Some people get all the breaks. Welcome to the Broken Bone Club!
Explore this page to find out everything you need to know about your upcoming fracture clinic appointment.
As Good as New
What to expect at your appointment
From the waiting room to home again, what’s the process?
The hospital is a big place, and it is separated into different sections for different parts of the body. You’ve injured a bone so the special department for you is called Orthopaedics. It’s a bit of a mouthful, fortunately fracture clinic is much easier to say. Your parents should have received an appointment letter with exactly where to go, but if in doubt then ask a member of staff for the fracture clinic, and you’ll find us!
Cast care
One of the good things about casts is that you can personalise them! Colour them or get your friends to sign them, you can use your artistic skills to create something awesome! But there are a few things that we really recommend you don’t do to your cast, other wise you may have to come back to the hospital, which isn’t a fun way to spend a day!
Try our interactive game to find out the cast do’s and don’ts!
Plaster Removal
How does your plaster get removed?
Watch the video of our lovely Plaster Techs Candice and Sue to find out what happens at your appointment!
If you’ve been put in a special cast called a soft cast, please click below for more information.
My injury…
Doctors use lots of fancy words and it can be a bit overwhelming to remember what they’ve said!
Read below to find out some key info about the different types of breaks.
Can’t find what you’re looking for?
Click here to look at the other types of casts, slings and boots.
Below Elbow breaks
There are two long bones that connect your elbow to your wrist and 27 small bones in your hand. If you break one of them, you will be put in a below elbow cast. You can still bend your elbow with the cast on and even though the base of your fingers are covered, you can wiggle your fingers and use them to a certain extent too!
Above Elbow breaks
This cast spans from above your elbow, down to your hand. It is for breaks in the big bone above your elbow or a break close to your elbow joint. Because the cast covers your elbow, you can’t move it like you can with a below elbow cast, so your elbow will be always in a 90 degree flexed position.
Leg breaks
The biggest bone in your body is in your thigh! It connects your hip to your knee. Then two smaller but still pretty long bones connect your knee to your ankle. If you break a bone near your knee or below your knee, you will be in this cast. You can’t bend your knee in it as it spans from your upper thigh to your ankle.
Feet and ankle breaks
There are 26 bones in your ankle. If you break one of those bones or a leg bone near your ankle, you may be put in this cast. It covers your leg below the knee to just below your toes. It makes walking difficult so you may need some crutches to help. The plaster will give you a special shoe that fits over the cast if your Doctor is happy for you to walk on it, but always check that they are happy before you weight bear.
Almost ready for new adventures!