My parents call it a “fancy” toe, but that’s never made me feel any better about my hammer toe.
On my right foot, my pinky toe completely overlaps the fourth toe. In addition to being funny looking, it makes many…well, actually most shoes unwearable. And because of it’s funny-looking-ness, I’ve never been comfortable barefoot or in shoes that expose my pinky. It is a cruel twist of fate that I am such a shoe fiend.
For the past 29 years, I’ve just put up with it. But, lately I’m thinking about having surgery to correct it. Dammit, I want to be able to wear the cute little strappy heels I see everywhere!
Has anyone had this surgery? How was recovery? Was it worth it?
A quick Google search shows that surgery is an option, but you there are other other measures to try first.
Good luck!
When I talked to my podiatrist about it several years ago, he didn’t think anything short of surgery would help. He said it would need to be broken and reset. Sounds painful, so I’ve avoided it.
IANAD, but I would imagine you would heal fairly quickly. It doesn’t seem like major invasive surgery.
Qadgop? DoctorJ?
I had this surgery 10 years ago. :eek: It was the 4th toe on my right foot. I was in a lot of pain because it kept rubbing against the inside of my shoe which only further irritated it.
It was out-patient surgery. I recall I had it scheduled for right before winter break (about a week?) so that I could be off my feet without a problem. I had to stay off the foot as much as possible and keep it elevated when laying down. I wore a surgical shoe for two weeks, if memory serves, which made me walk funny since it was taller than any shoes I owned. I walked through the halls of my school going UP down UP down. But hey, I got to use the elevator and everyone became my best friend because it meant they got to leave class early with me, heh.
So…I think it put me out for a week so I could really heal. Maybe it depends how bad your toe is? This is also 10 years ago so memory is fuzzy. But the toe has been completely fine since.
I had this surgery performed on both my pinky toes in 1989. I had IV sedation and local anesthesia. The surgery consisted of having part of the bone removed, cutting and lengthening the tendons and having pins placed temporarily in my toes until they had “set.”
I won’t lie. It hurt a lot. I was on crutches for a few weeks, but then I had both feet done at the same time. What hurt most was when the pins would shift.
But all that aside, it was DEFINITELY worth it. I couldn’t wear shoes without developing painful corns so I was hurting all the time. I have not had a problem with shoes since the surgery–16 years. One of my toes has started to creep up again, but it’s nowhere near as bad as before. My podiatrist told me it would likely happen because I’d waited so long to have the surgery.
I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Just to echo Calliope, I had IV sedation and local anesthesia, too. I don’t recall having pins set in my toe, though. Maybe your case was more severe?