Walt, good to see you hanging around. See what your little DVD did?

Volunteers? Not me. I "self volunteered" into this population of Dups sufferers already from some *very* enthusiastic conga playing. I'm a semipro drummer who decided to go Latin. Conga players often tape their fingers so the vibrations from hitting the drum heads keep one's fingernails from create bleeding on adjacent fingers. Within six months of my excursion into hand drums, my left pinkie began to bend. Within another four months it was at 45 degrees so, being advised that open surgery was my *only* alternative, I went under the knife. That's a very *fast* onset. Now, my right ring has reached 35 degrees. It will be Eatonized next month.

I find it interesting that as a drummer I hit a *lot* harder with my left (snare) hand than my right. Only my left hand hand the bleeding problem. It was also the first to go Dups. The other followed a year later. There is Zero Dups anywhere in my family. My guess is that I would have eventually manifested some Dups as an older gentlemen, not now. The combo of genetics and trauma set if off.

If you have the Dups gene(s), you must be *vary* careful with your hands. I think I'd skip the vigorous clapping on the second standing ovation for *Whoever*. And if you're a White Guy, leave the Congas to Carlos.

I wasn't referring to normal manual activity but to strong *trauma*. When you whack your hand(s) so hard that they bleed, that's trauma. People who frame houses and hammer nails all day don't get the abuse I applied. But.....those studies are retroactive, not randomly assigned scientific. Walt was pointing out that no one with the right genetics would be willing to be assigned to a trauma group to see just what is takes to trigger Dups in their hands. Such a "scientific" study would be unethical anyway.

My point was simply that in a study of one (1).....me, I now have absolutely no doubt that *I* unwittingly induced this disease long before I could even pronounce it, and long before it would have shown up if at all. That is just my *opinion*. However, only when the biology at the cellular level is discovered will the real story of this disease be known. *That* might lead to a "cure", not just a treatment.

Steve,

I hope your Right is still doing fine.

The occurrence of Dups is so low among *non* Northern Europeans that you'd need to start with an exclusively N.E. population of conga players, or a *huge* sample size. I'm going to guess that Tony C's player would not qualify. In addition, I wasn't trained to play correctly and was playing them like a drummer with *way* too much force. I remember thinking to my self after each session how much my hands would ache, and wonder if I could do them any damage. No, obviously I don't think a sample size of (1) has merit.....except I guarantee *I'll* never tough hand drums again.

We may never see a significant correlation between certain professions and Dups because professionally induced trauma may not be strong enough. I think you *really* need to make hands bleed, cut them or break them. We *do* hear a lot of testimonies around here from people who say their Dups started after a *significant* trauma. Yes, that's still weak data, so it's still only *suspected* that trauma is related. Correct me if I'm wrong but the kind of Scientific study to really "prove" or "disprove" a direct casual relationship would, by definition, be unethical: We randomly cut open these 500. We break fingers of these 500, all the while we use feathers to tickle the palms of these 500 White Guys three times a day for two months. (Only in a Polish, German concentration camp!) Short of that we have speculation, as we do with alcohol's role.

Thanks Michael,

No question. I will Rock On as long as the Good Lord allows. My *personal* choice, however, is to eliminate High Impact instruments forever (I wasn't that good on congas anyway). Admittedly I may *never* have "Drop Dead" Scientific evidence to back this decision for reasons I hope I've articulated. Call me a Chicken...........Sky Diving is out as well :)

RBH

Has anyone had DD get better or completely disappear on its own?