I am not an attorney nor am I a medical practitioner, therefore any information I provide will be purely on a friendly basis.

I cannot go through the entire history of D/C at this time, but will attempt to help.

Dupuytren's Contracture is not a RARE disease. It happens to be quite prevalent with people of northern European ancestry.
Despite what you have been told, D/C surgery is no piece of cake. Trust me, I know. You will be subjected to much needed after care and probably the hand will not be fully restored to full function .
I do not believe you will have any chance of filing under the Disabilities act, because the medical establishment does NOT recognize D/C as being a trauma related disease. They say it is 100% genetic. It is my belief that if one has a predisposition (recessive gene) to the ailment then trauma INDEED plays a decisive role.
Your message indicates that you probably do not have the wherewithal to travel to Europe for the Aponevrotomy (Needle) procedure, thereby making surgery in your case the only option. Be certain that your surgeon is fully experienced in D/C surgery: many are NOT.
Since your time is limited, an alternative is to inquire of your physician if he is familiar with a surgical method that merely makes transverse slits in the hands, thereby releasing the cords that restrict tendon movement?
We all wish you well.

I cannot resist! Don't you realize the poor lady cannot earn a livelyhood and requires attention NOW?

You don't have to respond to everything written and confuse people.

That is your problem and the reason you offend the readers of the forums.

On the "other board" I have written a total of 6 messages in the two years it has been in existence. I am interested in all of the procedures for DC, because I will probably need something done to my other hand in the future. I don't prefer surgery, it is just the procedure I had and which I am the most familiar.

Has anyone seen information (perhaps I have, but can't remember), if it is virtually certain that a person is afflicted on both hands, rather than just one. It seems as though most of us have both hands affected.
Gary

Jerry,

I find your reaction to Gary's postings childish to say the least, and your latest stance is a pity because you clearly have a lot to offer this site. I have observed this feud for a while and have looked specifically at Gary's postings, I find them informative and in no way derogatory to anyone, in this particular case his questions are relevent as Kay does not mention whether her fingers are contracting or not.

It would appear, from her posting, that Kay has large, tender nodules to the extent that her daily work is affected. Would needle aponevrotomy or transverse slits relieve her symptoms if there is no contraction of the fingers? My understanding of the needle aponevrotemy is that the chord is cut thereby relieving the contracture of the finger, and from what you say it seems that the transverse slits do the same. Do these procedures result in the nodules/dermal pits disappearing? A fasciectomy, on the other hand, removes the deseased material, nodules and all. This is my layman's understanding, please correct me if I am wrong.

Martin

Martin,
Glad to hear that you are pleased with your surgery so far. What you do in the next three months will make a big difference. Exercise fingers as much as you can. It will become a habit and you will see continuous progress. With my surgery (90 degrees), the 2nd thru the 6th month is when I really saw hand get better. The Coban (a 3M product) at 10 minutes at a time worked great. What kind of surgery did you have? The Zig-zag Fasciectomy? What kind of a surgeon did you have?
I agree with you about next time doing something else if it is available. Surgery (for me) was a pleasant surprise from what I was led to believe it would be like. I thought it would be worse than it was.
Good luck with your progress,
Gary