Hello,

I am new here to Dupuytren's. I am a caucasian male, 55, who started to develop symptoms about one year ago. My wife first noticed lumps and wrinkling appearing on the palm of my left hand. I am now living and working in China, which is making finding treatment a little more challenging.

While the bumps and lumps looked a little weird at first, they really didn't present much of a problem. Unfortunately, my problem has been progressing quite rapidly the last few weeks, with large nodules appearing at the middle of my left finger, and smaller nodules on my ring and index fingers. Additionally, the lumps and wrinkling are increasing below my pinkie and laterally across my entire palm.

Last week, I traveled to Shanghai to visit a doctor at a Western medical clinic. There was a team of doctors from different parts of the world. An Australian physician looked at my hand and immediately recognized it as Dupuytren's Contracture. One of the Chinese docs, suggested that they have another tissue expert examine my hand. She recommended that they take a small biopsy from one of the nodules, and run a few blood tests. I consented to these procedures, and they told me they would get back to me later this week with a suggested treatment plan.

I work as a technical writer, so I'm at the computer all day. This problem of course is affecting my ability to type and move my fingers in a big way. I've read a good deal of literature on this topic, but am seeing a lot of variation from one place to another. I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for what I should and should not be doing at this point?

Thank you

barelywashed
Hey new to Dupuytren's. I too am new to it, and this is my first post to this forum. I live in Nashville, TN. I am 56, a musician, and hope to somehow wrangle my way out of this and get back to my career. I'm down to playing only octaves with each hand when I used to reach 10ths. So it's critical that I get back full range of motion. This has been very slow coming on until this year, when it advanced pretty rapidly. I have a slight contracture in my left pinky, and only slight pulling on 2 fingers of my right hand, so I think it's still in an early stage. I am planning on an NA procedure with Dr. David Kline in Boise sometime soon. Have to send him some pictures before he can assess. I am considering RT after I have the NA to prevent a return of DC. I have a very high ($10k) deductable, so the option of going to Germany for RT is a pretty good choice for me. Does anyone out there have the specific contact info for RT centers in Europe? It can be Germany, France, at this point I don't care as long as they are reputable. And if anyone knows a really good doc for the NA procedure closer to Nashville than Boise, Idaho I would appreciate that as well. Thanks!

You might check with Dr. Denkler in Larkspur near San Francisco. It's a little farther but should actually be cheaper flying Southwest from Nashville to Oakland or San Francisco. It's a 30-45 minute drive from either. I find flying into Oakland better. Nashville and Oakland are both SW hubs, so you will probably have lots of choices for flights.
Email Dr. Denkler pictures of your hands. He usually emails you back right away. Getting a 2nd opinion is always a good thing to do anyway. He did my NA in March. I drove myself 30-45 minutes to my son's house afterwards. I did keep it, my right hand, elevated on a pillow on the center console. A box or anything would work to prop it on. If it's your left hand, the door would work fine. I did what they said and kept it elevated 24/7 for 3 days. Never even had any swelling. NA was very successful.
Now, I have an appointment on June 11 for a planning session to get RT done at Scripps/San Diego area. I have lots of nodules in my palm that I hope RT will "nip in the bud" so to speak.

Flora

I've been to Dr. Bourland and would recommend him!

Thanks to those of you who responded. Again, I'm living and working in CHINA, so it's a rather long drive to a doctor in the United States....

I expect to be hearing from the clinic I visited last week, sometime this week. I will be sure to post their recommendations. For those unfamiliar, China has a very modern treatment methods and facilities, which are often free of the regulations that sometimes hamper patients, and also protect them.

One of the biggest pains in the rear with my rapidly progressing problem, is the loss of flexibility and mobility in my left hand and fingers, which has severely affected my ability to type. Because Technical Writing is my work, it's a really big deal, and has slowed me down significantly.