Boxer's Fracture

So, my sister has a boxer's fracture. The bone in her hand which is under the pinky broke near the top. She broke it in a simple fall, running around outside in the dark and smacking it on concrete. This was Tuesday night.

She doesn't have insurance, and can't afford medical bills without help from family like me.

She didn't think it was broken at first, because she could still move all her fingers. She wasn't sure if she should get it looked at, so she did some online searching and the advice she found was that the hand has so many small bones in it, and you really need your hands, so you should really get it checked out. On Wednesday she went to Concentra Urgent Care Clinic for an x-ray. The urgent care clinic is much cheaper than the hospital, I think. They x-rayed it and found the boxer's fracture, and splinted it. She asked the doctor what would happen if she just left it alone, and he said he wouldn't even think of not getting it set. He referred her to a hand specialist.

Today, Thursday, I took her to her appointment at the hand specialist doctor. He examined her and her x-ray and said it didn't need to be set, that it is 10-15 degrees offset as it is now and if it is less than 30 degrees offset that it will heal on its own with full functionality, and that if he set it without pins (i.e., without a surgery) that it would not stay set and would go back to how it is crooked. He put a cast on her and told her to come back in three weeks to get the cast taken off and get a follow-up x-ray. She is satisfied with the treatment, but I am not sure about it and my mom is downright mad. I was with my sister during the consultation and I asked if she would still be able to play violin, do karate or judo or any other sports, and grip. He said she would be able to do anything that she was able to do before, and the only difference is that the knuckle will not stick out as much when she makes a fist.

My question is, does anyone have experience with this fracture, and how were you treated? One of my close friends had this fracture fifteen years ago, and said that she was treated by getting it set, pinned, and splinted. This treatment presumably involves surgery. I don't know whether to look for a second opinion (I don't even know where to look, and it would be another ton and bunch of money, probably out of the money I'm saving for nursing school tuition, but if it makes a difference for my sister I would do it). I left a message for my judo teacher and am waiting for him to call me back.

Well, I gotta run off to work now, I'll check back on this thread tonight. Thanks.