u/Henneyjae

I’ve had several foot surgeries on my right foot. Had a tailors bunion-was not big at all but became painful when I got a peloton during the beginning on 2020. First surgery they said 5-6 week recovery- long story short here we are 6 years later and still in pain. First surgery my body rejected internal and external sutures and then wound dehisced and got infected. Was a long process to heal.. even after it healed I always had pain kind of like I was stepping on a nail on the bottom of my foot-for reference, the plate and screws were on the top of my foot to hold the bones together- I guess they have to break the bones and shave them down on the side of my foot to align them to fix the bunion. So I was feeling the screws that went from the top of my foot to the bottom- one was too long. Kept bruising and swelling. Haven’t worn actual closed toe shoes in 6 years and I live in a place that is a cold climate for 4 months out of the year. About a year and a half after I tried to fight the pain I went to another doctor. He advised bone wasn’t aligned properly so needed to re do the whole thing again. So we did. Then it healed much better and no problems with wound this time- also on the first surgery it turns out I was allergic to both internal and external sutures- so they used a different kind. I did physical therapy for about 10 weeks on both of those surgeries trying to regain flexibility and break down scar tissue and help with nerve pain. Physical therapy was great for the first two issues but my nerve pain was the issue holding me back from wearing regular shoes, as the nerve that was irritated is directly on the side of my foot through the top where shoes put pressure on directly-so I have been wearing sandals that have a cut out in the direct area. Still have nerve pain even with that, but was hopeful that after a while it would go away. Well, it never did. I also tried to do dry, needling, and other techniques to help with nerve pain. I had previously before the surgeries been on a nerve medication for another issue and it made me feel terrible so I didn’t want to take nerve medication again. Finally got sent to a pain doctor three weeks ago. he immediately said I believe it’s the hardware giving you issues. You should get the hardware out rather than doing nerve pain medication. He was very thorough and could describe every single pain I was going through before I even told him it gave me a lot of hope reading other posts on Reddit of people in my situation- they mentioned that once their wounds healed they felt immensely better. I am a super active person so being crippled for the last six years-not being able to wear shoes or be on my feet for more than a few minutes without pain was killing my mental and physical. Anyways, I started this post because today I had surgery- hopefully my last-to remove the hardware and any extra scar tissue. I’m very happy with the care I received from all doctors and staff at this location and will update this post or comment below as it heals and what pain or lack of pain I feel I’m just really hoping it was the hardware, causing all these issues and now I can look forward to walking again.