Okay, now the knuckle pads (2 fingers) have been removed and I´m stuck with a big bandage for 2 weeks. The surgeon told me that he got everything out, but I´m still sceptical. Now remains to see if the operation will make the desease go wild.. Since my twin sister had her first surgery, she now has knuckle pads on almost all her fingers. She will have surgery for those after 1 week. I´m trying to find out if we can get for example radiation treatment for our Ledderhose instead of surgery.

More important; we are in the process of figuring out all the other vaguer symptoms we have that might be relative to Dupuytren. At the moment the doctors are thinking about psoriasis arthritis and gout. I also sem to have carpal tunnel syndrome. I´m a bit frustrated right now, because I would like so much to know what triggered the Dups for us, as it doesn´t run in the family and it definitively is not work related.

Hi Pixi! Yeah, that´s how I meant it, however my sis says that she had the knuckle pads already before the surgery. Anyway, they have grown really much after that. After reading pages after pages of discussions at this forum, I have understood that in some cases surgery have speeded up the Dups contracture eventually making it worse than it was in the first place. Then again, some of the people here with knuckle pads have never gotten them back after their surgery and that´s why I gave it a go. I really hope it´s the right decision.

:D Feeling positive now and the ugly bandage already on the day of surgery got a pair of black button eyes, a pink button nose, pink ears and a long tail. May I present you with Ragnar Rat! He is cute, but has started to get a little bit smelly as he doesn´t care for such details as personal hygien..:D

Pixi,
You asked, "how painful was the surgery?". My little finger was at 90 degrees contracture when I had the fasciectomy. I had 28 stitches that zig-zaged from the base of my palm to the top joint. It looked bad. It was interesting that there was no pain. I asked the surgeon about the lack of pain and he said that almost all of his patients said the same thing. I took three advil after surgery in anticipation of the pain that wasn't to come. after that I took a couple of advil at night just in case.

No pain during surgery. I´m not sure about te word torniquet, maybe the same as I had above my elbow. They put a really tight strap there and also injected something in the hand that made it go completely numb. Through the other hand I got some nice coctails to make me relaxed (those I really enjoyed:D) The strap was a little bit painful as it completely stopped the blood flow and I just couldn´t keep still and kept rotating and relaxing my shoulder. The surgeon said that he is very happy that his assistant had played american football for many years and didn´t mind lying on top of my arm with all his weight during the whole operation. Oops, that was embarrasing as I didn´t thought the rest of my arm was moving. The surgery took half an hour and the pain after that was really nothing, as I had anticpated more pain just like you Callie although you fixed the contraction and not the pads. Now after one week, it only hurts when I use the fingers, but I can already bend them 45 degrees. The stiches will be taken off after one week (4 on each finger). The cuts are straight across the fingers so the scar will eventually blend in with the wrinkles. I eat painkillers (not strong) that contain ibuprofen (or something) that will keep inflammation away.

PixiTwixi, I do believe that you need to get rid of those knuckle pads. Mine grew really fast during the last half year before surgery. Also writing was painful for me, because the fingers wouldn´t bend more than 90 degrees. Being in a constant pain (although small pain) caused by the most routine and small tasks of the day will start picking on your brains eventually. I was very tired and sometimes bitchy and cranky at work, which made me feel even more useless as I´m a supervisor and shouldn´t be affecting my workmates in a bad way. Hopefully they understand and now I am again starting to feel more energized.

Oh, the big bandage was only supposed to be kept during one week. That means that Ragnar Rat is gone already! He was brutally attacked by my sis and a pair of scissors and didn´t survive. However, I do have some things in store for my twinsister as she is going to have some of her knuckle pads removed the day after tomorrow..;)

Good to hear that, Callie.
I am really intrigued by your disappearing pad. I've read other posts on this forum that say the same thing. Mine is about the size of a slightly-squashed pea, so can't imagine where it would go.