Hannah's Hand

Our sweet Hannah has had some hand issues over the last couple months.  One morning in early April (April 10th to be exact) she came to me and showed me a spot on her hand.  I didn't think much about it, but when I looked at her hand a little closer she had a very small red spot and a very small knot under her skin. Bert checked it carefully for a splinter, but couldn't find anything, so we decided to just watch it. There wasn't much change in it over the month of April and it didn't seem to bother her at all.  I took her in for a well check about a month after it appeared and showed it to our doctor (that was early May).  She said to watch it and if it wasn't gone by the end of May to come back.  By the middle of May it was beginning to get bigger and more red so I decided to head back in.  

The picture on the right was early May and the picture on the left is mid May. 

We were referred to a hand specialist who told us he believed it to be a wart, to continue watching it, and to come back in 3 weeks. During that time it busted, so the doctors had her start on antibiotics due to the infection that grew back from the culture they took.  

This picture was taken on June 7th right after it busted for the 1st time.  

Before we realized exactly what we were dealing with I got a spot (a knot) half an inch from my right eye causing my right eye to start to swell.  I had obviously touched that spot near my eye some point after touching her hand.  Doctors confirmed it was the same infection that Hannah had on her hand.  I started antibiotics and mine cleared up quickly.  We were very, very careful to keep Hannah's hand covered after this and not let it spread to any others in our family.  It was a little stressful, especially with a 3-month-old in the mix. Thankfully it never spread to anyone except me and my spot was resolved quickly. On the other hand (no pun intended), Hannah's saga continued.  

We were told to go have x-rays if it wasn't better by the Monday after it initially busted.  It was not, so off for x-rays we went.  She was a brave little thing!  

One day her hand would look slightly better and the next it would look worse.  It was maddening.  I took a picture of it most days for months because it was difficult to determine if it was getting better or worse without them.  During those 3 months we tried oils, special honey, soaking it in warm water 3 times a day, and other home remedies. Over the course of those few months she had started calling her right hand her "bad hand" and her left hand her "good hand."  Poor thing!   

After the x-ray came back clear and the spot had started to fill back up with fluid again our pediatrician referred us to a pediatric surgeon in town.  We went to him once a week for 3 weeks and it was difficult for them (both the Doctor and the NP we saw every time) to decide exactly what was going on.  They initially agreed with the wart diagnosis, but then later started thinking it was a foreign object that had gotten in there and caused the infection.  At that point, it didn't really matter what had initially caused it -- after our 3rd visit he decided it was time for surgery and it was scheduled for July 1st.  None of our kids had ever been put to sleep and we were nervous about them doing that to our baby, but we felt confident in his decision and in his ability to get this spot drained and cleaned out.  

The morning of her surgery Grangy came over to stay with Emily, Claire and Abby and we woke Hannah up and headed out the door.  She didn't totally understand what was going on, but we felt like that was best.

Hannah was so brave! 

Mimi and Papa got up early that day and made the drive over for it too.  Even though they live an hour and twenty minutes away Mimi was very involved in the hand ordeal and helping us to get our girl better.  She received most pictures I took of it and did hours and hours of research for us.  Thanks SO much, Mimi!! 

This was right after her surgery when she was coming out of her anesthesia.   I was so relieved to have her in my arms.  

Dr. Abrams said that there was a chronic abscess inside.  He drained it and cleaned it out really well. He never was able to find a "foreign object" but believes that she must have had a splinter or something similar get down in there and then get infected and her body wasn't able to get rid of it on it's own.  

We kept her entire hand wrapped and covered for about 5 days after the surgery.  We continued soaking until the hole was entirely closed up.  We went back to see the pediatric surgeon two and a half weeks after surgery and he gave her the all clear.  He said the redness that we still see is just scar tissue.  

Here is a picture that I took of it this morning.  

I have approximately 85,000 more pictures of her hand and I spared you the worst of them, but you get the general idea of our journey.  It was filled with doctors visits and washing her hand every time she turned around and band-aids/wraps and me worrying and oils and hand soaking and praying.  We are so thankful to have this crazy thing behind us, and we're so thankful that God used our wonderful doctors to take care of our girl's hand!