Hi,

I'm assuming this is a question. When we researched the question of rates of reoccurance we found it varied greatly from one person to the next. The answers we found were tied to severity of the dc, type of work the person had with their hands through out their lives, trauma, genetics, lifestyle, age of onset...etc...

Basically it was a crap shoot. So for our situation, we looked at all those factors then factored in heavily the case of an uncle whose DC kept reoccurring more vigourously within two-three years after each surgery (at least four surgeries). In the end, this uncle chose to not have any more surgery and let their hands go because there was little down time inbetween surgery/recovery/reoccurrance and indeed they were at the point of amputation.

The uncles situation, combined with the rate of our own progression led us to make a choice....and that choice was to accept the fact that with NA or surgery, the DC would probably be back within two years so we would not feel disappointment. Since NA is less invasive with minimal recovery time, NA seemed to be the best way to go.

As it happened, the DC did not begin to reoccur until the three year mark after NA...and yes...it does seem to be more aggressive this time around...just like the uncle....so NA was definately the correct decision...there is no scaring and long recovery time to deal with like there would have been with surgery.

DC is not going away...it is just being managed....that's ok...we've come to the acceptance that DC is genetic...and whether we use surgery or NA...it's coming back...so for us...NA is definately the better choice.

Good Luck,

Hope this helps.

Frances

Fair question. I use 'we' because there are multiple people in our family who have DC and have received treatment.

Frances

NA stands for NEEDLE APONEUROTOMY. It is a wonderful alterntive to surgery. Please do some research on the subject. One good site is: http://www.handcenter.org. It explains it well.