Long Shot but has anyone had Mid-foot Fusion Surgery?

NaidaUP

NaidaUP

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I had a letter from my surgeon asking me to see him regarding fusing my mid-foot joints on my left foot.

My surgeon said its a very complicated surgery compared to other parts of the feet and can often leave people in more pain.

Anyone had mid-foot fused and has it worked for you?
Are you pleased you had it done?

Any experiences will be grateful.

:ty:
 
Sorry, no experience with that surgery.

Do you mind sharing why you need that kind of surgery? What is it supposed to fix?
 
It's meant to stop pain from joints rubbing together. Even tho I'm in my 20s, too much sport has damaged my joints in my feet so have arthritis :(
:ty:
 
It depends on what kind of arthritis you have. The surgery will limit your foot movements, but that is no big deal. However, if you have rheumatoid arthritis, things might get tricky.
 
I looked at having surgery done very briefly. I have blown out the outside bone just above the arch on both feet. There is a ligament that holds it in place from the inside. When that snapped it took out a piece of the bone and fractured the rest of it.

I found in my brief look that to repair anything in that area is a long slow healup. There is poor blood flow to the area. It just does not heal fast. I am not expert at all. I have concerns about foot surgery. If something goes wrong or even right it can be damage that you live with the rest of your life. The entire weight of your body is upon it.

The left foot when it blew out took 6 years to heal using wraps, braces, and and insoles. Expensive high quality footwear. It was painful and slow.
In the beginning I got an excellent podiatrist to teach me how to sports tape it properly and did that every day. Staying off it did not help it heal. Alternating long stretches of pushing myself and then easing up for a while(mostly for the sake of my mind) and eventually it healed. The right is nearly healed it has taken 7 years so far. So thirteen years concurrently. I have some arthritis too but it comes and goes and has a lot to do with good shoes and using the foot properly.

I have done everything that I can think of during those years to help. I myself for my situation am really happy that I did not go for surgery. My feet are improving without the knife. I left out lots of details but that is my story. It may have been slow but for me it has worked out. I am not anti-surgery, there are things they fix and fix well. I sure would have liked a faster fix but there was not a clear offer of that in what I was told. I am not saying you should or should not and cannot compare my injuries to yours of course.
 
Thanks.

I've actually had triple fusions on both of my feet already which has limited my movement but is no big deal.

Surgeon says the mid-foot is way more complicated, more risky and highly chance of it not working etc etc, giving me all the bad sides to it, which is why I wanted advice etc. :)
 

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goodonya said:
I looked at having surgery done very briefly. I have blown out the outside bone just above the arch on both feet. There is a ligament that holds it in place from the inside. When that snapped it took out a piece of the bone and fractured the rest of it.

I found in my brief look that to repair anything in that area is a long slow healup. There is poor blood flow to the area. It just does not heal fast. I am not expert at all. I have concerns about foot surgery. If something goes wrong or even right it can be damage that you live with the rest of your life. The entire weight of your body is upon it.

The left foot when it blew out took 6 years to heal using wraps, braces, and and insoles. Expensive high quality footwear. It was painful and slow.
In the beginning I got an excellent podiatrist to teach me how to sports tape it properly and did that every day. Staying off it did not help it heal. Alternating long stretches of pushing myself and then easing up for a while(mostly for the sake of my mind) and eventually it healed. The right is nearly healed it has taken 7 years so far. So thirteen years concurrently. I have some arthritis too but it comes and goes and has a lot to do with good shoes and using the foot properly.

I have done everything that I can think of during those years to help. I myself for my situation am really happy that I did not go for surgery. My feet are improving without the knife. I left out lots of details but that is my story. It may have been slow but for me it has worked out. I am not anti-surgery, there are things they fix and fix well. I sure would have liked a faster fix but there was not a clear offer of that in what I was told. I am not saying you should or should not and cannot compare my injuries to yours of course.
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Can completely understand the foot taking a long time to heal etc. Recovering from my triple fusions, I was in a plaster cast for 5 months, not allowed to put any weight on my foot for 4 months and not back to doing sport for 14 months.

Good quality footwear is key to everything and I've got special innersoles which also help me. If I didn't have good quality shoes and my innersoles, I wouldn't be able to walk.

Glad that your feet are getting better without going under the knife. My surgeon does seem very keen on surgery, he's already done 4 surgeries on me and this would be my 5th. He does the same sport as me and at the same place as me so he sees me all the time struggling and he knows how important it is too keep doing what I love :)
 
I admire your determination Naida. I wonder what effects will happen later in life? Our feet are amazing shock absorbers when they work right. The body does compensate and it sounds like maybe the shock absorber/spring function of yours is already pretty much gone any way.
An older friend who has passed away was amazing with a prosthesis for a foot and ankle. In his 80's he could still scramble up a 27 foot extension ladder and work. He would jump off carhauler trailers and the like and use the artificial foot to hit first and take the shock.
So there is a plan B if it all goes wrong somehow. Kind of horrible though and his foot still bothered him even though it was gone. I'm trying to be funny here in a lame kind of way... ouch :P

I so want to ask what the sport is... you have hooked my curious mind doggone it. It is okay if you do not want to share.
 
The standard advice and it is good advice: at least get a second doctors opinion.

It is my observation that in general the bigger the city the better the doctors. Excellence is where you find it but it does not hurt to increase the possibilities.

Surgeons are knowledgeable about what they do all of that but you always have to keep in mind they make their living from doing surgeries.

There are other kinds of doctors who are knowledgeable as well.

I find physical therapists who have been in the business a long time to be well worth talking with as well. They have huge experience dealing directly with the results of surgeons work.

Brand new methods are coming out all the time. My way is to wait a bit and see what outcomes are. Some people are more eager, trusting, and daring than I am. They are perfect people to work out new techniques on. I like being less than perfect.

I have had to give up running and cross country skiing since my injuries. It ripped my heart out to do so. I long to be able to do these happy pastimes again. I will too but only when I know that I am not injuring myself worse by the doing. One of the beauties of being a human being is we are adaptable. New pleasures are readily found outside of the ashes of the old. Are they the best? Maybe maybe not, often the next best thing turns out to be mighty good indeed.
 
The surgeon that I'm with, I really really trust. I knew him before I started having problem with my feet as I've taught his children to sail. I see him every weekend when he goes for a sail etc. (I work as a sailng instructor)

I know he'll do a really good job but he says its standard to still be in pain after the operation. I'm curious as to if that means no matter what you do, the pain would stay the same and won't get any worse, if that's the case, I would love that!

I guess I've got the wait until I see him. I was hoping to hear from people who had actually had it done to hear how it had gone for them.

Due to the damage I have already, I don't have the movement there anyway so having them fused won't lead me to have less movement.

In the past 10 years especially for joints in the feet, there has been limited options for treatment as they are so small.

Even ankle replacements are only given to people who have less then 10 years of life left and who won't be that active as ankle replacements can't stand up to what knee and hip replacements can do.

:)
 
not sure if this helps...last year I had pin put in right foot two cuts from mid foot to toe....I had wear special boot thing so no weight on ball of foot..it was not that painful as I was led to believe would I have it again NO had nothing but irritation...I go bed thinking foot get up thinking foot to be told foot problem 90% be back....each person different and you got it weigh up your problems different to mine but be same sort of cut similar treatment after...would I had it when younger proberly yes if given chance
 
I never thought of sailing as being a feet destroying sport Naida. I do not know much about it, though. I would be thinking surgery too with a condition like you describe. Something about bones grinding together in the feet that just has to hurt too much.
 
Healthy functioning feet are important. I hope it goes well for you.
 
I think sailing they put feet up on other side of boat all strength comes from feet in pushing keep sail in right direction or that what it looks like
 
You are right there Caz and Reba and I love sailng too much to give it up. :ty: you Reba.

Here's a really good picture of properly why my feet are so messed up after 15 years of sailing :) In the summer months I can work 7 days (no days off) and out of those 7 days, 3 of them can be 15 hour days so I do a lot of hiking out as it's called on my feet.
 

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I know you on here to be a problem solving frame of mind person Naida. In the course of your love of sailing and the destruction of your feet you must have had thoughts as to some kind of modifications to the way the feet are used or protected when hiking out. Something. There is always a way to improve a task. It looks to be a super blast what you do. I bet you can come up with a fix so others do not get their feet wrecked. I hope this surgery is a success for you and you have many happy thousands of more hours sailing.
 
:ty: Goodonya I'm sure it'll work out well in the end, I just hate waiting to see my surgeon to ask all the questions.
 
Reba said:
Waiting is a bummer. :(

Keep us posted.
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:ty: Emailed him as per say the letter, now just waiting for the appointment to get posted out to me. He is a very deaf friendly surgeon but that means waiting for the appointment letter as due to "data security" he isn't allowed to email me the appointment time etc even tho saying it over the phone is allowed.
 
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