Matt's extra thumb

Matt's extra thumb
Originally uploaded by ppfalcon.

Matt was born with an extra thumb on his left hand. If you look closely at this photo, you can see it. It wasn't a complete thumb, just the top joint, but it had a fingernail on it. Most people thought this weird appendage was a little gross, but in the Zurewich family it is a mark of distinction. Extra fingers and toes have appeared once in each generation since Grampa (extra fingers on each hand): his daughter Jeanne (extra toes) and grandson George (extra toes), then Matthew. Granpa died in January of the year Matt was born, so Bema was especially thrilled that Matt "had a little bit of Grampa in him," as she wrote to me in a note.

Removing Matt's extra thumb wasn't as simple an operation as when the midwife who delivered Grampa cut off his extra fingers (they didn't have bones, were in between his ring fingers and pinkies). I couldn't talk our GP into cutting off the thumb, and it was problematic because we didn't have medical insurance. I ended up taking Matt to a plastic surgeon in Denver who did the procedure in his office with a local anaesthetic when Matt was three months old. I still have the bill somewhere. Matt had a scar on his thumb, and grew up to be left-handed.