Dupuytren's Disease/Contracture - The next fun adventure

Longtime readers (all 3 of you) recall I've had some fun medical things going on in the last 20+ yrs of the blog. Let's see. 

• Subluxed kneecap
• DVT
• Factor 5 Leiden (blood clotting disorder)
• Hysterectomy
• Breast surgery
• Covid-19
• Type 2 Diabetes

And I bet I'm forgetting something. Before the blog I had my gallbladder removed (1994), so that was a fun one. That's a lot of medical junk all in one place. 

We get to add a new condition to the list: Dupuytren's Disease (DD) / Contracture. 

You have probably seen commercials with football legend John Elway talking about his experience with the condition. Essentially it is a commercial for Xiaflex treatment, but they never come out and say it. They just say to go talk to your hand specialist. So, I went and talked to my hand specialist.  Basically it is a condition where cords or nodules form in your hands and cause the fingers to pull or bend inward towards the palm. 

My dad has it really bad, so bad he cannot unfold his fingers at all. Only his pointer and thumb work. He can feed himself, button a shirt, drive the car (although that makes me nervous, to be honest) but he can't open jars, or doors, or tie shoes or do a whole lot of other things. Here's a picture of my hand, ignore the bandaid. I got a hangnail that was super bad and wouldn't get unhanged! 

A year ago I noticed my right palm was getting "puckered" and I was having a hard time laying my hand flat against things, like pushing a door closed, or opening jars.  It makes some things extremely difficult and very painful. 

I had the breast surgery thing, and then summer, and then it got to be late fall, and my typing was starting to be impacted by my ring fingers on both hands bumping into the neighboring pinkie fingers. 

I finally called my PCP to have a video chat, and then asked for an appointment with the hand specialist, she had me come in for X-rays, and decided for sure, it's time to see him.

Today was my appointment, he took one look at my hands, one look at me, and said "you wouldn't happen to be of northern European descent, would you?" 

Yah, doc. Sure am. I told him about my dad. And I said that I do not want to end up that way. Ever.

Looking at my left hand he said I'm not there yet for any treatment needs, but we decided we'll keep an eye on it. The right hand though, for sure, it needs help. 

He said I'm at a 30 degree contracture on the ring finger, the pinkie and middle finger are coming along for the ride. It's very visible, noticeable, and we're going to make an appointment to treat it with Xiaflex, and get those cords broken up and get my fingers back to normal. 

Also, looking at the Xiaflex website I have just now today learned about a disease that impacts penises and makes them bend like this. My mind is blown. You don't see John Elway doing commercials for THAT!

Looking at the summer and all the things happening I'm trying to figure out when this will fit in. Between Guster concerts and Guster concerts and other things that are not Guster concerts, having the procedure and then having a couple weeks in a splint, and going back to "release" the cords (which sounds very unfun) combined with summer things at work, this will be interesting. Wish me luck in figuring out when this will happen! 

The good news is I am down to 213lbs, so that was worth the trip to find out.

Here's the data for today. 

Blood Glucose:

• 9am: 140
• 7pm: 165 (immediately after dinner, so I may check again before bed)

Food: 

• Coffee
• small bowl of chicken salad
• 8 medium length stalks of celery with peanut butter
• meatloaf (no bread crumbs, just grated parmesan cheese instead) 
• Salad
• mixed nuts