That Dr Eaton has performed more than 1000 NA procedures and we do not know of any poor results is a credit to his
ability.

As NA becomes more popular; it seems likely that some
hand and even cosmetic surgeons will attempt the procedure.

That in my opinion may be cause for concern

Now eighteen months after Dr. Eaton din my hand I continue to be able to use it in a normal fashion with only a slight indication that new bands are forming.

Patty, Patty,

My sister in Dyprosity. Take a chill pill. Relax. This is not the End Of The World. Until you have a PIP contraction of > 45 degrees, there is no reason to walk across Cut Glass to have NA. I personally waited until I got to 30 D before I pulled the NA trigger. Some go longer and do just fine.

Yes, I fully agree that NA should be tried first, before the Open Surgical option, and your chances of avoiding the knife entirely the rest of your life are >50%. I'm glad for you that you have learned about your options. But to call Open Surgery "butchery" is pejorative and not accurate. Many do quite well with this more traditional approach (though I'm certainly *not* one of them). Mirco surgery to remove *all* of the diseased tissue while attempting to avoid nerve and other damage is quite an art. Until NA, it was the best we had.

Look at NA as a guy working with your disease like a Rubber Band. If he can't stretch it far enough, it will not Snap. NA is not a magic bullet. It is, however, a way you can avoid the riggers and dangers of far more invasive surgery. But not until your hand is "ripe". I had two fingers to work on: the pinkie and the ring. I was hoping to get 2 at the same time, but the ring reached 30 degrees before the pinkie was ready. Eaton tired, but the pinkie simply was not bad enough to be fixed yet. Fine. I'll do the pinkie all in due time.

Pace yourself. Don't do anything to until necessary. You can live with < 30 degrees, and Eaton can bring it back to 100% in most cases. So don't fret yourself. No, your terrific hand surgeon is not hip to NA as yet. He's in very good company. Eaton is a Fluke, sent here by the Dups gods to give us all a break. Take full advantage.

Look. For most of us, this is a long distance race. Go rent Chariots of Fire and learn to let the gun release you out of there blocks. You *are* going to do the intelligent thing and use NA to avoid OS. Rest in that. Don't let it go >45. 30 is good.

Relax.

Patty,

Accept my apology if *you* felt patronized. It just sounded like you were pushing the panic button. I certainly have at times. I guess I'm now more relaxed about the disease and NA now that I've had one done.

Patty,

Randy is a blessing to the forum. He puts it into overdrive occasionally and I recently suggested that he easy off the gas for a few minutes. He did just that and we talked about the hometown radio station that is played in Dr. Eaton's office.

I had NA from Dr. Eaton on 2-11-05. My pinky and ring fingers were actually a bit less than 30 degrees but Dr. Eaton said that it was definitely time. I played golf 2 days later.

I sent the before/after pics to the CHS who diagnosed me, Dr. George Balfour of Van Nuys, CA. I expected the typical NA bashing. He said that he thought the procedure was no longer performed due to the fear of nerve damage but he said that if Dr. Eaton is performing NA there must be something to it. He has since contacted Dr. Eaton for more information.

Yipes, Patty. Yea, with all those symptoms, you'll be seeing the Man with the Options, and hopefully soon. We are all so different, and this whack disease does what it pleases.

May it go well with you,

Overdrive H.(thanks T.)

PS: I *did* actually try the frozen hand and the sewing needle. It was an absolute mess. ;-)