Walt's Case Description

I am a male born in 1950. I fell and broke my hip in 1996. Shortly after that I asked the orthopedic surgeon who repaired my hip what the bruised look of my left pinky finger meant. The answer I was given was "I don't know." Although I was dissatisfied with that answer, I ignored it until 1998. I subsequently learned that my father had this condition, although I only know what he told me, since I'd not seen my father for many years prior to his death.

In 1998 I diagnosed myself as having a hiatal hernia and in December of that year, I had it repaired. After I had the surgery, I returned to the surgeon for an exam. I decided to ask HIM if he knew what my hand problem was. By then, I had "lumps" in the palm of my left hand. I showed them to his nurse and she immediately prepared the materials necessary to take a BIOPSY!

When the doctor had a look, he immediately told his nurse to nix the biopsy as I had a condition called DeQuervain's Disease. With his note in-hand I went to my office (no joke intended) and did a web search for the term and found that the description didn't match my condition. However it was at that point where I found several web sites describing Dupuytren's Contracture. Voilla, the correct diagnosis.

Since I trusted and personally liked my orthopedic surgeon, I revisited him to show him all the Internet materials I had collected and he confirmed that I in fact had a Dupuytren's Contracture. At that time, early 1998, his advice was to do nothing until I had a problem with usage of the finger. Doing nothing is always good advice when it comes to medicine. When I asked him WHY doing nothing was a good idea he said there were no easy cures, fixes, or treatments. The only option he was aware of at that time was surgery. Because of the complexity and complication potential, he wasn't in favor of that option and said he'd have to recommend a hand specialist to me. I told him that wouldn't be necessary as I'd be pursuing some other options.

I continued my search on the web for Dupuytren's Contracture. Over the next 12 months, I watched my pinky get progressively worse and my ring finger began to get lumpy and it began to contract. My searching for a Dupuytren's solution began to intensify. The most useful sites I found were: Wheeless' Textbook of Orthopaedics, Non-surgical Dupuytren's Treatment, Biospecifics Technology Corporation and PDL Labs. All of these can be found on my Links page and they are discussed on my Treatments page.

In early March of 2001 I decided I had waited long enough and decided to contact Dr. Badois in France to schedule and appointment. March 26th at 2:30 pm was D day. Click Here to read the details of the procedure.

In April of 2003 I decided that I needed a repeat of the procedure on the same two fingers. I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Badois on April 3rd at 2:30 pm. Click Here to read the details of the April 2003 procedure.

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