Sticky Hand No Longer?

On Monday we had a very successful first consultation up at Shriner's Hospital and it looks like WanYing's sticky hand may not be sticky for much longer! We are blessed to have a Shriner's Hospital so close with a specialty in orthopedics and met with a hand specialist and orthopedic specialist on Monday. We heard lots of phrases like, "classic presentation of constricting bands" and my new favorite label, "rosebud hand" (an apt description!) and at the end of our couple of hours at Shriner's we were counseled that:

1. WanYing's left hand and toes don't need any intervention (hooray!)
2. The indentation of a band on her right calf isn't causing any problems and unless it starts applying pressure and she starts walking on the outside of her right foot, it shouldn't need any loosening (hooray!)
3. It's a good time for surgery on WanYing's right hand (hooray!)

The hand doctor was very impressed with how well WanYing uses her right hand now and we're all excited to see what she'll be able to do once that thumb is freed.  When we started talking about surgery, they said that June is pretty booked up, but they have space in May - so next Monday WanYing will go in for surgery!  Oh my goodness!  At least we get a full 2 weeks between children's surgeries :)

So, here's the plan:  They will definitely free her right thumb and ring finger, and then depending on how fused the pointer and middle finger are, they may or may not separate those two right now.  The doctor said that there a lot of blood vessels between those two, so if they're super-fused right now (ok, she didn't say "super-fused" but you get the idea) then they'll just leave them alone for now and separate them later.  But, if they're already mostly separated, then she may come home with five free (albeit four of them short) fingers!  Wowsers!

Oh, and it as long as there are no weird complications with surgery or anesthesia, WanYing should be able to come home Monday night - isn't that amazing?!?

It's kind of a funny feeling... we know that this is best for WanYing, but we're also keenly aware that we're losing something as well.  It's a lot like how we felt about Sasha's cleft palate - this is a part of her, and has been a defining part of her for her entire life.  And now all of that is about to change.  Good change.  But good change that still comes with some loss.

But WanYing is already reassuring us that this is right. Sunday night, the day before her appointment, while I was putting her to bed, WanYing kept holding my finger and trying to drill it into her sticky hand, as if we were going to separate the fingers right then and there.  I know she doesn't know what's happening, and I know that there is going to be a lot of pain and a lot of really hard work in her future as she figures out how to use her new hand - but I'm grateful that she's already starting to understand that those fingers are going to come apart.

Monday is going to be a big day.