Dear Sean,

It's a persons body that makes the diseased tissue form around the cords and neither surgery nor NA can't stop what the body does.

I view Surgery like scraping moss from rocks in a lake with a wire brush so a person can stand in saftey at their favorite swimming spot for the summer....next year.... the moss will be back because it is the lake that provides the atmosphere for it to grow.

Yes DC does appear to go dormant, I know that has happened with my husband and don't understand why that is...but...remember he has had NA and his DC has been dormant too. So it's not the procedure...it's the body that has made the DC go dormant.

In fact...Perhaps this is a good question to ask our readers? How many people feel their DC has gone through periods of remission and which procedure did you have? Surgery or NA? Approximately how long did the remission last?

Husband had NA in Oct of 2001. We were told to expect to need to repeat NA between 18 months and two years at best. It is now three years and 6 months later...husbands hands have only begun to curl again recently. During the time when there was no curling he said his hands felt more flexible/less stiff/less pain in morning...he knew when the curling was coming back because the stiffness/discomfort had returned. He also said the progression FELT different...not as aggressive before - what ever that means. Now he tells me the stiffness has gone and he thinks the curling has stopped again. Wishful thinking???! I don't know...but I have watched and he doesn't appear to be needing to stretch his fingers in the morning...and throughout the day...and yes...there has been no more curling in the last month. *scratching my head in confusion?*

It's not scientific...just a personal account...so I figure it's his body that is affecting the DC...not the NA....and since there is well documented/unexplained remission with other diseases...there is no reason not to expect it with DC.

That's why I think it's important not to associate a pause in progression with surgery or NA...it's the body...not the scalpel or needle that caused it to happen. After all...we do know people who have had their DC return shortly after both surgery and NA...so it's the body...not the needle or scalpel that is making it happen.

Anon

Anon,

The rapid progression of my left pinkie PIP (0 to 45 in *less* than 12 months) was stopped *cold* by OS. 24 months later, no recurrence. However, for me, my hand is worse than before surgery, so I'm not too impressed with those statistics. (My results are not typical). OS usually does what it's designed to do.

That doesn't mean that the same biology that started the Dups in the first place isn't still in place and ready to have another go at it. But it's starting from *scratch*, not from remaining Dups Tissue left by NA. But for many of us, that trade off of a lower predicted rate of recurrence is not worth having one's entire engine rebuilt (OS) verses having a simple tune up (NA).

I had painful nodules appear in both hands at the same time in 1994. The pain was so severe, inflamitory drugs tore my stomach up so I had shots in my hands for pain. Eventually the nodules lengthened and attached. I have never had surgery but do feel that it does lay dormit at times and then they feel so sore and tight for awhile.
If I place my hands as flat as I can which I cant flatten very much, on a copy machine, the print really shows the disease. I have trouble holding items some days worse than others, have burned myself because of this many times.My right little finger feels throbbing and tight at times like it would feel if one had a ring on too tight.
When they thought of surgery they said my hands were like volcanoes and they felt it would only irritate and create more problems. The tops of my knuckles were even inflamed and swollen. They say it is rare for the topside to be affected.
I do beleive it can lay dormat for quite some time and then take off again.

Yes, there can be pain with DC.