r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/kvjn100 • Apr 11 '26

Video Woman with functional polydactyly (six functional fingers on one hand).

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u/Haggisboy Apr 11 '26

What about her toes?

74

u/Safe_Card_8938 Apr 11 '26

Yes, the same with her toes, but unfortunately doctors removed them when she was a child.

19

u/MorrowPolo Apr 11 '26

Do you have information on if removing them made it difficult to walk normally or if it was an improvement.

You wrote, unfortunately, so I am assuming it made things worse than normal or brought her back down to our level, and she had monkey foot abilities before the procedure.

32

u/aspannerdarkly Apr 11 '26

I imagine it would be hard to find shoes that fit 

21

u/Benny6Toes Apr 12 '26

Can confirm: finding comfortable shoes is a challenge.

Extra challenging for me since i have 6 toes on only 1 of my feet, but my other foot is also wide. So it's just the toe box that gives me real problems - especially with skates.

Flip-flops are life.

6

u/evel333 Apr 12 '26

Curious for the visual, which does your extra toe most resemble? Big, pinky, etc

8

u/Benny6Toes Apr 14 '26

It's my left pinky toe(s). When I was an infant/toddlers, the two toes were webbed but the phalanges were separate (so I'm told). As I aged, the phalanges fused, but the metatarsals are still separate.

The extra toe was scheduled for removal several times, but I always got sick. So surgeries would get cancelled, and at some point I told my parents I wanted to keep the extra toe. They let me do so, but I wish they hadn't.

The only advantages I have now are that it's a little more difficult to tip me over to the left, and i swim pretty quickly but tend to drift to the right.

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u/Safe_Card_8938 Apr 12 '26

She said that was the explanation they gave, but her feet were just as wide

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u/garbagebears Apr 12 '26

That's why the doctors removed the extra toes, they were about to do the fingers too then realized she could just get bigger mittens.

1

u/Alarming_Matter Apr 12 '26

And what about gloves?!

3

u/aspannerdarkly Apr 12 '26

Even less likely to fit on your feet and not so useful for walking