Dupuytren's Contracture and Why I Won't Give Up

[defuego]

Hello to everyone,

I am new here as you can tell by my recent post count. I was once a professional pianist playing and touring with a dance theater group. Both a classical repertoire and my own Neoclassical compositions mixed in. No great money nor fame there but at least I had money for rent food etc. This was years ago but I eventually stopped performing live with the dance group to have more time for composition.

Then a year and a half ago I got dupuytren's contracture, which could be a pianist composers worse nightmere. With dupuytren's the tendon's, usually in the 3 4 and 5 fingers of the hand,
start knotting up causing the fingers to bend inward. Mine so far are confined to my right hand only and my #3 finger is noticeably bent inward a bit but will still bend freely inward. it's just that it won't straighten up completely like I need it to when playing at times.

There is the option of surgery if (knock on pianowood) it gets any worse but it seems to have stabilized where it now is and that's good if it is. Although it does have a nice little bend to it which would make you think it would be a connivance to a pianist, it doesn't quite work that way. So in spite of my now #3 handicapped finger, which is not like it was before, I am going to keep working more and the Chopin Ballade 2 in F Major op. 38

I know that I may never be able to perform it live in public professionally, but it will make my heart glad to be working on it and to be keeping the old rusty fingers from freezing up completely. If I just say heck with it and never play again, then I am handicapping myself far worse than with just one finger.

[keyboardclass]

Are you sure it's not dystonia?

[tb230]

Hi defuego, sorry to read about your problem, i know a bit about it as I have a family member with the same condition. I just wanted to say that I hope it progresses slowly and that you can keep on playing. Surgery is not always a good fix for this unfortunately, it has quite a high rate of recurrency. You may want to check out Xiaflex, a new drug on the market, that functions by dissolving the collagen 'cord' that causes the finger bending.