DUPUYTREN'S CONTRACTURE
If You Know, You Know
I didn't know.
It was over 30 years ago when I was working as a legal secretary that I found out (kind of) what my right hand was doing. My left hand didn't know it at the time.
I noticed that my right palm looked "funny." I thought the veins were bulging in it. Turns out it wasn't the veins.
This is a photo of my right palm today. (And by the way, do you have any idea how hard it is to take a photo of your right palm with your left hand? I must be doing something wrong.)
Anyway…I Googled it. Over 30 years ago Google did not have as much information as it does today. All I was able to determine was that it was called Dupuytren's Contracture and that I most likely had Viking ancestry. The end.
(P.S. Internet searches have come a long way. Here's a link explaining all about this incurable disease in case you're curious.)
I freaked out! I immediately wanted to tell my boss I had to go home because I have DUPUYTREN'S CONTRACTURE!!! Omg! I'm going to die!!!
Well, I didn't do that. I just kept on typing away. And I didn't die either! It wasn't like it was painful or anything. It was just the tendons in my palm doing its Dupuytren's thing.
I remember telling my older brother about it and every once in a while over the years he would ask me "what is that thing on your palm called again?" And I kept answering. It's called Dupuytren's Contracture.
Nobody I mentioned this to had ever heard of it before. Most folks still don't. Unless THEY have it.
Fast forward to many years later, after 2013. I had just purchased The Bookstore in The Market of Marion. Hadn't thought about my right palm in a very long time because it hadn't gotten any worse and it wasn't interfering with the use of my hand.
THEN…a fellow vendor came by one day and we were chatting. He had just had surgery for…Dupuytren's Contracture. IT WAS HORRIBLE!!! THEN…another vendor at the Market, a very nice lady, also had surgery for Dupuytren's Contracture! (We called her the other night and she said she was very happy with the surgery!) And THEN I had a customer come in one day and we were talking about those historical romance novels about Vikings and I told her "Look! I'm a Viking!" as I waved my right palm in front of her face. She replied, "So am I!" as she waved up HER palm in my face. We laughed!
Welp. None is of this funny anymore.
Here I am now, over ten years later, about to have surgery for Dupuytren's Contracture.
But here's the weird thing. It isn't surgery for my right palm. The surgery is for my left hand.
A couple of years ago I was outside working in the yard (well, not the yard, the fields) and I looked down at my left hand. My left pinky finger was completely contracted into my palm. How did I not notice this before? Did it just go BOINK in the middle of the night? I don't even know. What I do know is that one night the knuckle became so painful and my pinky rings were digging into the skin. The next morning I got up and immediately tried to remove those rings using the usual remedies of Vaseline and oils and grease but to no avail. My husband called the local jeweler and asked if they could cut my rings off. They could and did (with great difficulty) and they didn't charge me a cent. I don't wear a lot of jewelry. These rings were my grandma's wedding ring and a ring with my initial “J” I had made when I was in Acapulco. Gold and beautiful and perfect and now off my pinky.
My brother came by one day and I sobbed my story showing him my contracted pinky. He said, "Oh! You mean like this?"
He has the exact same thing!
But mine got worse. And worse and worse and worse and worse.
It is BAD.
What a revelation to discover how many things I need to use my left hand for. Typing comes first to mind. Shampooing my hair. Scrubbing pots and pans. Holding my freaking WINE GLASS as I sit here at my laptop. Even wiping my butt and putting the toothpaste on my toothbrush. I need my left hand! Don't we all???
I shall digress, as usual. I realize that in the scheme of things this is a very small inconvenience. There are folks without any limbs at all or who are paralyzed. I am fortunate. It's just my pinky finger for God's sake. Now I shall un-digress.
I FINALLY went to see the orthopedic surgeon in Ocala over a year ago. I always get lost in Ocala despite the GPS and it was a horror getting there but the surgeon was very nice and suggested surgery because that's what surgeons do. He also suggested injections for my right hand (at least 3) which would cost me $1,000 each. The injections are out of the question.
I decided to wait and it took me a year to decide. I need the surgery on my pinky and now my long finger on that hand is also getting worse. I went back to see him again, got lost finding him again, and now the surgery is scheduled. ($195 copay for EVERYTHING)
I am a basket case.
What's the big deal, you may wonder.
Well, I need someone to take me to the surgical center and sit there for 3 or more hours waiting for me. Those are the RULES. Also, I will be unable to drive after the surgery and the twilight anesthesia they put me under. Like a colonoscopy.
My 76 year old husband who is not in good health because he can't breathe said he could take me. He would be just FINE! I can put his walker in the truck on the way there and then he can just sit there for 3+ hours and then he just has to put the walker back in the truck after my surgery and everything will be just FINE!
Meanwhile, my brother offered to take me but Bill said no, he will be just FINE!!!
Well, he is not just fine. He told me this morning he just can't do it. This is so sad and scary. Thank the good Lord for my brother because he can and will take me and just keeps telling me not to worry.
My recovery can take up to 3 months and there are going to be so many things I just can't do. And…there are so many things to do. Mowing the fields? Gassing up the mower? Pulling the weeds? Folding laundry? Just count how many times YOU use your non-dominant hand every single day.
I have, however, prepared myself as best I can. I got those plastic cast arm covers so I can take a shower (once in a while) and I bought 4 pairs of pull on elastic waist cotton crop pants. I will also wash my sheets and comforter and make the bed I shall sleep in for 3 months. I am also in a Dupuytren's Contracture "support" group on Facebook whose members are all over the place on this condition. No! Do the radiation therapy! No! Do the shots! No! Never do the shots! No! Never do the radiation! And all those OMG! Surgery is horrible. The pain! The trauma! I feel SO much better now.
I need prayers. I need help. And I am also posting my GiveSendGo right here and right now because my hand surgery and my husband's health is the least of our worries if we have nowhere to live anymore. Here is my GiveSendGo which will probably disappear soon if I get no donations within 90 days.
https://www.givesendgo.com/HelpSeniors
I am not brave. But God must have a better plan for us. Faith over fear. Right?
THY WILL BE DONE.
I will not get lost again finding my way to The Orthopedic Institute in Ocala. I swear.
Also…LIVE LONG AND PROSPER.
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It just took a turn for the worse..