Hello,

I mentioned in a previous post that I had a palmar fasciectomy on my left hand 2 months ago. I am still doing lots of physio and I'm wearing a splint at night. My recent post asked about swelling. Now my hand is experiencing incredible pain during the night, but oddly enough, not every night and it only seems to be really painful at night. I went to my family Dr and she said my hand looks really good other than fingers are still a bit swollen. When I experience the pain it will radiate right up my wrist and into my arm. If I get up and move around a bit the pain starts to go away. The fingers affected with the pain are the ring finger, the middle finger and the baby finger. I have been taking Aleve for pain but even that didn't work last night. I had surgery on the ring finger and the thumb and the thumb is 100% OK. I have attached some pictures that were taken on February 24; the swelling seen at the base of the fingers is now gone.

My friend said she thought I should stop doing exercises for a few days and let my hand rest. She also said I should try icing it 4 or 5 times a day for a couple days. After a couple of days she said I should apply a little heat and start exercising again but only during the day. She said I should give my hand a rest before going to bed.

What are your thoughts? Do you think I should try what my friend suggested?

Thanks for you advice,

Leona

Thank you Callie.

I decided that I'm going to see a physiotherapist; maybe he'll have suggestions for why I'm all of a sudden inconsistently experiencing pain during the night.

Leona

Leona
I have found your posting very interesting. I had surgery Nov. 18th to correct a bent little finger. Seemed very minor surgery, we were in a out of the hospital in one hour. Before the surgery I did not have any cords, just nodules in my palm and the lump on my small finger. Incision took 4 weeks to fully heal and my little finger would not flex properly. About 2 months after the surgery my hand was very stiff in the mornings, but not noticeably swollen. I started to develop cords very rapidly and now have 3 significant cords into by fingers, the ring finger is contracting. The pain started at about 6 weeks post surgery and continued to get worse for about a month, at times it would be sharp pain shooting up into my wrist. Because of the pain I was not able to use my hand properly, I have lost a lot of use of my hand. Right now at 4 months the pain is better but if I do anything strenuous (like pruning roses) it returns for a day or two. My index finger and middle finger now are slightly numb at times. I was in physiotherapy twice a week for 3 months post surgery, very good therapists but my hand continued to deteriorate. I will never have surgery again, and I'm on a wait list for NA but don't expect to see the that surgeon until the fall. My family doctor has asked my to return to the surgeon who operated on my little finger and my appointment is this coming week, I will try to get an explanation of what has happened and why my fingers are numb.
Please let me know how you make out and if you get any treatment that improves your pain.
Madeline

Callie, Yes I had an experienced plastic surgeon. The surgery actually went well and in the end I had very little scaring at the incision. From what I have researched it appears that I have had a bad flare reaction. One paper defined a flare as a reaction out of proportion to the surgery performed, which is certainly what I have had. Paper's have the complication rates for surgery at over 20%, and higher for women, and higher if there are other factors like knuckle pads or family history. Unfortunately I didn't fully research my options until after surgery, when I realized something had gone wrong.

I only had surgery on my pinkie finger because there were no cords, no pain and certainly contracture except on my pip joint of the pinkie. The were only a few small nodules on the palm of my hand. There are many references to flare reactions such as I experienced, especially after surgery on women, unfortunately using lotion, avoiding sleeping on the hand or other simple solutions do not help. With a 20% complication rate, surgery should be a last resort.