Connections » Dr. Wint: Finger, Hand and Wrist

Shriners Hospitals?

(4 posts)

Total votes:

  1. berkholtzj
    Member

    Hi everyone - My little girl was born with a partial thumb and 4 nubbins on her left hand. We live in northern Alabama where resources are somewhat limited - so are gearing up for a drive to Shriners in Greenville, South Carolina this winter once she is old enough to get x-rays (she is one month now).

    My question is - are all Shriners hospitals equal for hand evaulation? Considering the drive (6 hours), are there other Shriners hospitals that are better or worse than others, that we should consider traveling to instead? What should we expect?

    Thanks everyone.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  2. Meanders
    Member

    I saw in another post that you were from Virginia. We also live in Virginia but went all over the east coast to find the right hand surgeon for our son, who is now almost two years. He was born with only two fingers and they were completely fused together. We ended up having his surgery at Shriners in Philly. They have excellent hand surgeons. Let me know if you have any questions at all about our experience.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  3. berkholtzj
    Member

    Thank you for the info! We are from Virginia, but currently live in Northern Alabama where it seems no one has any answers for us - hence why we are exploring other areas where there are specialists. I'm not sure that surgery would be the right option for our daughter, but I do want to at least talk to some doctors who have a)worked with a situation like ours before and can b) give us some pros and cons and an idea of what to expect if we choose not to do surgery, and if we do. The only option so far presented to us by local doctors has been to put a prosthetic on a one-month old. (Um... no...) Our local doctor recommended we go to Shriners in Greenville, and we are also looking into a hand specialist in Atlanta. But honestly, we are so lost and yes it is premature to even think about surgery on such a little baby... but for my own sanity I need to either plan on doing something for her at some point when she is older or just accept that she is the way she is and will be fabulous regardless!

    Can you tell me about what age they recommended you do surgery? What was your recovery period like - did you need to be home a significant amount of time for recovery? If your child was in daycare, did you need to pull him out or have you delayed his entry into that type of thing because of his hand? What types of questions did you ask the doctors?

    Feel free to email me privately. berkholtzj@gmail.com

    Thank you!!!
    Jess

    Posted 1 year ago #

  4. KarenO
    Member

    Jess, I emailed you with the Curtis National Hand Center info. I also saw there was a hand center in TN, which might be closer to you.

    For the surgery my daughter had they recommended to us that it be performed before she was 2. T's was on a Tuesday, she spent the night in the hospital so they could monitor pain issues since we were over an hour away. My mom stayed with her Thurs/Fri while I went to work (I was 7 months pregnant and trying to save as much leave as possible). Monday she went back to daycare and was fine. She was off all pain medication (including Tylenol) by the 3rd day. By the weekend she was walking/crawling (as best she could move with casts on her legs). the kids at her daycare were fine with her when she returned and her daycare provider was wonderful too.

    As for the doctors, we had a whole list of questions we asked. Best to write them out so you don't forget them when they start throwing all these medical terms at you. Congratulation on your little girl.

    Karen

    Posted 1 year ago #

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