Very short for now... about to turn 49, male, from Italy, no previous known occurrence in family, no diabetes, non-smoker, alcohol in limited amounts (like beer or wine twice a week at dinner).

Timeline is:

6/2017 - developed De Quervain in right wrist because of constant play with my young kids, two boys about to turn 4 and 2, really active lads. Had to wear extensively (even at night) a hand tutor to deal with wrist pain.

9/2017 - after 3 months of tutor usage (even at night) and more careful wrist usage, De Quervain subsides - but two lumps pop up apparently ovenight in palm, under middle and ring fingers, with middle one more pronounced, pea-sized. Sometimes mild pain, especially while screwing milk bottle top, hand gets a little stiff. General practitioning doctor suggests I visit a hand surgeon specialist.

10/2017 - visit to hand surgeon gets me a diagnosis of Dupuytren, with palm test on flat surface. I start reading about Dupuytren.

Today is my third day of self-exercises in un-stiffening the hand - which I probably am at an advantage with, considering I have hypermobility likely because of (undiagnosed) Ehlers-Danlos:

- can still bend several fingers on the left hand and index of the right hand to touch the back of the hand
- have double-jointed left thumb
- can independently bend DIPs on index, middle, ring fingers on both hands (4 of 6 fingers still at 90 degrees)
- can touch tip of the nose with my tongue, very easilly
- have hyperelastic skin on neck and back of hands (can stretch it painlessly for a full 2.5cm / 1in)
- have mild mitral valve prolapse
- learnt to walk "differently" after being suggested tendon shortening surgery at ankle levels for both ankles at age 19, currently can bend ankles at 110 degrees on the outside
- tore both ACLs in knees, one at 21 and the other at 41

Surgeon said prolonged usage of tutor has nothing to do with Dupuytren, but it strikes me as a collagene-poor individual that I get an excesse-collagene disease out of the blue... so, in just 72 hours of occasional stretching (like, 30-60 seconds every 15 minutes) I have both nodules flattened and regressed by an estimated 30% and a definite return of mobility to the hand. Too bad I hadn't taken pictures of the nodules before, as I realize such an improvement sounds very strange; and I didn't think of doing that up front as I clearly didn't expect these exceedingly positive results.

Note that my concept of "stiff" finger for the affected ring and middle is - from flat palm with 0-angle straight fingers, I can "only" bend them backwards 90 degrees (it was 120 for the ring and full 180 for the middle just a few months ago).

So, it SEEMS to me that there might be a correlation between the three months of De Quervain pain with really limited movement of my right hand (and definitely no stretching) and the insurgence of Dupuytren - with at least some initial benefit in actually moving the hand.

Since I insisted (before reading the whole lot) with my surgeon that I wanted the nodules removed, he told me to undergo an ultrasound scan and "then we will see".

Of course after reading about surgery implications I am (heh) less adamant about that, and plan to keep going with stretching for a few weeks and see how things go...

Indeed my hope is that the initial diagnosis of Dupuytren could have been wrong (though nodules did in fact have all distinct signs in shape, position, consistency causing reduced mobility and relatively mild pain - and of course still do, to a lesser extent).

That is why I still plan on getting the ultrasound scan and go back sometime in December to the surgeon (who is in fact a hand surgery specialist and does Clostridium histolyticum injections routinely) to get a second look to my hand. I will post back in some time.

A few days later, my nodule under the middle finger is regressed to probably 1/3 the size of what it was last month, while the one under the ring finger regresses slower, and I'd say it shifted slightly towards the finger itself.

Given how the feeling of something extraneous in the palm is now little more than a mild nuisance (compared with having a couple bolts under the skin and the medium pain in screwing on or off the baby bottle top), I might revisit the idea of "the nodules popped up overnight" - they probably went unnoticed while I was barely opening and closing my hand due to protecting from the wrist pain via the tutor, until I actually got back to using the hand.

Still plan to get an ultrasound scan in December and a subsequent visit to the hand surgeon - don't want to get too hopeful after everything I read and the images I've seen about this disease.

Back from the ultrasound scan, the two 17mm nodules have been observed and diagnosed as compatible with Dupuytren.

All fingers still move ok, there hasn't been any further improvement (nor worsening) since the un-stiffening of the first days.

Next up, book next visit with the hand surgeon.

Well I am a newbie too so don't expect anything too useful from me - just trying to contribute with my own experience to the much deeper knowledge of this community... feel free to ask about my case and I'll reply.

I haven't yet booked my hand surgeon control visit... but I'm going to.

It seems to me that palm nodules have stabilized, though some days they seem a bit harder and some a bit softer...

Can now bend ring finger backwards 110 degrees and middle 135 degrees (approx), which is almost as good as it gets from my hypermobile point of view