Finger joint fusion--anybody had this?

[minkydog]

I went to see the orthopedic hand specialist today because I have been having pain, swelling, and stiffness for about 8 months. The joints nearest my fingertips are all swollen & warm and some have turned sideways--yeah, they look PRIT-TEE gnarly. Hand Guy took xrays and says, "well, you have pretty bad arthritis here. You'll need to have the joints fused." Wait, what?! I was thinking he would have something else in his bag of tricks, other than the usual tylenol, advil, and warm soaks. Surgery hadn't even occured to me! Hand Guy says fusing the joints will relieve the pain and will improve the look of my hands--right now, they look like little old lady gnarly, swollen fingers. Of course, the trade off is that the joints will be permanently straightened. I will not be able to bend those joints, but honestly, I can barely use them now anyway.

So, has anyone had experience with this? Dr HandMan says he will only do 1-2 joints at a time. He estimates a 4wk recovery. I'm not in a hurry to get this done, but I'm realy thinking about it. I'm allergic to Advil (ibuprophen), so I am very limited with pain meds. right now I'm just trying to keep the hand joints warm all the time so I can maintain function.

 

[jackemail]

My mother had two fingers done, because of severe pain. It did help her a lot with pain, even though the appearance of the fingers didn't seem that much improved. She had some pain after the fusion, but not too bad.

Good luck.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Wow! Sorry you're in such pain, Minky. Hopefully the surgery will relieve it for you. There's a mom at my son's school who just had hand surgery yesterday. I seem to recall that she was having a couple of joints worked on due to arthritis. Next time I talk to her or her daughter, I will find out if that's what she had done.

In the meantime, have you considered those little pocket hand warmers? I did a gift exchange with some co-workers today and one lady (who is always cold) got some of those. You can slip them into your gloves or pockets to keep your hands warm. Maybe those would be a good thing to have?

 

[minkydog]

Wow! Sorry you're in such pain, Minky. Hopefully the surgery will relieve it for you. There's a mom at my son's school who just had hand surgery yesterday. I seem to recall that she was having a couple of joints worked on due to arthritis. Next time I talk to her or her daughter, I will find out if that's what she had done.

In the meantime, have you considered those little pocket hand warmers? I did a gift exchange with some co-workers today and one lady (who is always cold) got some of those. You can slip them into your gloves or pockets to keep your hands warm. Maybe those would be a good thing to have?

Never thought of hand warmers! Thanks. I wear my gloves outside or when I'm driving.

Dr HandMan did a reconstruction on my rt thumb about 4 years ago. Took that hand from about 25% function, with great pain and deformity due to arthritis, to about 90% function and NO PAIN, minimal deformity. I have to say, he's a great surgeon--his bedside manner is rather "surgeon-y" but he did some fine work on my rt hand. In the meantime, my PCP has drawn some labs, looking for RA, gout, etc. So far, nothing much is turnng up but they still want me to see a rheumatologist next month.