11/29/2004: Extra fingers and toes

It does happen: these are the appendages of some dude named Tirso Furcal, who's from the Dominican Republic. Furcal was born with a sixth toe on each foot, as well as an extra finger on his right hand. It made life as a stone polisher more difficult, often painful. But no longer: he's had the extra digits removed in an operation at the Jersey City Medical Center.

polydactly- certain drugs taken during gestation make this more common...

He could've donated that finger to a friend of mine who lost his thumb to a lawn mower when he was 9. Then my friend really would have five fingers on one hand.

Which ones? I mean, not that I would ever encourage that sort of thing.

Let me guess, he got the surgery for free right?

Extra toes are somewhat common in cats (like the cats at the Hemingway estate in Key West). Somehow they are MUCH cuter on cats than on this guy.

Antonio Alfonseca, pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, has 6 fingers on each hand and 6 toes on each foot. His nickname is "Pulpo" (octopus).

I would have liked to have seen this guy's x-rays.

a friend of mine had a dog once with an extra toe on each foot. It allowed the canine to climb trees.

Every time he climbed up and caught a cat, we let him breed...

I remember from High School biology that having 6 fingers and toes is actually a dominant gene... so the rest of us with just 5 are really the freaks. Take this tidbit for what it's worth, but i think i'm actually right on this one.

The polydactly gene is dominant, yes. However, than does not mean 'normal' -- a mutant gene may be dominant like this one or recessive in cases like haemophilia. What is considered normal is determined by the population as a whole.

It's one of the most common abnormalities. Often the extra digit gets snipped off just after birth, the wound heals up with no sign of a scar.

Mom said, back when newborns (and moms) stayed in the hospital for several days, they'd tie off extra digits with surgical thread. It would usually drop off before they left the hospital.
Of course that's for the ones with no bone in them which was the most common kind.

Welcome to the Cellar, Nutbar.

Every day I find a new reason to be thankful.
I had a friend as a child who was polydactyl.
In childish innocence I joked about how he had an edge on the rest of us.
He said his life was probably more complicated than someone with one LESS digit. Hard for me to imagine. I had practically forgotten about this dude.....

You'd think extra fingers might come in handy. My husband was born with a tail. They just clipped it off.

What a timely pic... i was just trolling for "image of the day" sites and found this pic was recently posted here. *I* have a double thumb on my right hand.

I have plenty of pics, and lots of little anecdotes... and yeah, gloves are a problem item... i usually buy a size up, and deal with the sloppiness of the other fingers, or cut a split in the thumb. Certain brands are better than others.

Bowling balls are a problem, so i had one special drilled for me... the guy spent eight hours drilling it (at least 6 attempts), but it still didn't turn out right.

And scissors! I have to turn them around and use the finger side for my thumbs and put one finger thru the thumb-hole!

I was thinking that perhaps an exacto knife or rotary cutter of some kind would be far easier to deal with than scissors.

They are my preference for paper crafts and also pattern cutting, and I have the conventional number and arrangement of digits.

Well, I don't know anything about acupuncture...

I did get an x-ray, and can tell you that the bones seperate at the first section. So, each thumb has two bones and one joint of it's own. The split is right at the base of where the side of my hand is (directly below the left side of my index finger). I have feeling in all parts... there are no dead-spots.

I can't use right-handed scissors very well with my left hand, because of how they are designed... the pressure you exert in the natural scissor-using posture keeps the blades together... if you use them in the wrong hand, it actually separates the blades as you cut, making it very difficult to cut anything. So, that also makes using lefties in the right hand impractical.

Xactos are fine, but I don't cut enough stuff to make it necessary. Most of my cutting is done with a mouse.

I am definitely Right-Handed. I am not skilled in much of anything with my left.

As for other tasks, having double thumbs seems mostly neutral. I don't have any great advantages... yeah, I can pick up one extra item when my hands are full... whoopdie-do... Sometimes, they come in handy while tying my shoes. The muscles are pretty strong, but i can't move each thumb independantly. I can barely bend them down, at all. I can pinch them together hard enough to draw blood (on someone else)... but i can't bend them.

I find that I use one thumb for some things, and the other thumb for other things... usually whichever one is closer, consideriing the task. For example, I use the inside thumb when writing, and the outside one to press the spacebar.

Kenneth

I am still waiting for my attaboy for NOT posting my picture of a man with two you-know-whats. And it's not a fake either.

Brian

No forked tongue, Brian?

Actually it looks like an extra little finger is more functional than an extra thumb, especially if you can't bend the thumb.

I guess for the acupuncture I'd use an extra needle on the extra digit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianR I am still waiting for my attaboy for NOT posting my picture of a man with two you-know-whats. And it's not a fake either. Brian

Didn't you post a link to that somewhere else, bri? Coulda sworn I'd seen that one.

Good question about scanning x-rays, jinx... I have never tried it, but i imagine someone at a copy center would know what to do... let me know if you find a good method, and I will try it for my x-rays... if i ever find 'em again.

There is one other nuisance I can think of, off-hand. The nails on the insides of the thumb rub together during daily chores, and will end up splitting tone nail or the other, usually right at the quick, sometimes below it.

In the long term, if I develop arthritis, I am sure that is going to be a problem spot. I remember when I was a kid, and I first started popping my knuckles, it hurt like hell to pop my thumb(s).

To go back to an earlier thread of this topic, I did not have my extra thumb cut off at birth because they did not know which thumb would be dominant. They decided to let it grow and see. When they finally decided that they could cut off either, and it would be the same, I was able to put my own two cents in... I specifically remember crying my eyes out, thinking they were going to take it away from me.

I still feel the same, now. It is so much a part of me, i would never consider cutting one off. When I was a teenager, I got into numerology, and found out my number was 11, based on other factors... but i didn't believe in coincidences at the time. I dont believe in numerology now, but I am still fond of the number 11, because it expresses my individuality.

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I'm Unique... just like everybody else.
- Kenneth

These aren't x-rays of the guy in the IotD, but they show photos and x-rays of a person's hands and feetl from the 4th image on down the page. This person has syndactyly and polydactyly on both hands and polydactyly on both feet.

THX Cyber Wolf.. That last link really helped... From that page i found that Googling for: Postaxial Polydactyly - Preaxial Polydactyly - Crossed Polydactyly - or - Syndactyly :reveal a wealth of information on the topic... it turns out at least one study shows the occurence of this to be 1 in 1000, with much higher rates in some subsets. I am still trying to figure out all the terms... it seems Preaxial is on the big toe or thumb, Postaxial is the fingers, Crossed is on both hands and feet, and Syndactyly... i am not sure, maybe combined or misshappen digits?
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"I'm not an actor, but I play one on TV" - Kenneth