Question:I would like to hear from people who had experience with bone
fracture in a growing age child. My niece suffered a fracture
in her tibia and the fracture goes through a growing region of
the bone. Her parents were told that there is a possibility that
it will affect growth in that leg, and if that happens, there
are a few courses of treatment that she may need.
We would like to hear about people's experiences in similar
cases, and if possible, would like to have recommendations
(in favor or against) pediatric orthopedics in the area of
Philadelfia, where my brother's family is moving next month.
My niece is 10 years old, and in case it helps, I can describe
the kind of fracture, according to what can be seen on an X-ray:
picture the tibia oriented vertically, with the ankle end
pointing down. The fracture is at the lower end. It begins
at the growth plate, propagates horizontally half way across
the growth plate and then angles upward at ~60 degrees
through the bone.
Answer:When I was about 7 I fractured my collar bone (my right shoulder - I am
more right than left handed).. Because of it's position they were not able to
plaster the bone to hold it in place. I was a rather adventurous child and
even managed to climb a tree in this state! Apart from the bone taking
slightly longer to heal than expected there seem to be no problems. I was told
that I had one arm shorter than the other but I've never noticed this, at the
time or now. I also broke my right wrist by falling down the stairs when I was
about 18 months (no flames to my mum please - I had climbed over the safety
gate and climbed up the stairs. When I fell back I broke the arm against
the gate - if it hadn't been there I would have rolled into the hall! :).
Again there are no problems.
At primary school (so I must have been about 10) I also broke my - yep! -
right hand. I broke one of the bones in the middle.. Not sure which I'm
afraid.
The upshot of all this is that the only difference I can tell is that I can
punch marginally harder with my left hand and my left tends to have
slightly more stamina. The plus points were that I got to read instead of
other work in school and I learned to write fairly well with my left hand.
I had cousins who fractured legs and arms and toes but none seem to have
suffered any adverse effects at all.. So unless the break is eapecially bad I
wouldn't worry.
