Sweetpea’s Surgery: Bilateral Trigger Thumb Release

On Valentine’s Day I was tracing my little ones’ hands on paper to make these Valentine’s Day cards. When it was Sweetpea’s turn I placed her hand on the paper and told her to straighten her fingers. She straightened all her fingers except her thumb. I told her to extend her thumb but she wouldn’t so I tried to extend it myself only to realized that she couldn’t!

I took a closer look and realized that she couldn’t extent either thumb! I ditched the cards and went to the computer. I started looking through photos of Sweetpea and noticed that she hadn’t been extending her thumb normally since she was very little. How is it that I never notice?

Summer 2011 If you look closely you can see her little thumbs bent in.

Next I consulted the internet and came across Trigger Thumb. I was confident that this was what I was seeing. My family doctor had never seen trigger thumb in a child before so we were referred to a paediatrician who confirmed that she indeed has bilateral (both hands) trigger thumb and that she would need surgery for it to be corrected. I was happy to hear that trigger thumb happens is not genetic and is relatively easy to correct.

A couple weeks later we met with the orthopaedic surgeon, a lovely lady with a little girl that has the same name as ours, and Sweetpea went on the wait list for surgery. We didn’t hear from the hospital for a long time. I expected this but I was hoping she would have her surgery before we moved South. Once I had accepted that we might have to make a trip back for her surgery we got a call telling us that her surgery would be tomorrow morning, August 10th. Praise God!

Now in the midst of packing for the move, we are preparing for Sweetpea’s surgery. She will be put under general anaesthetic which makes me a little nervous. The surgery itself will only take an hour or so, both thumbs will be fixed at the same time and then she will be release later in the day.

Tomorrow is the big day. Please keep little Sweetpea in your prayers that everything might go well and that she has a quick recovery.