Has anyone ever had extreme foot remodel like this and if so what was recovery and how are you now?

[hoghntr]

It's a long read so only read it if you're curious or if you think maybe you have information for me. Thanks

 

Okay since somebody had a plantar fasciitis post on here and I was surprised how much feedback there was I have a question for anybody who's had extreme arthritis or Reconstruction from an injury. I had an Achilles tendon surgery in January that failed for the most part because VA only did a part of what they should have. So now I'm going through a real doctor a doctor at the CORE Institute that specializes in Foot and Ankle reconstruction on the outside and she has proposed a pretty big Reconstruction from an old injury of mine because my arthritis and connective tissue disorder is being affected by my injury from when a stupid deer feeder fell on my foot years ago. Her proposal is removed the big toe joint fused the big toe joint and fuse it- then remove the heads of each of the metatarsal bones. Also to cut my achilles tendon in my calf area to lengthen it they basically put a thin cut in it stretch your foot and have your Achilles tendon heal with scar tissue so that is longer. I'm really not looking forward to this!!! I've been recovering for 6 months and now I'm looking at going right back into surgery and having another 6 months to a year to recover.

 

*I know the fusing of the big toe is pretty common for arthritis. My second metatarsal was crushed and then repaired four times because it kept growing crazy because of my arthritis so eventually they added a artificial joint between metatarsal head and toe. A year to a year and a half ago I told a VA doctor that I believe the toe have dislocated and the joint was bad broken or out of place but in true Va fashion they have blown me off. ( dislocated artificial joint illustrated by with green arrow). So now come to find out my toe has been dislocated so long it has fused between my second metatarsal and my toe which means my toe is basically not working so that's two joints not working and painful.

 

So my question is has anybody ever had to have their big toe fused and then have all for metatarsal heads or Knuckles basically the ball of your foot removed? If so how long did it learn how to walk again how long did it take to hike if you're able to basically what is it like? I can't find much info I've Googled it every different direction and I find people that talk about it I know that it happens I've just have no knowledge of somebody who say wants to go hunting in the future if they've experienced it. It is my heck that is my foot I can say I don't want to do it she said I can also say let's length in the tendon fuse the big toe remove the head of the second toe and leave the other three alone but she said chances are I'll have to come back and have those three removed and that would be another healing process. Sorry for the long read but maybe there happens to be somebody on here is experiencing this. I will add a picture. And for clarification they're not talking about removing my toes they are simply talking about removing all the joints between the metatarsal and the toes so basically cutting the whole knuckle off so what's left there would be tendons ligaments muscle it would just be missing a big chunk of bone and of course my toes would be shorter ironically after I havefinally gone and bought all these bigger boots to fit this jacked-up foot LOL

[rossislider]

Different but similar. This is a combination of two different but related issues/injuries that involved 8 different procedures over 8 months. It has been 4 years since mine. After my last surgery I was in a boot for around 8 weeks during which time I was doing physical therapy. I quit that about the time the boot came off. About a month after the boot came off I started doing modified CrossFit (clearly I limited a lot of my activities) to rebuild lost strength, muscle, and mobility. My surgery was in January and I was back up in the mountains hunting by the fall season. To be clear, I was not at 100% by fall. I'm still not at 100% and never will be. There are certain weaknesses in my ankle, foot, and knee that I have learned to deal with and compensate for so I am not limited in my activities. Certain activities (particularly side hilling on uneven terrain) can be a little sketchy given the hardware and reconstruction, but it doesn't stop me. I just go a little slower and more deliberate with each step in these situation. Sucks going a little slower at times, but it is much better than the alternative.

A couple of suggestions I HIGHLY recommend:

• Don't skimp on your boots! Spend the extra money for high quality support.
• Use trekking poles. I always thought they seemed stupid until I tried some. GAME CHANGER!!! Since I started using trekking poles I have found that my speed in those iffy situations has gone back up to close to pre-surgery speed. The extra support and stability that they give me is amazing! Don't get cheap ones that are likely to snap on you.

Shoot me any questions you have.

[hoghntr]

Different but similar. It has been 4 years since mine. After my surgery I was in a boot for around 8 weeks during which time I was doing physical therapy. I quit that about the time the boot came off. About a month after the boot came off I started doing modified Crossfit (clearly I limited a lot of my activities) to rebuild lost strength, muscle, and mobility. My surgery was in January and I was back up in the mountains hunting by the fall season. To be clear, I was not at 100% by fall. I'm still not at 100% and never will be. There are certain weaknesses in my ankle and foot that I have learned to deal with and compensate for so I am not limited in my activities. Certain activities (particularly side hilling on uneven terrain) can be a little sketchy given the hardware and reconstruction, but it doesn't stop me. I just go a little slower and more deliberate with each step in these situation. Sucks going a little slower at times, but it is much better than the alternative.

 

A couple of suggestions I HIGHLY recommend:

• Don't skimp on your boots! Spend the extra money for high quality support.
• Use trekking poles. I always thought they seemed stupid until I tried some. GAME CHANGER!!! Since I started using trekking poles I have found that my speed in those iffy situations has gone back up to close to pre-surgery speed. The extra support and stability that they give me is amazing! Don't get cheap ones that are likely to snap on you.

Shoot me any questions you have.

 

IMG_20130228_103734-1.jpg IMG_20130228_103803.jpg IMG_20130228_103734.jpg 2012-05-31_23-26-14_164.jpg 2012-05-31_23-28-10_386.jpg 2012-06-13_12-57-57_705.jpg 2012-07-07_10-43-51_612.jpg

Pretty dang gnarly man yes sometimes it's nice to just kick back and say thank you Lord that I have a leg right. You know I use trekking poles one time after a hip replacement on a winter hunt cuz I was in the snow and I was amazed how much they helped but for some reason I've always had a hard time busting them out when there's no snow on the ground. So that is a good idea maybe I just need to start using them full-time.

[Titanium700]

Wow!!

That looks painful.

[GreyGhost85]

My brother had his whole ankle fused after a bad injury and botched first surgery. Took him over a year just to semi recover. He gets around fairly well now but not like he used to. I would imagine fusing your toes wouldnt be quite as big of a deal. He struggles most on uneven ground. Like other have said, TREKKING POLES! I get around good but for the last 5 or so years, if im hiking more than a couple hundred yards, they come with me. They keep my knees, hips, feet and ankles a lot more fresh, due to not constantly rolling them and slipping on uneven ground. Good luck!

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

I don't have pictures but broke both my legs at the same time and had surgery. I'm top full of metal and scars but I do know broken bones heal back stronger than before. You just have to do the recovery and hard work and have a little luck. Look at Travis pastrana, the human body can take a lot of abuse. Amazing some times when you think of it.

Mike I can say my wife had the Achilles surgery and had the relief cut up in the calf, she is now back to the gym and hiking and she is very happy she did it.

[Snapshot]

I don't have pictures but broke both my legs at the same time and had surgery. I'm top full of metal and scars but I do know broken bones heal back stronger than before. You just have to do the recovery and hard work and have a little luck. Look at Travis pastrana, the human body can take a lot of abuse. Amazing some times when you think of it.

Mike I can say my wife had the Achilles surgery and had the relief cut up in the calf, she is now back to the gym and hiking and she is very happy she did it.

Pastrana is a little nuts, and did lots of crazy stuff on a motocross bike and has nine lives. Guys like, David Bailey, and, Ernesto Fonseca, are in a wheelchair for life.

[300RUM]

I busted up an ankle real bad in a hunting accident. Most surgeons who looked at me wanted to remove a bunch of the ankle parts and fuse the foot to the bottom of the leg. I would have been one of those people with a 4 inch thick sole on one shoe. My wife found a surgeon who was willing to try to repair it. The surgery was one shot do or die if it didn't work Parts would have to be removed and the foot fuse to the leg. There was about a 2% chance of success. I beat the odds and walk fairly well now. When my foot came out of the cast I couldn't even move the ankle at all. It took about five months of pretty intense therapy to Get me back in shape. Best of luck to you.

[Heat]

Dude, I am sorry you are dealing with this. Hope things turn out for the best for you. I have no experience or knowledge on any of this, but to me it looks like they need to get that second and third toe from grinding into each other. The rest who knows! Let us know what you decide on. If it was me I would get at least 3 professional opinions and talk a lot with the Man Upstairs!

 

Good Luck Amigo!

[cactusjack]

Ouch

[hoghntr]

Wow!!

That looks painful.

Right after he posted that and I feel silly posting mine LOL

[hoghntr]

I don't have pictures but broke both my legs at the same time and had surgery. I'm top full of metal and scars but I do know broken bones heal back stronger than before. You just have to do the recovery and hard work and have a little luck. Look at Travis pastrana, the human body can take a lot of abuse. Amazing some times when you think of it.

Mike I can say my wife had the Achilles surgery and had the relief cut up in the calf, she is now back to the gym and hiking and she is very happy she did it.

Yeah the students at the VA that work on your feet talked about cutting that Achilles to lengthen it and then the surgeon I talked to you talked about it and then the next surgeons suddenly didn't want to do it they just each time I saw like I saw four different surgeons and then the day of surgery it was a guy that I hadn't seen yet LOL ended up only doing two things bone spurs and removing the mass that have grown on my Achilles. But now 6 months later the mass has grown back and actually grew back after 3 months so I have the same pain and I definitely can't do a full stride with my foot so supposedly relieving that stress on the Achilles will help so that's good to hear that your wife had Success With It.

[hoghntr]

Dude, I am sorry you are dealing with this. Hope things turn out for the best for you. I have no experience or knowledge on any of this, but to me it looks like they need to get that second and third toe from grinding into each other. The rest who knows! Let us know what you decide on. If it was me I would get at least 3 professional opinions and talk a lot with the Man Upstairs!

 

Good Luck Amigo!

I hear ya! Definitely lots of praying 1st. had Va do their thing 1st but now they all got fired so still glad i went thru with it for every other vets sake. I trust this gal but also im 46 and i think since they usially see this stuff on people much older sometimes they make surgical judgements based on disorder and forget about patients age and activity level... But at same time i really cant hike at all right now. :/ also one of the problems is I've had 4 different hip surgeries on the same side, 1 core decompression and 2 replacements and a smaller revision. The hip have never been right since! I have a lot of weakness and it might be time to get a new liner put in there because I'm younger and more active AND OVERWEIGHT so it wears the liner out between the socket and the ball head.. It moght be worn and might be why I'm having more problems with the foot. My 1st replacement the liner wore out in 1 year so my hip would dislocate so this liner is 6 years old thats probably part of the issue but thats a whole other issue.

 

I think I will definitely pick up another pair of trekking poles. That's a good idea multiple people have had and its probably something I should have been using for the last 15 years. My wife has an elk hunt in October but thats only giving me 3 months recovery so that will be interesting.

 

Just not sure I want every metatarsal head cut off so hoping somebody reads this that has experience with it and can give me some feedback

[muledeerarea33?]

I broke 4 bones in my foot and 3 toes while hunting. Went back to work to early and re-broke it. Had 3 toes fused and my foot re broke and fixed. Its better now but not fully. Still walk sideways on that foot and its pulling my knee and hip out of place. I used to hike 10 miles on a hunt and now I walk a mile and hurt for days. Made me fat too lol. The weight gain after killed me. Hard to lose!

[singleshot]

Trade either of ya.