OT: Dupuytren's contracture disease

i just had this surgery to remove the tumor growing in my finger . extremely painful , and the recovery will last at
least two months . the "Vikings finger" could have been more easily treated with injections if i knew what it
was in the first place , however - i waited much too long to fix the problem and surgery was the only option.

starts as lumps in the palm ,then spreads around the hands and pulls the tendons , eventually curling up the fingers.
common in people of nothern europe and descendents . can be triggered by age (over 40) and trauma to the hands
(common in machinists , carpenters , etc who work with their hands a lot.

I urge anyone who has the signs of Dupuytren's contracture to have it checked out. if i had left mine alone much longer,
i would've lost the nerves in my finger = amputation .

Had (have) this, have had the injections several times with good results. Knew a guy who left it untreated who ended up with claws, only thumb and index finger still working, the rest were sucked into his palm.

Thank you. I have had this in my left hand for a number of years, not progressing, and doctor has his eye on it for any changes. The major symptom is being unable to lay hand perfectly flat -- the ring finger remains slightly bent.

According to this reference, alcohol and tobacco use can contribute to the problem: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dupuytrens-contracture/basics/definition/CON-20024378

Glad you had the surgery before it got any worse, and wish you (actually, all of you in this thread with this problem) good results and speedy recoveries.

Paying attention to things like this and getting treatment timely IS a worthwhile use of medical care!

Are those shots some kind of cortisone?

That ought to slow down any nose picking for a while!!

But,really,I hope you get fully recovered.

A friend of mine has this in his hands and feet. He told me it's genetic in his family and affects the male members but not the female ones. Of course he has three boys and has had them all tested, thankfully clear of the disease. He himself is in a bad way with it, toes curled right under and hands like claws.
It's a terrible thing to see a person suffer.

In the identifying a disease, the before surgery pic might be more use to us lot, none the less, thats a nice neat row of stitches there! Hope it does not hurt too bad.

adama said:

In the identifying a disease, the before surgery pic might be more use to us lot, none the less, thats a nice neat row of stitches there! Hope it does not hurt too bad.

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There's a good pic on the Mayo Clinic link above, with a description of symptoms.

Basically, try to lay your hand flat on a tabletop--palm up or down doesn't matter. If one or more fingers won't lay flat, and there's lumps on the palm at the base of the same fingers, you may have it.

I have been treated 3x on my right hand and my hand was a knotted up mess with deep skin pits until the last treatment which was done by a doctor who travels to the Portland, Oregon area to give treatments once a month.

I was told about this doctor who was trained in France who uses an unconventional method of fraying the chords with hypodermic needle tips and then bending your fingers back until the chords snap. A couple of people I knew swore by his method to avoid more surgeries so I decided to give him a try. I made an appointment and waited for his next office hours.

On the day I went to his office, he took photos of my hand, checked the other hand as well and said I had a typical case that was exacerbated by prior surgeries. He numbed up my hand and set to work. He went through nearly a dozen needles as they don't stay sharp for very long. I should have finished off a fifth of whiskey before going as it was painful to listen to and really painful to snap the chords. Then you get the collagen injections and after a few weeks the collagen compound atrophied all the tissue it touches and comes right through the surface of your skin and then within a few more weeks your hand is nearly good as new. At least that was my experience.

I had a fairly progressive form and it seemed to stop progressing after that last treatment and other than a few hard lumps and knots in my palm and two small pits left in my skin, I have full mobility back and no pain.

On edit - I wrote about it at the time http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...anyone-else-deal-211099/?highlight=Dupuytrens

20 stiches, that's nothin'. I had more than that when the put my left ear back on. Don't ask!

I grew up working in Dad's drug store. When you're 15 years old, you can't believe anybody could be in that bad a shape. All us guys should be seeing a doc every year after 40. If nothing else, just to hear the words; "Lose weight and lay off the caffeine".

And, if you ever start feeling sorry for yourself, go down to Memphis and take a tour of St. Jude's. That will bring you way back down to earth.
JR

Thanks for the head's up. Always good to know about weird diseases that you might otherwise ignore.

I had the surgery at age 33, and managed to live another 27 years before it came back in the exact same place. (site of a drill press accident in my youth). I'd also be interested to hear from the OP about the shots--what are they? My gp doc told me he could do cortisone injections if I wanted to, when I saw him last month.

Regards
Bob

I'm happy you took care of it. Keep it clean and take it easy for awhile. I have a close friend who let it go for a long time and finnally had it done he had pretty much lost the ability to open three fingers and could not shake hands when greeting people. He had a pretty easy recovery and always says he wished he had just taken care of it at the start.

What is it about us guys....It seems we fight going to the doctor as if it was a waste of our time and just live with things we don't have to. I know myself I have the mind set that once they start poking around who knows what they will find so I resist going. But that's the point right....find it and fix it before it can't be fixed or takes you down. Our families depend on us we need to be in top shape, we need to be able to enjoy our lives, shoot we work so hard and should be taking better care of ourselves, I know I should be.

I'm on day three without a cigarette and going nuts. It will be worth the effort, I want to enjoy my life and be able to spend quality time with my grandchildren when they come along.

Make Chips Boys !!

Ron

not cortisone , but a collagen enzyme.

here's a segment :

Treatment involves removing or breaking apart the cords that are pulling your fingers toward your palm. This can be done in several ways. The choice of procedure depends on the severity of your symptoms and other health problems you may have.

Needling

This technique uses a needle, inserted through your skin, to puncture and break the cord of tissue that's contracting a finger. Contractures often recur but the procedure can be repeated.

The main advantages of the needling technique are that there is no incision, it can be done on several fingers at the same time, and usually very little physical therapy is needed afterward. The main disadvantage is that it can't be used in some places in the finger because it could damage a nerve or tendon.

Enzyme injections

Injecting a type of enzyme into the taut cord in your palm can soften and weaken it — allowing your doctor to later manipulate your hand in an attempt to break the cord and straighten your fingers. The advantages and disadvantages of the enzyme injection are similar to needling, but the enzyme injection can be more painful initially.

Surgery

Another option for people with advanced disease, limited function and progressing disease is to surgically remove the tissue in your palm affected by the disease. The main advantage to surgery is that it results in a more complete and longer-lasting release than that provided by the needle or enzyme methods. The main disadvantages are that physical therapy is usually needed after surgery, and recovery can take longer.

I have it in both hands at the fourth finger and at the base of each thumb. I've been waiting for several years to get it taken care of since I heard so many stories of it coming back. I loaded up my FSA at work this year, just need to find a surgeon to work on one hand at a time (a fellow's gotta wipe after all!)

I can always tell when it's growing/getting worse as I'll get some pain in the tendons and after it goes away the palms itch for several days.

Just an update for anyone with this disease. I finally got my right hand "fixed" using the needle aponeurotomy method (check it out on Youtube) After a local anesthetic in my palm (which only numbed my 4th finger) it took the doctor about 20 minutes of poking around to sever the cords and my finger was able to straighten immediately. Since there was no incision all I had to do was keep the bandage on my hand for 2 days to keep it clean. I could've gone back to work the same day if I wanted, the hand was fully functional when I left the office.

My wife is 60 and has diabetes which she controls well. She is worried to have the surgery because the diabetes might cause complications. she is also worried about why bother since it will come back soon anyway. Sounds like the needle way is least invasive and less likely to have complications. how to decide what doctor to use and will the insurance pay for a good one instead of the lowest cost rooky in the county.
Bil lD.

They used to think Dupuytren's was caused by long-term manual labor but that has turned out not to be true. They also used to recommend waiting until your finger or fingers were curled over before having it operated on, but that was fifty years ago when surgeons considered the palm of the hand "no man's land." Now just about any orthopedic practice has a hand guy, and they now think the operation is easier and has less chance of recurring if you get it done early. About ten years ago I had Dupuytren's in my left little finger with hard callus all the way to the middle of the palm and it was 100% dissected out (leaving a z-plasty scar) and has never reappeared.

A somewhat disconcerting fact is that Dupuytren's is related to Peyronie's and often occurs in conjunction with it. I don't know whether being unable to hold a hammer would be as bad as being unable to square up to a urinal but having the hand operation and the plaques removed is supposed to arrest the progression of the disease. Get it done, why take a chance?

Dupa3872 said:

I'm happy you took care of it. Keep it clean and take it easy for awhile. I have a close friend who let it go for a long time and finnally had it done he had pretty much lost the ability to open three fingers and could not shake hands when greeting people. He had a pretty easy recovery and always says he wished he had just taken care of it at the start.

What is it about us guys....It seems we fight going to the doctor as if it was a waste of our time and just live with things we don't have to. I know myself I have the mind set that once they start poking around who knows what they will find so I resist going. But that's the point right....find it and fix it before it can't be fixed or takes you down. Our families depend on us we need to be in top shape, we need to be able to enjoy our lives, shoot we work so hard and should be taking better care of ourselves, I know I should be.

I'm on day three without a cigarette and going nuts. It will be worth the effort, I want to enjoy my life and be able to spend quality time with my grandchildren when they come along.

Make Chips Boys !!

Ron

Click to expand...

A book called "How to Live Longer" was written by a woman who is the Dade County, FL coroner and sees several deaths a day. Number one on the list is never, never, never stop on a divided highway median. Stopping on the shoulder is only marginally less dangerous. Number two is when you are sick, go to a doctor. She sees case after case of people who thought the pain would wear off and died instead. I just lost a co-worker that way. He was at home when he complained about having trouble breathing. His family called the EMTs but when they got there, he said he was feeling better and declined to go to a hospital. They left and a while later he died.

Congratulations on three days without a cigarette. Only ten more years to go. That's how long it took me to get completely and permanently off them.

Bill