RA Joint Surgery

[Paige1]

At my rheumatologists urging, I am at the moment considering knuckle joint replacement surgery, starting with my right hand (which is my dominant hand). My rheumatologist refered me to an orthopedic surgeon and I had the consultation. I am really unsure of this right now. I am a 38 year old Mother of two (14 & 16 years old). My husband wants me to do this and my kids have stated their support.

I guess what I am asking is if anyone has had any experience with this type of surgery and what kind of success there was. I have tried to go the Message Board of a major arthritis organization to seek for the experience of others with this type of surgery and it was awful. The Message Board was confusing and not at all user friendly. I found some threads that related with people asking the same questions I am and no one responded to them at all.

So.... any advice would be a tremendous help.

Thanks,
Sarah

PS. I also have Lupus, Sjogren's and the Blood clotting factor.

[Raglet]

my limited understanding of this (based on what I have heard from my father and his experience with RA) is that this sort of surgery can improve the look of the hand, but not necessarily the function of the hand. So my dad skipped it although he had a lot of other surgery (joint replacements etc) that were very successful.

The other thing that i would STRONGLY recommend is finding yourself a hand surgeon rather than just an orthapedic surgeon to do the surgery. The hand is both very important and very specialised - when we were considering surgery for my hand (can't remember what for) my rheumie said she would only refer me to a hand surgeon for hand surgery as it is so specialised.

anyway, hth, I am definitely no expert on this area and what my old dad told me could be wrong. But with anything else, I would check it out carefully, and ask detailed questions about the percentage of patients who experience an improvement in function after surgery

raglet