I finally got into the McBride Orthopedic institute in Oklahoma City this morning. My left pinky contracture is now about 120 degrees. It's mostly in the MP joint fortunately. There is about 45 degrees in the PNP joint, and doctors say that is a bitch to treat. Dr. David Rush, orthopedic surgeon, hand specialist, will give me the Xiaflex treatment on Aug. 26 and then do the manipulation a week later in the clinic nearby Norman, Oklahoma. I might still have some bend left over at the PNP but that might be improved with an additional Xiaflex injection. Dr. Rush says that the open surgery might even get better extension form the PNP finger joint and that surgery also tends to hold off reoccurrence longer, but surgery is more dangerous with complications from general anesthesia and such. Dr. Rush says getting the MP straight again will be no problem and most of the bend is in the easier to work with joint anyway. I guess the VA finally got my treatment with CC after dragging their feet for almost a year on this.

It might be partially my fault this dragged on so long. Back in September of 2021 my bend was only about 45 degrees, and I was dead sure I wanted traditional surgery back then to clean out the fascia tissue out of my hand and maybe get a much longer lasting treatment than the Xiaflex I got earlier on in 2019 for the same finger and condition but at a less severe 45 degrees. It took the damn VA until just this early May for one of their in-house VA ortho surgeons, Dr. Dennis Bond of OKC VAMC, to scare me to death about surgery saying that the joints will never be made straight again and that there is also a risk for finger amputation. If the VA had told me this much earlier on, I surely would have said the hell with surgery right then and there and stuck with the Xiaflex I had been so successful with three years earlier on. I would have rather did the Xiaflex before the finger bending got too bad.

Edited 08/02/22 00:15