Callie,

I know that if mine had not been changing so fast, I would have been more likely to do the wait and see. I was in so much pain and already having multiple problems at work because of my hand not functioning. I felt if I allowed it to progress much longer I would lose that RT window. It truely is hard to know what to do. Would if have stopped??? Who knows, I surely didn't. It is problematic that everyones is different, in different locations, nodules vs cords vs contraction, etc.. It makes the decision so much more difficult as to how to treat. There is no wrong or right way to treat, and that is why this forum is so great. We all get to look at different hands, feet, treatments, and outcomes. Too bad DD can't be more like chicken pox. We all would look the same, treatment is the same and the end result is the same.

Lori

Callie,
I am sure that RT is the factor that stopped the progression of my Dupuytren's because my sensations/symptoms of active Dupuys - itchy feeling and crawly feelings in my palm like worms or something were crawling around in the fascia of my palm. By the second week of RT, the itchy/crawly feelings were subsiding. They went away and have still not returned in over 2 1/2 years. No new nodules developed and they were developing rapidly, like 5 new ones in less than 2 months.

I agree that it can become dormant or start back up with a vengeance in a short time. You never know what is going to happen, but in my case, it was too sudden of an improvement not to attribute it to Rt.

I am certain that RT stopped the progression in both my hands. Before I got the RT, the nodules and cords in my hands were growing so rapidly that I could see visible changes every few days. In fact, when I went for RT, they mapped out the treatment area on a Friday and cut a lead template to shield the nontreatment areas. By the following Thursday, one of the treatment area had grown enough that they needed to cut a new template for me.

My doctor had said that the RT would probably start kicking in about a week into it (I was on a 10-day course of treatment). And that was exactly what happened. A day or two after they cut the new template, the diseased area stopped growing. And over the course of the next few months, my larger nodules visibly shrank.

Of course, it is possible that, after 6 weeks or so of rapid progression, the disease suddenly stopped progressing and started shrinking exactly when I had the RT simply by coincidence. But the odds of that precise timing happening by coincidence seem enormous to me. Especially when this result is consistent with Prof. S's research on hundreds of cases and the personal experience of so many people on this forum. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the RT stopped the growth.

As many of you know, I did end up having new growth just outside the treatment area about a year later, which I've been continuing to get RT to deal with. But that to me is a issue of: 1) ensuring that treatment margins are large enough and that all visible AND non-visible disease is treated; and 2) the unfortunate reality that having successful RT on one part of your hand or foot doesn't mean the disease can't crop up elsewhere. With my aggressive disease (all 10 fingers, a nodule in one thumb web, etc.), I unfortunately think treating this will be an ongoing process throughout much of my life. However, after more than 2 years of aggressive Dups, I still have no functional impairment and have not needed to have open surgery. I consider this a success and attribute most of it to the early use of RT (helped out by NA from Dr. Denkler on the cord between my right thumb and index finger, which had already developed before the first course of RT).

Maddie