Trigger Thumb

Not getting the "mom of the year" award this year. Micah's thumb had been weird for the last few weeks.  He got it caught in the refrigerator door but seemed fine right after it happened. A few times I had asked him to straighten it and he wouldn't do it.  I thought he was just being a stubborn two year old.  He hadn't acted like it hurt him.  He was coloring, eating with a spoon, and doing everything else he normally would with no problems.  The other night we were sitting at the table and counting.  Nathan noticed that he couldn't straighten out his thumb.  We thought he had broken it at this point and rushed up the the ED to have one of Nathan's colleagues take a look. It didn't appear to be hurting him and the x-ray looked like it wasn't broken.  Nathan put it back in place and we splinted it with a band-aid so he couldn't bend it.

Trigger Thumb

We followed up with his pediatrician who agreed with Nathan that Micah has "trigger thumb". It wasn't caused by the refrigerator incident, but the injury probably irritated it enough that we were able to notice it. Basically, Micah's thumb is getting locked in a bent position.  Sometimes he can bend it and straighten it with it popping, but other times it will get locked.  We have been giving anti-inflammatory medications and  keeping it taped to prevent him from using it.  It's hard to keep a two year old from using his hand and he hates having it taped!  Even more than he hates having it taped, he hates us having to pop it back into place.  He will be keeping the tape on from now on.  We are hoping that the inflammation will go down after a week and that we can avoid any type of surgery.  If not, Micah will have to have a procedure to clip one of the bands in the thumb to release his trigger thumb.  Please keep this little guy in your prayers!