I said 'wach', meant 'wolfgant', sorry.

Hi Jim, I fully agree with you! Don't let Dupuytren spoil your life. Enjoying life is much more important than Dupuytren's. Having said this, I also wouldn't do things that I experience as damaging. If I see hard manual work damaging my hand, I don't do it. If it doesn't hurt me why bother? If running does me good, why not do it? I think everyone has to judge her/himself what is good. There are very few statistics published so we need to find out ourselves.

Wolfgang

"I complained because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet."

"Just so many Summers. Just so Many Springs" (D. Henely)


Two great thoughts!

I would think knitting would be a good exercise after surgery. The important thing to do would be to stretch the hand/fingers periodically while knitting. I noticed a problem when leaving the hand in one position for any length of time. It is the back and forth movement that is crucial for scar tissue healing.

I've had Dupuytrens for the past 2 1/2 years in my right hand. I am predominantly left-handed. There is no known family history, although I do have an Irish grandfather. It's progressing slowly. I got back into knitting just as this disease started appearing. My hand does get sore and stiff when I knit a lot. I really love to knit and am frustrated when I have to take a break. I have the small nodules and am starting to show some chords but so far my hand/fingers are still pretty flexible. I'm 63 & work in the mailing business where I constantly grip lift heavy things, do repetitive hand motions. When we're busy, I'm using my hands all day. Mostly it doesn't bother me much at all. I find it gets sore and aches mildly when it's starting to progress a bit, or after heavy use of my hands. Earlier this year I knit a blanket using bulky yarn and fat wooden needles. That was really hard on my hands. I noticed a slight progression after I'd finished the blanket. I'm on the fence as to how this disease decided to pick me. :)) Because of being in the mailing business and using my hands so much, I feel there is a co-relation between hard, heavy, repetitive handwork and this disease. Especially when there is no known history in my family. I've got it so what can I do? I went to see a plastic surgeon 2 years ago when my family dr. diagnosed me. I haven't been back, but need to get another referral to keep in touch. I'm enjoying reading on this forum as it's helpful to see how individual this disease is. I can't predict what will happen down the road. I just hope that I am retired before my hand gets to the point where I need treatment.