A hand report

Ellie's hand is really coming along nicely. I haven't posted an update in quite some time, but that is because her hand has quickly become so close to a normal hand, that I tend to forget anything was ever wrong. Until tonight, but I'll come back to that. For now,

This shows how great of a separation there is between the thumb and index finger. Truly amazing that they were connected by bone 8 months ago!

Here Ellie is using her hands to flip pages in a book.

This one shows how nicely the skin grafts are healing.

People often ask if there will be surgery down the road. She has 2 main issues - the index finger has oddly shaped bones and she still isn't using it. I think the shape of the bones prevents her from wanting to bend it. It does bend, but it must not be very comfortable, and she doesn't try it since she never could move it before surgery. The other issue is her crooked middle finger, which I'm guessing will require straightening some day. For now, they don't do anything other than watch it and let it grow until she is at least 5 years old. A lot of times, things improve as the fingers grow. It really is very crooked, though, but it looks so much better than even a month ago! It has grown a lot in that time.

Now, going back to what I alluded to, most of the time, I have handled this process with ease and a real sense of calmness (maybe not so a YEAR AGO, at this time, mind you...) Tonight we had a surprising reminder of how fragile this little beautiful hand is. PREGO ALERT: My pregnant readers, avoid this story if you're queasy! Ellie was eating pasta pick-ups out of the container tonight. She was truly chowing down, and we didn't think much of it. We sat down for dinner, and everything was going fine until she caught glimpse of mashed potatoes. She developed a desparate need to have mashed potatoes the instant she saw them. I said "no, you can have some when you finish this," while pointing to her bowl of veggies. The horrific face before the cry developed, and sobbing ensued.

All of a sudden I look over and her hand is bleeding. I exclaim, and Sean says "no, that's from the pasta." It really does look like pasta sauce, and she calms down, I give her the beloved mashed potatoes, and dinner resumes, but I look again and think it really is blood on her hand. I say, "Sean, what kind of pick-ups were those?" I head over to look at the empty container and it says chicken and cheese. It dawns on us, that there WAS no sauce. The poor dear cut her hand on the metal rim - did you know those rims can catch on skin? Oh, I'm horrified even thinking of it.

It wasn't bleeding anymore by this time. What seemed like a good idea, putting the whole container in front of her, ended up cutting her. What is surprising is that she didn't even ever seem bothered by her HAND, only the mashed potatoes. Since it wasn't bleeding anymore and the kids looked worried by our demeanor, we finished dinner before cleaning her hand up really well, and de-potatoing it. Then I soaked it in a peroxide/water mix, put aquaphor on it, and put her hand in a sock to keep her from sucking on it. (which she has done incessantly since she was in the womb!) It looked almost completely back to normal by this time, and it wasn't bothering her at all. She got about 4 little cuts from that stupid container! I bet there's a warning on it somewhere, I should check.

Anyways, the thinking is that we'll call her hand doctor tomorrow if it doesn't look right. I anticipate it will be almost entirely healed by morning, as children have an amazing ability to heal. Being this is the first time she's really hurt her hand, it threw me into a reality check. We're going to have to worry about her fragile hand a lot as she grows up. The skin seems so delicate. This mom can't seem to shake the image from her mind!! Even though everything is fine. Better sneak in and peek at her before I go to sleep, or there will be no sleep. Not to worry, grandparental types, Ellie is fine. Everyone is fine except me. Me? I have a knot in my stomach. This is one of those let go and let God moments, I think. Say a little prayer for her hand if you think of it. It's fine, but prayer can't hurt.