds here and claim that it's for increased testing better security from counterfeit meds and/or better research and development for new meds. I can't say about the R+D, but the increased reliability is crap because they find counterfeit meds all the time and reports say the problems are rampant.

Another problem is that the high cost of care causes more lawsuits. When you pay so much for a service you expect it to be perfect. So when Drs screw up after charging us tens of thousands we tend to sue. As a result of that, medical malpractice insurance companies are now charging doctors so much that certain high risk specialties are going out of business. There are lots of little towns with no OBs because of it. And some states require that a doctor have malpractice insurance so doctors in high risk fields are moving away from those areas. The whole thing is a mess. So in some areas, we have that same problem of having to travel to get the right medical care.

Oh and our wait time for Dr.s and ERs is awful too. I don't know what's typical in Canada though so maybe yours are worse than ours. I hope not. You might die of old age waiting to see the doctor.

Not that letting the government run things would automatically be better. Caly was in the NICU for 3 days after she was born. $10,000 a day. Her treatment consisted of a course of antibiotics and some oxygen. That's it. They just charged to provide all the equipment she might have needed. And that was 10 years ago. It's probably more now. We didn't have to pay any of it. Medicaid covered it. But honestly, medicaid was ripped off! I don't want to be a mooch off of other people's tax money, but how is someone supposed to pay a bill like that? In reality her care actually cost about $100 for all three days. Scott buys oxygen to weld with so I know how much it costs. And I've paid for my own IV antibiotics. I could have hired my own nurse, bought my own isolette, and saved the taxpayers about $29,000. If we do have socialized medicine, we really need to come up with a way to stop hospitals and doctors from billing so outrageously.

I wish we could get medicaid or even CHIPS. We had CHIPS, due to Bay's asthma and ADHD, but then Kristin turned 19, and we were only 3....we make too much for either now, and it sucks.

Well the doctor took x-rays....actually I had to go to another building to get them, they will submit them to the radiologist, who will send them to my doctor, who will then call me....so I might here today. She was worried about the swelling (it still is the same as in the pictures) and bruising as the body doesn't have and easy way to get rid of all the fluid in the hand. By the way IB Profin actually increases bruising because it thins your blood so actually tylenol is what you should take. I have hemotoma and the worst case shes seen of it so I basically have to go around with my arm over my head for the next couple of weeks...and at best a second degree sprain but need to get the results from the Xray back. It hurts more now than it did before. She gave me something for nighttime pain but last night it didn't really work that well...

Ouch! So sorry to hear it isn't getting better. I'll say a prayer for good news and quick healing.

hope your arm gets better!!