So I was having brunch with two girlfriends, back in March 2015, and the topic of wearing heels came up. I was asked why they didn't see me wearing heels much and I gave them that face - the ugh, I've got bunions face - and told them that its too painful to wear heels. Up to then, the life involving my feet (aka "feet life") have been around which shoe I should wear that day that won't cause me pain. Or if I were to wear a shoe that causes pain, how much pain will it be and can I wear them for more than one day? I think most everyone that has bunions will understand what I'm talking about. We are so limited by the shoes we wear and even if we are good, and wear flat, comfortable shoes, these "comfy" shoes may or may not help with the pain. I've worn custom orthodics the majority of my life and although it may have slowed the progress of the bunion, it definitely did not improve the overall condition. The bunion (and possibly the pain) would only get worse over time.
A couple years ago, a podiatrist saw my feet, and told me right away that I needed surgery. I was disappointed to hear the news, but knew that it would eventually come down to me making a decision on what to do with my feet. He of course, proposed to me the traditional osteotomy that is practiced all over the US and the world. This involves breaking the bone and shifting it to the correct position. He also told me that if the bone is not perfectly aligned, the bone may shift back. I have always been familiar with this type of surgery and my thoughts have always been very negative about it. I've heard so many stories where this traditional surgery failed, and the patient ends up having the same bunions come back. Why on earth would I want to do a surgery where the probability of failure was "high" in my opinion?? I was very reluctant to even pursue researching the surgery, but thought I had no other option.
Then, during that same brunch I was having with my girlfriends, a new option was suddenly presented to me! One of my friends had a friend who just recently underwent bunion surgery. She was gracious enough to reach out to this friend for more information. The information that was sent to me was about a different technique used for bunion surgery, which does not involve breaking the bone. The non-bone breaking surgery was performed using the Syndesmosis procedure (SP). More information can be found on Dr. Wu's website (http://www.bunioncenter.com/), as I won't be able to do it any justice describing the SP here. I quickly jumped onto this website and researched as much as I could about the SP. I got quite excited and felt like I may have found a surgical option worth looking into.
From what I understood, only Dr. Wu has been performing bunion surgery using the SP. There does not yet seem to be another surgeon who has looked into this type of procedure except Dr. Fellner, who will open up a practice in New York. Dr. Fellner had visited Dr. Wu in Hong Kong and observed his technique. His view about the SP can be found on his website here http://www.bunioncenternyc.com/. I was happy to have found this option and this referral led me to do quite a bit of research over the next few months.
No comments:
Post a Comment