HOPEFULLY THIS BLOG WILL HELP OTHER FAMILIES WHO ARE ON THE SAME JOURNEY AS WE ARE
We’re at the Royal Ontario Museum and Ania is checking out the scars on her fingers through a giant microscope. It’s not a great photo but Ania is absolutely fascinated and is very slowly inspecting every little ridge on her fingers 
How’s everyone doing? What’s new?
Congrats, Amy on the beautiful new blog, thanks so much for sharing your story!
Ania’s scars are very soft now and almost flat, I stopped all the recommended scar care methods because none of them were working except for Mepiform, but Mepiform prevented Ania from using her fingers, so we stopped that long ago as well and decided to only use it at night, it’s very good in the first few months post surgery though.
I’m still thinking of Jowita and her family, especially what her husband told me about scars flattening out and stretching with growing fingers, this was the most helpful comment to ease my fears regarding severe surgery scarring, THANKS SO MUCH if you’re still reading this
Another amazing thing that happened with time is Ania’s middle and ring finger balancing in length so her ring finger is now shorter than her middle finger!!!
The ring finger was longer than the middle one since birth and a lot more pronounced after the surgery, I did not expect her hand to normalize to this extent, I’m so happy for her! I know, what I’m describing is such a tiny detail but it means a lot to me, it’s HUGE!
If we waited to do this surgery, I highly doubt we’d see such amazing progress.
Love this photo, Ania looking very happy to finally join her big sister on the school bus! As per Russian tradition, all kids bring their teacher flowers on the first day of school, since we are in Canada, my girls were the only ones to show up with flowers but their teachers LOVED it!
It’s been almost a month since Ania started school, she loves every minute of it and made sure that all 26 kids in her class are her good friends, she doesn’t waste time. I’m also very happy to report that none of the kids are saying anything negative about her irregularly shaped fingers or dark scarring from the surgery. Some kids asked whether she burned her hand (the scars slightly resemble burn scars), she doesn’t bother answering, she ignores EVERY question regarding her fingers. At this point I don’t care that she refuses to speak about it, I won’t split hairs and encourage her to describe anything or share her story, her reaction is working for her!
My worst fears about bullying have been put to rest at least for now, Ania seems to instinctively know which path to choose regarding her own reactions, I’m simply happy that she’s doing well.
I’d like to add once again, I’m SO GLAD that we chose to separate her fingers when she was still a baby, best decision ever.
(((((HUGE HUGS))))) to all my readers and their families
From left: My mom, Ludmila, Ania and Mila
We had a fun Summer, just moved into our new home and getting ready for school to start! I would love some updates from everyone who’s reading this blog, how did all the appointments go, what about surgeries, how’s everyone recovering? What did you do this Summer? Hope everyone is staying positive
We were driving to IKEA the other day and out of nowhere, Ania asked: “What are those bumpy things on my fingers??”, before I was able to answer, her sister, Mila quickly told her that those bumpy things are scars from the surgery she had to separate her fingers, because she, Ania was born with her fingers stuck together. Ania just said “OK” and continued to examine her fingers closely.
I have to say, I almost swallowed my tongue when I heard Ania’s question, I know it’s not a huge deal but I was relieved Mila answered so quickly and eloquently! Yay Mila!!
Today, I brought Ania with me to pick up Mila from school (she’s about to graduate from senior kindergarten), her classmates love Ania, some of them play with my girls after school at the school playground, but today was the very first time everyone noticed how different Ania’s fingers looked! They all immediately surrounded her and started grabbing Ania’s fingers without asking, it was total mayhem for a minute, I literally had to physically move them away because no one was paying attention to Ania’s swipes at their heads in defence or my pleas for space.
I know, curious 5 year-olds, Ania was fine a minute later and resumed the mad race with her older friends and big sister around the playground as if nothing had happened. I’m very glad she’s such a tough little gal, she always reminds me of my mother’s words: “In life, you are never given more than you can handle”, I believe this now more than ever.
