I was born in 1965 with ABS. I have a missing ring finger & band around the middle finger of my left hand. On my right hand all four fingers were fused but my thumb was unaffected.
Both of my feet were clubbed. The right foot did not need surgery but my big toe was missing & the next 2 toes were stunted & webbed. My left leg needed lots of Surgery to correct & I have 2 bands one around my ankle & the other just below my knee. I have just had to have surgery on this foot again. My earliest memories are of Great Ormand Street Hospital.
My parents brought me up to believe that I was no different to my siblings & that I could do anything if I put my mind to it. They never allowed me to hide my hands & feet from the world. It wasn’t until I went to school that I realized that I was different. Children can be cruel but I used to give as good as I got.
I am now happily married with 2 children. When I was pregnant with my first child the hospital paid a lot of interest in my scan trying to count the baby’s fingers & toes as they hadn’t come across ABS before & were worried that I would pass my deformities on to my children but I can report that they were both born without ABS.
I was also born with what i think of as underdeveloped fingers on my left hand. In 1964 when I was born there was no explanation for such things however I now believe this was caused by ABS.
I am mum to three teenagers: twin boys and a a daughter. I rarely think of my underdeveloped left hand at all and I know that ABS is not hereditary. Nevertheless – and to my complete surprise – when each of my children was born, the first thing I did was check their hands and fingers. Weird huh?