I am going to have the NA on Jan 10. Anything I should know other than the doctors notes for the day?
Can anyone tell me if they were OK to work the very next day?

Unless you are a massage therapist or karate instructor, there is no reason you could not go back to work the next day. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

marhill

I predict your hand may still be a bit numb. There will be some bruising from the sites of the needle insertions and manipulation. As the numbness wears off those sites will be a little sore. Keep icing the hand as directed. You will be immediately able to do simple tasks like typing and tying your shoes. In fact, you will be quite happy with the improvement. However you want to wait a week or so before you really stress the hand. You may also be directed to wear a splint at night if a PIP was corrected. Crank it down. After a month there with be no evidence of the procedure. Unless you had good "before" pictures no one would believe your previous state.

Let's see how close I came to your reality :-)

marhill

Certainly the more digits corrected and the degree of contraction will have an impact on recovery. I'm sure a lot of us will be interested in hearing your progress under those more extreme circumstances. I'm confidant the outcome will amaze some people who have known of your condition.

well, here i am the morning after!

i didn't sleep too well last night--i wasn't really uncomfortable, but it was hard to stay really comfortable for long periods in a position which kept my hand higher than my heart. i took a vicodin because i thought it might help me sleep, but what i feel is more soreness than pain. the discomfort is all at the sites on my pinkie--which was a pip snd stage 4. my hand has to stay bandaged for about another 28 hours, but it certainly feels like there is bruising. as far as i can tell, there's not much swelling. i never have instructions to ice it, but there is no way cold would permeate with my hand bandaged as it is now. there's the splint, held on by several layers of gauze, then more gauze around all three fingers, holding them tightly together, with an ace bandage over all. i am confused at this point about how long i have to keep using the ace bandage--the written instructions just talk about band-aids after 48 hours, but both my husband and i remember that i was told to keep reusing the ace bandage, so i will have to call. i think the issue is keeping my little finger straight until the pt has a chance to be effective.

the woman who had na done right before me was walking out with just a light wrapping of gauze, and i can believe that she was in just band-aids within hours. i didn't see anyone there to drive her home.

as at the dentist, the most painful part of the whole thing has been the injection of the local anesthetic.

i went to dr denkler--who is about an hour from my house--and both my husband and i liked him, and the rest of his office, a lot. he has done about 1200 na's, and i am about his 100th stage 4. he was amused by the fact that i said that he was recommended by the dupuytren-online forum.

i don't expect to have anything more to report until i take off the bandages tomorrow. i am supposed to start pt this week--theoretically at stanford, which is about 15 minutes from me.