How does one adjust to losing a thumb?

I’ve heard of replacing a thumb w/a toe.

@MacBean Lurve for omgwtfbbq. <3

Although he still has them both, my boyfriend cannot move either of his thumbs. He uses both hands to hold a pen or pencil and after lots of practice he writes quite legibly. He also can’t move any of his fingers on either hand so that probably made re-learning to write more difficult.

I am sorry to hear about your dad, my thoughts and prayers are with the family.

O wow. I’m sorry~

I have also seen medical shows about repalcing the thumb with a toe. It worked tho the man had to think to grasp- it wasn’t automatic anymore. He was very pleased with his surgery. Your poor dad!!

Give your dad a hug for me. Am I allowed to say high-five here?
Check this out. What you can’t do without thumbs.

He will adapt fine. A good friend of mine sawed his off in High School shop class…learned to write left handed in no time…who really writes much anyway with email, computer etc.? Anything you can do R handed you can do L handed. If was or is a musician I feel even more for him. Best wishes to his recovery.

I had a police detective friend that had his right thumb blown off from the shotgun of a 12 year old child. my friend was driving to work one morning and obseved this kid with a shotgun. this was on a neighborhood street. my friend stopped the kid and asked him what he was doing with a shotgun. the kid politely raised the barrel and shot my friend in the right side, severing his right thumb. my friend was wearing his vest, so most of the shotgun pellets hit his vest. he was rushed to Vanderbilt hospital, where they could not save his right thumb. my friend was right-handed. he survived with his thumb, but had to learn to fire his weapon all over again, with his left hand and thumb. my friend is still alive today and making criminal arrests. my friend is a survivor.

@john65pennington What happened to the kid?

Yikes! Sorry to hear about this. I hope things aren’t too hard for him.

@rangerr I find the inclusion of “opening a water bottle” on that list quite weird. I sometimes find myself opening bottles with the palm of my hand (where my ring and middle fingers wrap around the lid) so I don’t think it would be that hard.

Holy crap! My condolences. I have no experience with thumb loss – my little sister has limited use of one of her legs, but her challenges are likely very different than what your Dad’s will be – but this is what immediately came to my head. My whole family has a wicked sense of humor, so if that happened to anyone in my family I would spend the rest of the day cutting the right thumbs off all their gloves/mittens and sewing the holes up nicely from the inside. Coming home to their new custom outerwear would make anyone in my family laugh hysterically, despite having just lost their thumb. Course that might totally piss him off, but a little humor in whatever way you think he’d respond well to might be nice for him to come home to.

@richardhenry That’s how I open them too.

Ranger…........because of his extensive past juvenile record, he was committed to juvenile court until he reached age 18, then five more years to serve as an adult. this kid was just pure rotten. he use to kill cats, at age 7, just for the fun of it. he had a hate relation with the police and apparently it came to a head when approached by my detective partner. can you imagine having to place handcuffs on a 12 year old? the cuffs barely fit on his wrists.

@john65pennington The cuffs barely fit me, and I’m 18. Kid sounds like a real winner, though..

Really sorry good healing be with you all.
Saw a local story recently where the guy lost his thumb.
they removed one of his toes and replaced his thumb.
After healing, the toe worked fine as a thumb, and it looked pretty good too.
The foot adapted to the missing toe and the existing toes spread out to compensate for the missing toe, helping him to walk just fine.
you could not tell until the camera put his hand under the microscope so to speak, that it wasn’t his real thumb.
The guy was very happy with everything, was walking good and the hand worked fine with the new thumb replacement.
wishing your dad well for sure.
i lost two fingers and half the hand to an accident so i know his anguish.
but i still have the thumb and the next two fingers, but not as bad as losing the thumb.
tell him not too worry the nerve pain will eventually dissipate and heal.
Good luck

I’m thinking if he’s only lost to the first knuckle then he should have enough dexterity in the thumb stump to still write and grip things as before otherwise he can learn things left handed.

People adapt in a lot of different ways, and while losing a thumb sucks, your dad will eventually pay no more mind to it than you would if you got used to having a broken arm or leg.

A few weeks ago my dad hurt his back real bad, and he can’t lift anything too heavy or work out as much as he used to. He was pissed off about it at first, but he’s found ways to work around it and now he’s in the same mood he used to be.

My condolences.
How much of the thumb is left? If it’s just the end, he could probably get a prosthetic. Otherwise, he’ll have to learn to do without. There’s probably a sort of therapy for it.

He’s gonna have to learn how to use his left hand for a lot of fun things…not including opening a water bottle.

I’m sorry. I shouldn’t joke. I’m sure he’ll be making jokes about it once he’s home. At least it won’t severely affect his job.
I only know one person who didn’t have most of his hand from sticking it in an engine, and then again into a snow blower….made the same mistake twice. He wore this glove thing, and I think it held the prosthetic. I hope there’s something he can wear.

Ack.

My grandfather has 4 fingers on each hand; one hand does not have a thumb. He just rewired and painted his patio. He’s 87. I’m sure your dad will adapt. The human brain and body can adapt to anything.

Here’s something on the topic of adjusting I hope will help. If I had lost a finger, I would really want a chance to say goodbye under less painful circumstances. Try a mirror without a border and setting it up on his left so that he will experience having a mirror image of his right side and be intact again, That way he can “see” his hand intact again and appreciate it for a last time, or from time to time if it helped. He could move with both arms (the left being hidden by the mirror) and he would “see” two intact hands moving at the end of them. It wouldn’t cost very much and would be great home therapy. I really hope this helps him feel better. Undoubtedly he will adapt and become adept again unless you consider bionic prosthesis negating his need to*. Essentially then, all you need to concern yourself with is his feelings of loss. I really hope this helps with those.

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkxuJwlquuQ

p,s, This was my very first answer, I really hope it helps and thanks for asking.

@Drgrafenbergmd: Thanks for answering, and welcome to Fluther! :)

How’s he doing now?

Turns out, another surgeon told the guy who said the thumb was a lost cause to buzz off and he did the surgery instead and reattached the thumb. There’s still a chance it’ll have to be removed anyway, but this doctor at least gave him a chance. Even if it stays, it won’t bend; it’ll just be there. But that’s better than nothing at all! Last week he went back to have it unwrapped and looked at for the first time and the doctor said he thought it was looking pretty good. He’s started physical therapy for it, which so far just involves unwrapping it, soaking it in a whirlpool for fifteen minutes, cleaning off dead skin, and re-wrapping it each visit. Despite always reminding us that there’s still a possibility that he’ll completely lose his thumb, the doctors all seem fairly optimistic. That really helps my dad’s mood. Not to mention, the day after he came home from the hospital, he got dressed all by himself, buttons and zippers and everything. He’s pretty awesome. :D The only thing is, he’s not allowed to drive (more because of the medication he’s on than because he only has one fully functional hand) so he’s trapped in the house a lot, and he goes stir crazy so easily. Keeping him entertained is the most difficult thing at the moment. But we’ll see where things are when he runs out of sick leave at work…

@MacBean Sounds like good news. My father couldn’t stand being off work too long either. And yay to getting dressed on his own! I’d be all whiny and wanting people to help lol

That’s encouraging. At least with his thumb he’ll have something to brace a pencil against and stuff….

Six months later, asmo arrives to ask…

Well, what happened?

His thumb’s still on! It’s really odd-looking, though. One of his co-workers said it looks like a penis, but that made me wonder what kind of penises she’s been looking at… Anyway, the thumb doesn’t bend at all and his first two fingers don’t bend very well, either. But he can still do most things just about as well as he used to, only it takes a little more time and concentration. He’s even back to gardening, which is great. om nom nom home grown veggies. Unfortunately, “most things” does not include sorting mail. So he’s applied for disability retirement and now we’re waiting to see if he gets that or if the post office has a different job that he can do.

I’m so sorry to hear about your dad. God’s blessing and healing for him!

I had my non-dominant left thumb cut off yesterday. I recovered it, iced it with some separation and transported to the hospital with me. Although they thought they could reattach it, they spent three hours trying but were unsuccessful:(.

One of those things you just have to adapt to, I guess. I plan on learning how to use what little is left. Your dads sounds so much worse, prayers for his healing and successful outcome!