Since I'm going to have so much free time on my hands, I'm going to get my feet fixed. I've had bunions ever since I was a child. Not so much bunions, as a spreading of the bones in my feet which cause considerable pain, not to mention the fact that I can no longer find shoes that don't hurt my feet. When I was in Salt Lake City, a co-worker had her bunions removed, so I asked her for her doctor's name. She seemed pretty happy with the results although she was still hobbling around a bit after 8 weeks.
I went to her doctor and had x-rays taken. As you can very clearly see, the bones in my feet aren't aligned as they should be.
Then I left that job and went to Billings and had to start over with a new doctor. The first one I went to was also very young and knowledgeable. He suggested the same procedure - fused bones and screws. But his staff was so oblivious and uncaring, I didn't want to deal with them and by extension, him.
I ended up at Rimrock Podiatry in Billings. The doctor was closer to my age. He looked at my feet, looked at these x-rays and gave me his opinion. He said the fusing procedure is a good procedure and often used, but he preferred to use it on people who were newly retired - meaning, they were not on their feet for work and had no plans to do much for a few months. He said the fused bone procedure takes longer to heal and you have to be OFF YOUR FEET for 6 weeks, period. No hobbling around, no nothing unless you wanted to use a wheelchair.
The procedure he described was to cut the metatarsal bone near the base of the big toe, shave off the bone spurs and move the bone back to it's natural position, wired in place. He also would take a wedge-shaped section out of the actual phalange (the toe bone) and wire it in place so it would be straight again.
He said I would be able to walk immediately after the surgery. I was silly enough to believe that. Surgery was scheduled for June 20th.
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