Syndactyly

I remember watching Brad and the nurses looking at Caleb's hands while my doctor was finishing things up with me after delivery. I remember Brad putting Caleb in my arms and pulling his hands out of the swaddle to show me what he had been talking with the nurses about. He explained to me that Caleb's middle and ring finger were connected on both hands. For a brief hour or so, that was the only thing "wrong". I remember the moment that I forgot about his hands, because I learned that he had Down syndrome. I remember the moment that I forgot about his hands again because not only did Caleb have Down syndrome, but he also had a problem with his heart. His syndactyly was the first congenital "defect" that we learned about and has been one of the last things on our priority list for the last five months.

But now that his heart surgery is behind us, we had an appointment with a hand surgeon this morning. We already met with a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and had done plenty of research on our own, so we weren't going into the appointment seeking much info except for when Caleb would have surgery. The doctor examined him and said that he'll want to operate on each hand separately. Caleb's syndactyly on his right hand is more complex than the left, so we'll do the right one first. We'll see the surgeon again in September and will schedule the first surgery at that time. It will probably be done toward the end of this year (Oct-Dec), just depending on what works best for all of us at that time. Surgery on his left hand will probably be sometime in early 2014.