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It started with a bad fall in a parking lot in the middle of the afternoon here in Nashville the third week of January, 2009. I didn't see a doctor for 10 weeks (did you see our schedule?). When I finally did, it was the morning I produced Tom Russell's "Guadaloupe" track for his upcoming CD "Blood and Candlesmoke". I was in so much pain from my left wrist by then that I finally broke down and called an orthopedic doc. I saw him the next day for X-Rays (negative) and an MRI (ligament "damage and deterioration"). My wrist was put in a cast for three weeks. For years before this I had lumps of hard tissue on my hands and fingers. My father, as it turns out had the same thing, though I was never aware of it until after I was diagnosed.
After the cast came off in April I noticed a pronounced change in my hands. Some of my fingers had contracted and curled up. I couldn't straighten three or four of them. I've since found out that wrist injuries or carpal tunnel syndrome exacerbate the condition I gradually became aware of- Dupuytren's Contractures. After doing hours of research on the web on causes (unknown), cures (none), and remedies (two very different forms of surgeries). I turned my attention to a relatively new, minimally invasive procedure performed in only about 20 different places in the US. My attention was increasingly drawn to a Doctor Charles Eaton at The Hand Center in Jupiter, Florida, who brought the procedure (called a needle release) to the US from France in 2003. He had done over 3,000 hands by last year, and seemed to be the foremost authority on it in the US. I sent his office pictures of my hands, and three hours later he called me up. He talked to me for about 30 minutes about the pictures of my hands, asking very detailed questions about each lump and contracture.
We flew down to Florida the first chance we could, and in two days (one day on each hand) Dr. Eaton
performed this needle release, or needle aponeurotomy. It was a resounding success, and I would steer anyone with this condition to Dr. Eaton and his great staff there in Jupiter, Florida. I was playing piano on a recording session in Tucson, Arizona at Wavelab Studios THREE DAYS after the surgery. Simply amazing.
See an article written about this in the current online issue of rarwriter.com. Scroll down the home page to the article about Dupuytren's and me.
http://www.rarwriter.com/
Any awareness I can facilitate about Dupuytren's is the least I can do. Funding needs to be increased, and a cure found for this condition that afflicts a lot more people than I ever imagined. But most importantly, I think awareness of it is what is needed now. Go to:http://www.dupuytrenfoundation.org/
Thank you Dr. Eaton and staff!
6:55 PM
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