Antosia's Hand – Treatment

Antosia, in addition to her leg deformity, also has a problem with her left hand. She only has 8 out of 22 bones in it. The fingers she does have are also not as they should be. They are shorter and fused—two are fused by bone, one by skin. Antosia has no grip in this hand.

Since our little one was born, we have been fighting to make her life as functional as possible. We have mainly focused on her legs so that Antosia can walk in the future, maybe even run 🙂 Along the way, we have also consulted about her hand.

Some time ago, we returned from a hand consultation in Hamburg. Afterwards, our heads were spinning a bit because another treatment (improvement) concept for Antosia’s hand had emerged. A completely different, new concept. Each specialist has their own plan, and we visited those who are supposedly the best. The May long weekend gave us time for some quiet reflection.

Until now, we wanted to get everything done as quickly as possible so that Antosia wouldn’t remember it. However, it’s not that simple. As I mentioned, Antosia has three fused fingers. Two of them are fused by bone. It turns out that in these two fingers, there is only one tendon and one joint between the phalanx and the metacarpal bone. According to Dr. Habenicht, it would be best to remove one of them. This would leave only two fingers, 6 bones in her hand, and a pincer-like grip.

Dr. Paley wants to try to “split” the tendon and the joint to save three fingers, but this is highly risky, and if something goes wrong, two fingers will be “useless” or have very limited function 🙁

Dr. Habenicht from Hamburg also advises against operating on three limbs during a single treatment course. It could be too taxing on such a young child’s body.

After long discussions, we have concluded that next year we will focus on treating her legs. From a medical standpoint, treating (attempting to improve) her hand is not urgent. We will wait for the results of her leg treatment.

As for her hand, I know it will always be “different”. Sometimes I encounter whispers from people (both children and adults) commenting on our Antosia’s hand. These are not pleasant words or comments, but I have already grown immune to them. I hope that Antosia will also be strong and will surprise us more than once with the capability of her “DIFFERENT” hand.