The first thing to realize is that you probably do not have a disease but an injury.
A mechanical injury. The injury could have started as a small tear in the tendons your palm and been made
far worse by repetitive stress injuries via keyboarding, sports injuries, overuse of the injured hand etc.

Hand injuries are among the hardest injuries to heal because our hands are our interface & connection
to the world.It seems impossible to rest it.


Subtle injuries like this often go ignored until they become chronic enough that they can
no longer be ignored.

I have had an injured left palm for twenty years. I refuse to call it 'Dupuytren's ' because it was never a disease.
It was an injury , or series of injuries , brought about by whatever nutritional and behavioral anomolies I exposed
myself to over the years, including computer addiction, dehydrationj, malnutrition and host of other suspected
contributing factors including stress and insomnia.

My advice to people who are in the same boat that I was in a few years ago:

If you are having pain while sleeping, pay attention to your sleeping position.

Avoid putting any weight on the damaged hand.

Typing vigorously on the computer keyboard inflames the damaged palm.

Take small freezer packs to bed with you and freeze your palm as thoroughly as possible .

Extremely effective at reducing pain is to get those flexible blue thermal gel freezer bag/packs
and embed them in your palm and wrap them tightly to the damaged hand with a tensor bandage. It will be cold at first but as the nerves cool and the ice bag warms you feel nothing but immense pain relief.

The wrapping also serves to remind you not to put weight on your damaged hand

(for example: avoid actions such as tucking the damaged hand under your pillow or crawling about the bed on your damaged palm)

The wrapping also prevents you from unconsciously clenching your damaged palm while asleep.

Before bed take one capsule of Circumin with one capsule of Quercetin mixed and dissolved in a tablespoon of olive oil.

If you can get it, chewing a tablespoon of marijuana prior to bed will bring you to deep sleep a couple of hours after falling asleep.

Before applying the ice pack, massage your palm with an electric vibrating massager.

Do some hand massage to stretch the palm from the nodules out, applying pressure to hold the damaged tissue in place while stretching the undamaged tissue of the palm to the edges of your palm.

The idea is to stretch the palm without tearing or inflaming the nodules. This makes the entire palm more elastic
and reduces the structural/muscular pressure on the damaged portion of your palm.

After massage, apply DMSO gel mixed with Vitarub and Flexcin and collagen cream.

Next, wrap the hand in a frozen blue gel bag with a tensor bandage
or just freeze your palm with a square blue plastic ice pack.

Avoid mouth breathing at night as this creates bodily inflammation and makes any pain from injuries much worse.

Tape your mouth closed with duct tape . Seriously, it actually works , to slow your breathing enough and oxygenate the brain by forcing nose breathing to the point that you can fall asleep.

Essentials to sleeping with pain:

No caffeine after noon .

Have a warm bath while preparing to sleep.

Drink a herbal sleep formula tea as you take your pain medication, your circumin etc.,

Take an anti -itching pill (antihistamines if you are taking codeine , which causes skin itching that prevents sleep. Pain killers often cause insomnia by creating extremely disturbing itching)

While drinking your sleep tea, take all your vitamins and meds.

Thoroughly clean your mouth (brush your tongue and teeth with fluoride free toothpaste, floss with hand held disposable dental flossers, antiseptic MW)

Tape the mouth tightly closed with high quality duct tape thirty minutes prior to even trying to fall asleep;
After your mouth is taped, sit on the floor or couch while doing some gentle leg stretches , the hand massage , the pain cream application, etc., while listening to music or soothing talk show (oneradionetwork.com health talk radio show , I suggest)

While stretching be extremely careful not to place too much weight on your damaged palm and be careful not to hyper-extend your palm. Then do the freezing or wrapping of the damaged palm while still stretching your legs out on the floor with the duct tape forcing you to breath only through your nose. Try doing all of this as a ritual prior to even lying down. You will feel drowsy and pain free before even hitting the sack and fall asleep immediately. The duct tape often falls off during the night , but it serves its purpose to train nose breathing and help you fall asleep. The extra sleep and rest will enable your body to heal itself. Minimize your use of the damaged hand and supplement your diet with collagen and MSM complex and kelp.
To remind you not to injure the hand , wear a wrist brace which can be bought at any drug store

Edited 02/12/13 18:03

Tape the mouth tightly closed with high quality duct tape !!!!!!!!!!!!

stephenjeffrey:

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Tape the mouth tightly closed with high quality duct tape !!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited 02/13/13 00:44

RetiredTeacher:

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Dear Fresh the Pain,
I am so sorry that you have had this DD for 20 years. I have only dealt with it for 2 years and was very frustrated by the orthopedic doctor's advice to wait until I could no longer put my hand flat on the table. Luckily we have this forum which is very informative with all kinds of different treatments. I think we just have to find the treatment that works for us, since each of us reacts differently to each treatment.

Dupuytrens is a disease with a genetic link and is highly variable from person to person. I do not believe it is an "injury" and this is misleading. There are probably some triggers and behaviours that may exacerbate this disease in some cases. Likewise with treatments. My father had DD as have my 2 brothers.With all of us it has been active and inactive at various times for no particular reason that we can identify. For many people there are factors outside their control. In reading this forum, many people try many things but this insidious disease just progresses in some and stops in others.

My story is common, nodules developing in one hand about 10 years ago. The disease was then inactive until about 2 years ago when it picked up pace to the the extent I sought treatment (RT). This has been effective. About 4 weeks ago I noticed a nodule on the right hand. I think I will adopt a wait and see before a second round of RT.