The Jones Girls

On Tuesday I took all 4 girls to Children’s Hospital for Amanda’s 6 month follow up appointment with Dr. Joan Wright.    This was to check on Amanda’s progress with her thumb since her surgery in September of last year.

The Dr. says she thinks Amanda might need another surgery to rotate the thumb bone to make it more in an “opposed” position.  She also wants to loosen the tendon/ligament in the new thumb to allow her to bend her knuckles of her new thumb.  Currently Amanda is not able to bend the knuckles of her new thumb.   Then Dr. Wright wants to transfer some tendons and ligaments from one part of her hand to her new thumb.  She said that Amanda would really benefit from this procedure.

We have another appointment in 4 months which is on October 20th.     We will confirm if we will do the surgery.  If we do the surgery, I would elect to do it right after Christmas and have the major recovery time be the 2nd week of Christmas break.     Amanda will be in preschool in the Fall and she will be out for the 2 weeks of Christmas break.

I trust Dr. Wright’s reommendations.   Her outlook on orthropedic surgery is to be the least invasive and offer the best quality of life for the patient which is exactly the same thing I want for Amanda.

Amanda was fitted for another new brace that she wears at night.     Amanda is using her hand really well and uses her new thumb about 50% of the time .   We are hoping this surgery might offer Amanda better movement for her new thumb.

Amanda has a hard time pulling down her panties and pants when she goes to the potty.   Most times I have to helpher.   I starte giving her a reward system to give her more encouragement to use her new thumb and centralized hand to pull down her panties and pull up her panties.  She gets a Skittle candy every time she successfully can pull her panties up and down.  So far it has been a successful reward system and she is trying each time now to pull down her panties and pull up her panties.