tea2thagirl
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Posts: 2
(2/21/04 10:03 pm)
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I'm a polydactyly baby grown up now :)
Hey, my name is Kirstin and I'm 19. I was born with an extra digit all around - so 6 fingers on each hand and 6 toes on each foot.
On my left hand, the extra finger protruded about halfway between my pinky finger and my wrist - it stuck out to the side. It had bone and nail but no knuckle. The extra digit on my right hand sprouted off the knuckle of my pinky finger and actually held the tendon, which the pinky finger was without. And on my feet, the extra digits were in between my 3rd and 4th toe, and were each also syndactyly (that is the 3rd, extra, and 4th toe were webbed).
When I was 4 months old, I had the finger on my left hand easily removed, and when I was a year old it was a bit more tricky surgery to remove the extra digit on my right hand. Dr. Naysmith reconstructed the knuckle completely, and wove the tendon from the extra into the pinky finger. He did a wonderful job of it. The only failing was I somehow pulled my own pin out of my knuckle  which brought with it a nerve bundle. I had the extra toes removed when I was 4 years old, and had a skin graft on my thigh to close the skin on the toes due to the syndactyly. Actually, my earliest memory I am sitting on the floor with a little friend and we're counting our fingers and toes (like little kids do!) and we couldn't figure out why I could count to 12 on my feet and she could only count to 10, hehe.
Anyway, I learned to walk with the cast on my right hand. And all the surgeries healed very well. It wasn't until I was about 14 that I started experiencing horrible pain on the outside of my right pinky knuckle from rubbing (ie. writing). I saw Dr. Naysmith again and he informed me I had a "nerve bundle" - so when I pulled that pin out, it pulled nerves with it and they formed a bundle close to the skin.... ouch! So when I was 16 he opened it back up and wove the bundle in. However, since I started college (lots and lots of writing) I have found it very painful again. I had a little brace made for me that wraps around the side of my hand and has a little bubble blown out to protect the sensitive area. It seems to be working ok.
Polydactyly is not something that is common in my family, there is no one known to have had it, and I've had my lineage traced back on my mums side to the 1500s! However, at the time of my conception my dad was exposed to some chemicals that were later pulled from use because of nasty side effects - one being birth defects. So, we think that is why I came out like so. I also have some neurological stuff not quite up to par which I'm wondering if it could be linked to that as well (I'm bipolar).
Recently, I've been reading into polydactyly, trying to find out more about it. I've tried to find how rare an occurance of an extra digit on both hands and feet is but I can't seem to find any statistical information.
Well, that's my intro. It was interesting to find a place like this. I've never met or talked to anyone else that was born with extra digits.
~Kirstin.
Edited by: tea2thagirl at: 2/21/04 10:11 pm
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