Thank you, Lori, for the additional encouragement. From what I can tell, my Dupuytren's is very aggressive - a new nodule every few weeks. I'm very hopeful that I will be among the 90% or so whose disease is arrested. I know that this doesn't work for every case and I feel very badly for those whose disease isn't halted, even after radiation. I'll be leaving for Germany this Friday and will see Prof. Seegenschmiedt next Monday.

switcombe:

---

TrevB:

---

It sounds like you've gone through the thought process and reached a decision. I read a quote about treating benign conditions with such a powerful treatment which said that many benign conditions can actually be very damaging to quality of life. Dupuytren is certainly one of those and the best course of action IMHO is to try to nip it in the bud asap. I didn't want to have RT but watching the disease progress (mine was progressing) to the knife was a non starter for me. 3 years down the line with disease regression and fully functioning hand I think that I chose the correct option for once. I had dry skin before and I don't think that it's any worse now and the strength is the same in the hand as it was before RT

Cambidgeshire, UK.

Thank you for the good report TrevB. Where did you go for treatment and what protocol did you receive?

I had the same experience. After my first round of RT I felt my hands got worse. I actually had some more nodules come in. At first I thought, oh well, I had a great time in Germany. Make a long story short, after my second round of RT I could tell the difference. Several month after, realy saw a difference. Now 6 month after RT "big" nodules are gone, the new nodules disapeared, all the others are frozen in time. Actually they kind of melted together. All is good.

Christl

Edited 05/15/12 04:11

switcombe:

---

Maddie:

---

I have had RT twice on both hands, and a small part of one hand was irradiated three times. No real side effects to speak of. Maybe a little dryness, but nothing I really notice, and I rarely use hand cream. I have an aggressive case of Dups and am VERY thankful I got the RT done. I was scared of the radiation the first time, but now I am a lot more scared of this disease than the RT .

Maddie

Thank you, Maddie. I needed to hear that; I'm still worried about dry hands. I do gardening, cook from scratch, and generally have my hands in water repeatedly throughout the day. Where did you have treatment?

Edited 05/15/12 05:11

cindy850:

---

I have been sitting and reading what everyone has posted and i have posted on this subject myself. it's very surprising of the amount of people only believe in the Germany protocol. It's a joke because we live in the states and there are loads of good radiologist and i happen to have one in Liberty Missouri. Thats right in a small town and a good doctor. And yes i was his first patient to do radiation on Dupuytren's. I was not worried how else are they going to learn. And all of you that keep getting activation of nodules outside of RT treatments area. I had whole hand done on both hands all the way up to second knuckle. It's been over 2 years and i had 2GY for 5 days, weekend off and then 5 more days. By the way he is one of the cheaper doctors to have treatment by. I would run to him if i get reactivation. I call him my good luck charm doctor! I would never just get 1 nodule treated etc. etc. What a waste of time. Try it my way for a change and it might work for you all and quit running to Germany every time you need treatment. What has Germany did for the states thats worth talking about!