Vikings Disease – Dealing with Dupuytrens Contracture at midlife

I’ve been quiet and away from the blog for a bit with an insurmountable overabundance of heredity/genetic issues. I’ve been “blessed” with Dupuytren’s Contracture aka “Vikings Disease” with a severe case on my left hand and a growing case on my right hand. This debilitating disease has been super aggressive on my hands and well, it’s starting on my feet.

This is about the worst thing mentally and physically I want to deal with as a person, and someone obsessed with the outdoors. So, I’ve been taking time off away from the blog for a bit and I’m going through operations/procedures to try and get the use of my hands back. I sarcastically joked I’d be better off if I took up woodworking, had an accident, and got a bionic hand, but I’ll push through it.

I will be “away from keyboard” for a bit longer. I need to spend time with family, take time off work and avoid stress and get some sleep. I expect it will be another 4-6 weeks before I’m fully in action and I’ll be following up with our contributors to make sure everything is caught up and everyone knows where I am.

I thank you for reading this blog and I thank our contributors who have contributed pieces. 2018 has been a tough year for me – it hurts knowing I won’t be able to travel this summer but hopefully I’ll catch up on some me time, heal quick and come out better & stronger than before.

Thanks, everyone!  I’ll be publishing more stories from some of our contributors, so we won’t be closing doors or anything, just wanted to give a heads up.

I usually like to embed a lot of images in a post, but I’ll spare you the “gore” of Dupuytren 🙂 However, a 20-foot view Dupuytren is commonly called “Viking’s disease” because it stems from that time period/era and people and is typically passed down hereditarily through generations. It’s a hardening of the ligaments in your hand that causes your fingers to get “pulled down” – and while not painful it means I can’t hold a paddle, use a rope and I catch my hand on the strangest of things since my brain is expecting that it can use a finger it can no longer be used.

When it was just my pinky, it was tolerable. I had a treatment last year that I was super excited about with Xiaflex (non-operation) and I got to put my hand down flat for the first time in years, however, the condition struck back with a vengeance and now its not only in my palm but is in my fingers, so I’ll be having multiple operations and long recoveries to hopefully get ahead of this disease.

However, I will further share my story, my experience and my hopeful healing and control of this terrible hereditary disease. Hope to conquer it and preserve the use of my hands to continue down my passion for exploration, travel, hiking, running and just experiencing the great outdoors.

With that said, I’ll be able to post some pictures of me smiling using my working hand again while exploring my favorite mountains or relaxing on the beach. Until then, I’ll be a bit behind the scenes and for weeks at a time – not entirely available for messaging but I have asked for help from a friend and hopefully my absence won’t slow down working with our contributors or responding to community feedback.

Thank you all!