When a pinkie finger is no small thing: Hand surgery with Dr. Michael Potter

Five years ago, Randy Spurrier made an appointment to see Dr. Michael Potter, orthopedic hand specialist at ValleyOrtho. “My right pinky finger couldn’t straighten. Every year it would be a little less straight. Dr. Potter agreed that this pinky was problematic, and described the different things we could do – the pluses and minus of various treatment paths. He asked if it was really bothering me, and I said ‘No, not really.’ I could type with all my fingers and it wasn’t really affecting me in any way. So, he told me, ‘Come back when it bothers you.’ It was an experience that made me a huge fan of Dr. Potter. I thought, ‘Wow, here’s a hand surgeon and here I am, I have this issue, but instead of pushing me to treat this with the most expensive treatment, he looked at me as a human being. I was so impressed that a hand surgeon recommended I consider no treatment at that time. I walked away thinking that he is one amazing physician who really cares about his patients.”
 

Flashforward to the summer of 2024. Randy and his 16-year-old son had embarked on a climbing, mountain biking and camping trip through the Western U.S. “We drove out to Tahoe, mountain biking in the Sierras, rock climbing in Yosemite and the pinky was kind of a problem. The pinky (which had been diagnosed as Dupuytren’s Contracture) was permanently curled over. It made it hard to climb cracks in the wall and if I had fallen from my bike, it would have broken. Not to mention, it made it hard for people to shake hands with me because I had this weird pinkie.” 
 

When he returned from his trip, Randy called Dr. Potter. “I had a great deal of confidence and trust in him, so I went back and reassessed. He suggested surgery would be the best approach and gave me all the pros and cons of that.
 

“The process from that point forward was exceptional. The whole team, from the pre-surgery interview, to the collecting of details, was so smooth and professional. Then the process on day of the surgery – the team was very organized and follow up with physician assistant Eric Haskell in Dr. Potter’s office was terrific.”
 

After surgery Randy moved onto physical therapy with Spencer Christensen, a certified hand therapist with Valley View’s Outpatient Rehabilitation, in the Carbondale office. “The physical therapy has been extraordinary,” he says. “With physical therapy my range of motion dramatically increased. Spencer’s approach is similar to Dr. Potter – centered in looking out for the patient’s best interest.”
 

“These little details of not overscheduling physical therapy or overbuilding treatment and providing the right amount of care – these are small acts but have a common theme of concern about the patient,” says Randy. “I read all about some practices being taking over by private equity and are run like cash registers, prioritizing billing over care. Instead, this experience at ValleyOrtho showed me just the opposite. It was a spectacular unanimous demonstration focused on doing the right thing for the patient.”
 

Post-surgery Randy, a computer programmer, is back to coding, typing and using all of his fingers. “I spend my days in front of my three computer frames typing away, and all of my fingers are functioning and continue to improve.  I’m still building strength and consider this surgery a complete success.”