This Little Piggy Went to Market...

This little piggy went to market

This little piggy stayed home

This little piggy ate roast beef

This little piggy had none

And this little piggy went

Wee Wee Wee all the way home...

And this little piggy....well, we are not sure what he did...

"Parker is cute and healthy. He has 11 fingers..."

This is the first thing I remember Aaron saying to me after arriving in the recovery room after my C-section. I thought for sure he was joking about the 11 fingers thing. Knowing Aaron, I figured he was trying to make me laugh after going through such a tough labor. After me shooting his comment down several times he said, "No I'm serious. Look." Sure enough, my son had 11 fingers, having an extra thumb on his right hand. After talking with several nurses in the recovery room, and later with Parker's pediatrician, apparently it is very common. It's a genetic autosomal mutation, called Polydactly. It happens about 1 in every 400-500 births. We had no idea where this mutation had come from, being a hereditary mutation. After a bit of conversation with our families, we discovered that it comes through Aaron's side. There is only a cousin that we know who had characteristics of this (he had a growth on his two pinkies when he was born, but neither of them contained bone or appeared as a full finger). Each child born in a family carrying this gene has a 50% chance of showing the mutation. Of all of Aaron's family members, Parker was the lucky 50%.

We made an appointment with a hand specialist to get more information about Parker's condition. After talking with the hand specialist, we came out of the appointment with the following information:

- Parker's specific mutation is called Polydactly Wassels Type II. Polydactly occurs in 1 in 400-500 births, but Wassels Type II occurs in about 1 in every 10,000 births. Wassels Type II is not related to a hereditary gene, as previously thought from information received from the hospital. It is a random genetic mutation that occurs. This means that chances of Aaron and I having another child with this syndrome is 1 in 10,000 (like it is for everyone), but the chance of Parker's children having this syndrome is 50% for every child (since he now carries the gene).

- Wassels Type II means that there is an extra bone extension and a shared tendon. The bone will be removed, but the tendon has to be reattached to Parker's "real" thumb during the surgery. This is to prevent his body thinking that he still has a thumb and to prevent continued growth of an extra digit.

- He will need to have surgery when he is a year old to correct his finger. They can't do it any earlier because it's too hard to perform surgery on such tiny hands. They could do it at 6 months if it was just bone, but because it involves the tendon, we'll need to wait.

- The recovery period is 6 weeks long. He will have a pin put in his thumb to keep it growing straight, instead of curving to the side. The doctor will put a soft cast on his hand during the recovery period.

- The doctor said he does not foresee him having to have occupational therapy or physical therapy. The surgery also should not affect his fine motor development at all.

- The surgery should last 30 minutes and is considered outpatient. Parker will have to be put under general anesthesia.

We were not in love with the doctor that we saw this past week, although he did provide us with some good information. There were a few comments made that left a bad taste in my mouth. We have been given the name of an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in pediatrics at Duke. Our friends Joye and Jeramie used this surgeon for their son Ethan and have recommended him to us. We have an appointment scheduled for November (which is far off, but a good sign that he's so good).

We love Parker just the way he is, but will do anything to help him along his way...

We'll keep you updated as we find out more information...

(I will post pictures of his 11 piggies tomorrow)