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06/09/09 17:53
marsoft 
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Confirmed Diagnosis
Hi All,
Went see my new doctor today. Walked in and sat down, he said what is the problem. I put my hand on the table and he said "You know what that is?", I said "Yes", and he made my appointment with a hand specialist to arrange my surgery for Dupuyren's.
total time in his office 2 minutes. Why can doctors not be this efficient all the time? 
Jason
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06/09/09 18:03
Wolfgangnot registered
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Re: Confirmed Diagnosis
Well ... how about informing on treatment options, like NA?? There is always room for improvement ...
Wolfgang
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06/09/09 20:08
marsoft
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Re: Confirmed Diagnosis
True, but I did not expect such from a GP. Hence the appointment to visit a specialist.
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06/09/09 20:11
marsoft
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Re: Confirmed Diagnosis
Oh,
And compared to my last doctor who said. "There is nothing much to be done about your hand. You can get surgery, but in 2 years you will have an unusable claw hand." he is great. I am just glad I finally got a doctor who did not tell me absolute rubbish.
The one before that was even worse, told me it was a ganglion cyst (bible bump).
It has taken me years to get a doctor was willing to do anything about my hands, so to me he is an absolute saint.
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06/09/09 22:59
flojo 
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Re: Confirmed Diagnosis
Are you considering other options to surgery? Possibilities are: needle aponevrotomy or radiation therapy and it appears that collagenase may approved by the FDA later this year. Check out the therapies listed in the left column.
With NA/needle aponevrotomy, my contracture was released and I used my hand right away and total recovery was less than 2 weeks. Now I'm going to have RT/radiation therapy for stopping or slowing the progression of my Dupuytren's.
With the NA, I avoided having to have invasive surgery which requires 3+ months recovery and physical therapy.
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06/09/09 23:10
marsoft
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Re: Confirmed Diagnosis
Yeah,
I am looking into NA. From the links on this site I have found a guy who does it in Derby, which is not far from me. About a 1 hour drive. My main problem over the years has been that specialists will not see you without a referal from your GP (General Practitioner). The UK sucks, health care is a lottery here.
Now this latest GP has said Dupuytrens, I can get a referral to this specialist. The annoying thing about this system, is even if I wanted to go private (and I do), I still have to get a referral from an NHS doctor. Now that I have an NHS doctor saying this guy is an option :)
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06/09/09 23:48
flojo
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Re: Confirmed Diagnosis
I encourage you to keep on trying the NA option. How much contracture do you have? You most likely have time to explore your options. Good luck.
No medical system is perfected. If you read entries on this website, you'll see that people from the USA find it less expensive to get RT in Germany even paying for round trip airfare twice, lodging and other costs of staying there for 2 weeks. Something is wrong with that picture, too.
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06/10/09 01:01
marsoft
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Re: Confirmed Diagnosis
My contracture is at roughly 30%
The weird thing is, the contracture happened in the space of roughly 1 year, and has not changed in any way I can measure in about 8 years. Probably more. That is my left hand. My right hand started showing symptoms at the same time, but all I have there is dimples, a small nodule and thickening. I still have full movement on my right hand ring finger.
On my left hand the thickening is all in a line running from my ring finger to the heal of my hand, and single nodule is on the crease of my palm. I was living near a chemicals plant (and had been working there in the years running up to noticing it), and when I moved out of the area, the progression of my condition halted.
The major polution this plant was in the news for was Dioxins. Anyone know of a possible link?
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06/10/09 01:03
marsoft
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Re: Confirmed Diagnosis
I mentioned this on my other post but I suppose worthe mentioning here.
I am 39 and first developed symptoms in my late 20s.
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06/11/09 00:02
TrevB
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Re: Confirmed Diagnosis
Quote:
The UK sucks, health care is a lottery here.
You go to your GP and tell them where you want to be referred. If it's NHS it'll be free if accepted and if you choose private it'll cost a lot but that's your choice.
I've had a successful course of radiotherapy which only cost my time and T&S. We have much to be thankful for in the UK IMO 
Cambidgeshire, UK.
Edited 06/11/09 00:04
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