Dupuytren's contracture

Left thumb for me too MayBee, thank goodness for being right handed.

It’s strange that I’ve got arthritis in the hand that I use the least. I did go on a one day course at the hospital about how to manage it but I didn’t learn anything that I didn’t know. I first noticed it at my sons wedding seven years ago when I looked at my left hand and realised that the joint was sticking out at a funny angle! My Dupuytrans hand seems to be curling inwards rather than my little finger contracting. It looks like a claw!

Yes, you would expect arthritis in the dominant hand - but not with us. My little fingers are by far the worst affected but we’re in good company with Bill Nighy!

My DH has it, and has had surgery in both hands, a few years apart. His left hand was more advanced in the contracture than the right. The surgery was obviously painful afterwards, but the recovery went well.

He made sure to wear trousers with elastic waist for a week or so, Put a plastic shopping bag over his hand while he showered, etc. It was awkward but worth the recovery.

The silly thing here is that the government doesn't cover the needle procedure, it is only done privately, at your own cost. So you have to wait until the fingers are at least 50% curled before the BC Health will approve the operation. It seems silly to me to wait until such a time that the hand is almost useless before anything can be done. I did look into the private cost when we realized his right hand also needed to be done, but it was $3500 per hand, equivalent to GBP 2000, so quite a bit, plus the specialist is 800 km away from us so there would be flight and hotel costs as well. Why on earth wouldn't they cover the lower risk procedure first, and only resort to surgery if needed? There's no reasoning with the Health system at times.

Bottom line, have the surgery. It will take some time to heal, but it will be worth it.

I sometimes think that surgeons just want to operate because they’re surgeons. My SIL broke his wrist in an accident a few years ago and a surgeon at the hospital said he had signs of arthritis in his wrists and he wanted to break them and reset them. My SIL declined the offer and, touch wood doesn’t seem to have a problem with his wrists.

I just opened the fridge: my hand slipped and, instead of using my index finger used my ring finger, which pulled on the Dupuytrans nodules in my right hand. I’m just hoping it doesn’t trigger a contracture. Thank goodness I’ve got several support gloves that I can put on…