I am a 51 year old woman and in the last three months I found I was waking up to very very stiff joints in my hands and not being able to straighten up my fingers fro the pain. It almost felt like arthritis but I know you cant develop that in 48 hrs! After a few weeks where it didn't improve I went to my Doctor and he has told me I have Dupuytrens Disease of the Palm. He has prescribed me Ibugel to massage on 6 times a day and ibuprofen - neither of which help at all. I have, of course, researched the condition extensively on the internet and whilst I have read an extensive amount about peoples experiences, treatments etc there has never been any mention of anyone in any pain. I am! Could it be my Dr is fobbing me off with this diagnosis or does anyone else have genuine Dupuytrens WITH pain??!!

Anna,

I seem to be one of the minority that had pain. I was diagnosed when I was 53. Mine started as a red spot in the palm of my hand, then a knot formed. I thought it was a calus. My hand ached and felt tight and I blamed it on my computer. I had pain that radiated to my shoulder. I blamed that on the bed. My hand ached and ached and felt cold at times. I could not get comfortable at night and was in so much pain that I finally went to the doctor for the pain in my hand. At this point I had the beginnings of a cord. She did not know what I had in my palm and referred me to a hand specialist/surgeon. He diagnosed DD.

Some things I tried helped the pain. I wore a "wristie", which helped keep my hand warm. I started wearing padded gloves when doing chores, driving, or anything that would touch my palm. I bought a heated mattress pad. The heated mattress pad worked the best for backing off the pain so I could sleep at night. I don't like taking drugs and would have had to continually be on them for the pain. Nothing really eliminated the pain until I had RT. The pain, tingling, itching, crawling feeling, and of course watching my palm change from having a red spot and a nodule to a cord running up the middle of it to my middle finger in less than 6 months convinced me that my DD was extremely active and that I needed to treat it. I chose RT because I was at an early stage, my DD was active and it was the least invasive. I felt it was a good first choice and if it worked then that was great, and if it didn't I still had NA, or other options available. The only thing that stopped the pain was RT. It has been 3 years and the only time I have pain now is when I over use my hand.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Lori

Anna

I too would urge you to seek a second opinion. I did not experience chronic pain but rather a dull ache and tightness which is common. However, I did get acute pain shooting up through the affected fingers when reaching for something or stretching my hand. I also had a patch of numbness on the side of one finger suggesting to me that a nodule (of which there were several) was compressing or had damaged a nerve. At 12 months post RT, the nodules have regressed (but not gone), the acute pain no longer occurs and the numbness has mostly gone.

Stephen