As some of you may know already there are many members of my family who are plagued by a disorder called "Syndactyly" or more commonly known as "webbed toes". Webbed toes refers to the fusion of two or more digits and is common in many birds, amphibians and mammals but is considered unusual in humans and occurs in about one in every 2,500 human births.
It also occurs in many forms such as complete and incomplete and types one through five. I won't explain each type, only the type we suffer from which is partial simple syndactyly between the second and third toes. The skin between those two digits is fused part of the way up.
In my family this is clearly an inherited trait. Here is my family "Syndactyly" Tree
In short, my dad (Rich) has a father (Grandpa Fritzley) who passed down the gene only to his two sons, who in turn had daughters who all had the webbed toes. I so far am the only daughter to have any children and my son, JR, has them too. The curtest little baby webbed toes.
The question is, will he have sons who have daughters who have webbed toes?
Even more concerning though is what problems are commonly associated with this thing called Syndactyly that haunts us? The ever so reliable Wikipedia tells me that there are a number of things associated with webbed toes such as
Acrocallosal syndrome, Apert's syndrome, Aarskog–Scott syndrome, Bardet-Biedl syndrome, Carpenter's syndrome, Cornelia de Lange syndrome, Edwards syndrome, Jackson-Weiss syndrome, Fetal hydantoin effect, Miller syndrome, Pfeiffer syndrome, Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome, Timothy syndrome
So maybe I have never heard of any of those things before today, but it can't be good. It also noted that Syndactyly can be associated with Down Syndrome. None of us have been diagnosed, but I just hink it is worth mentioning...some people in this family reflect a hint of downs.
Anyway, contrary to popular belief having webbed toes does not impair my abilliy to walk run and swim. My laziness and fear of drowning are the only things that impair my athletic abilites. It does not improve your abitity to swim either, I am the numero uno example of this.
What webbed toes does cause however is phycological stress. Probably the reason I can't swim is because of hiding my feet for years during activities where my toes might be seen, not because I had tubes in my ears like my mom says. Also I was ostracized as a child from missing out on fashion opportunities such as toe socks. I was the oddball out wearing toe mittens.
Totally not as cool.
If I start a Facebook page for Syndactyly awareness will you guys join my cause?
It runs in my family too and although I have not done an extensive family tree on it, my dad also gave it to me. But to his credit he was quite proud of it and I did not feel the shame of it growing up. It did occur to me later though, he is also proud of his Santa Clause physique, his bald head, and his inability to be embarrassed in any situation, no matter the ridicule he receives (thrives on). So there goes that good feeling :) -heidi<><
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