| spread of fingers - comparison |
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04/11/2016 04:34
Peacefulbird 
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04/11/2016 04:34
Peacefulbird
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spread of fingers - comparison
Today, for the first time (when I observed that I was having some difficulty typing, particularly hitting the ' mark and enter keys accurately), I thought to measure the distance between the tip of my thumb and the tip of my little finger when I've stretched out my hand as far as possible, as if I were trying to play octaves on the piano. Here are the results...
left hand with no noticeable nodules - 9 inches
right hand with 3 nodules - 7 3/4 inches
Only a few months ago, the distance would have been the same. 
I'm a bit surprised to note that the distance between the tip of my thumb and the tip of my first finger is also different.
left hand - 7 1/2 inches
right hand - 6 1/2 inches
I'm going to make a photo copy of each hand by placing them on a copy machine. After RT, I'll repeat the measurements and the photo copy process at intervals to see if there is any improvement or worsening. For me this is an easier way to check the progress of the disease than trying to measure the angle of contraction in the fingers. It also points out how the entire hand is affected, not just the 3rd and 4th fingers, even at the N stage.
Anybody else want to report on this?
Wishing you all the best,
Peacefulbird
Washington state, USA
right hand DD, onset Oct. 2015
Edited 04/11/16 07:38
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04/11/2016 08:59
mellow 
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04/11/2016 08:59
mellow
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Re: spread of fingers - comparison
This is interesting Peacefulbird. Other measurements/indicators like this are useful to supplement the traditional table top test. Do you have any other symptoms such as aching in the hand/wrist/arm? I have found that my hand and wrist (and even further into my arm and shoulder) have begun to ache on and off over the last month or two. I still pay quite a bit of physical contact sport so the aching could be due to a routine knock suffered during playing or the disease progressing.
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04/11/2016 18:46
Peacefulbird
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04/11/2016 18:46
Peacefulbird
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Re: spread of fingers - comparison
mellow:
This is interesting Peacefulbird. Other measurements/indicators like this are useful to supplement the traditional table top test.
Thanks, Mellow. Now that I've made a tracing of each hand in the splayed finger position, it's very easy to place it on the table, and put the corresponding open hand on top of the tracing. From that it is easy to see if there are changes. I think it will help me to evaluate the progression of the disease in both hands, and certainly to see if it is happening in my left, now OK, hand. By turning the "good hand" tracing over, and placing my DD hand on top, it's easy (and discouraging) to see the difference.
mellow:
Do you have any other symptoms such as aching in the hand/wrist/arm? I have found that my hand and wrist (and even further into my arm and shoulder) have begun to ache on and off over the last month or two. I still pay quite a bit of physical contact sport so the aching could be due to a routine knock suffered during playing or the disease progressing.
Yes, I do, but the aching comes and goes in my hand/wrist; infrequent aching in my arm. I wondered, also, if it is "normal arthritis," pain from too much hand sewing, weather related, DD related, all of the aforementioned???? It does improve when I take Tylenol. In recent reading, I've noticed that some classify DD as among the rheumatoid family. If so, I guess it would follow that there would be some pain involved. My orthopedic surgeon said that the pain is only in the initial/active stages of DD, when there is inflammation. He gave me a steroid shot, which he said would help the pain I was experiencing. It did... some.
Wishing you all the best,
Peacefulbird
Washington state, USA
right hand DD, onset Oct. 2015
Edited 04/11/16 21:46
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