As the title indicates I’m interested in hearing from those who’ve had hammertoe surgery recently.
I’m 76 and considering having my toes fixed at last. I investigated many years ago and was told about wires sticking out and all sorts of stuff that sounded annoying. Two or three toes on each foot are bothering me the most.
If wear the wrong shoes the toe tops get abraded and sore. Additionally, the ends of some toes have pain where they hit the ground.
Planning on making an appointment for a consult in early October.
Had an appointment with a podiatrist for neuromas 20 years ago–he shoots them with some poison and then asked if I want to do anything about my hammertoes? Um, sure? So he comes out with a crochet hook and severs all the tendons. Surprisingly unpainful and relatively long-lasting, but I’m not sure that’s state-of-the-art anymore!
My sister had it done a, few years ago, but got a bone infection via the wire sticking out. It required weeks of IV antibiotics at home. Eventually all was well.
I know, but it’s just something to keep in mind. She’s very grateful she got it fixed, nonetheless.
She may not have had as good follow-up care as you would. Having an open wound with a conduit to the outside is just a concern to be paid attention to, esp since foot infections are an issue with us older folk and overweight folk (blood circulation to extremities not being as optimal as it should be anymore). She’s certainly much better off now that it’s over than she was before she was treated.
I wonder if our medical foot expert, @tibby, has more informed advice than my 2nd hand anecdote.
I’ve had surgery on two toes to sever the tendons on the bottoms and fix their contraction downward. The surgeon boasted about his technique, which he “invented”, using a hypodermic needle to sever the tendons. He said this can be done with a trivial wound through the skin, which means there’s no need to suture the skin. He said suturing the skin often contracts the bottom of the toe, which defeats the whole purpose of the surgery in the first place, so his technique is superior.
The surgery didn’t accomplish any change at all. I still have the same two hammertoes.
Ask your regular doc to recommend a good foot doc. The foot doc can tell you: a) if its a good idea for you, b) if it’s necessary, and c) if it’s a matter of getting better shoes.
I’m 73, with hammertoes and Parkinson’s. The toes on my right foot are much worse than the left. A couple years ago, I had to have the big toe on the right foot amputated due to an infection, and the remaining toes are curled under to the point where the nails face down.
The toes don’t get irritated, because I wear athletic shoes all the time. (New Balance 1080,v.11) You say your toes hurt if you wear the wrong shoes, so wearing the right shoes might be all you need to do.
I’m inclined to avoid unnecessary surgery, especially on feet, which live in dark, musty little rooms that I tie on every day.
I asked my foot doc if he thought I needed to have something done about my toes. He said I didn’t need it.
Holy crap I am seriously freaking glad I was never into fashion shoes that restricted the toe box!!! I detest cramping my toes, mainly because I never wore shoes growing up unless they were absolutely required, and Mom made sire the toebox was adequate. And I never got into the whole pump/FMP/sexah pointy heels that the average woman seems to like. [worked male dominated fields most all of my life so I rarely was ‘required’ to be sexy-shoed.]
Actually a friend of my dad’s pointed out that my bare footprint in mud looked surprisingly like the Vietnamese hill people’s footprints - I have a wide foot, and no hammer toe at all. My podiatrist was slightly freaked out by that, when I had my first visit about 10 years ago at 50.
My Mom had the same toe issues, so I’m thinking hereditary. I always had good shoes that fit while growing up. And anyone who knows me would say fashion never matters to me.
I wear athletic type shoes 98% of the time and the toe box is roomy. But several, 2 on each foot, of my toe tips are at 90 degrees, so pressure is put on the ends of the toes rather than on the pads where it’s supposed to be.
My foot doc says I have hammertoes because I have, I think the word was, cavid feet. That is, I have high arches, and hammertoes are the natural result.
He also said the US Army quit rejecting recruits with flat feet, which seldom produce problems. They’re now wary of those with high arches.
When I was in my late 20s, I started wearing Earth Shoes, which have a wide toe box and a sole that puts the heel lower than the ball of the foot. My feet were very happy in them, with the toes all spread out. However, I worked in a factory with concrete floors. After about a dozen years, my heels started to hurt when I walked. The Earth Shoes have very little padding under the heel. I switched to Air Jordans, which were super comfy after the Earthies.
I wear a size 13 EE, long and wide. Eventually, I settled on New Balance 1080, which I’ve been wearing for several years. I get them from roadrunnersports.com They have a shoe analysis guide for every shoe, helping you to get the right amount of padding, structure, pronation/supination, and so on.
I’ll look into those. I generally wear Merrill athletic that are waterproof because if the grass is wet when I walk my dog in the morning and evening, anything else gets my socks and feet wet. We know that’s not ideal.
mrAru has feet “flat as pancakes” and has no foot issues at all - actually he used to run his PT in combat boots [not boondockers, for those squids of a certain age] The screwy thing is he was getting PT scores for male 18-21 his 20th year of enlistment [and the asshat can still fit his boot camp issue, so if we need formal dress, he gets to just use those, I have to go out and buy something fancy. Bah.]
I am seriously freaking glad I was never into fashion shoes that restricted the toe box!!! I detest cramping my toes, mainly because I never wore shoes growing up unless they were absolutely required, and Mom made sire the toebox was adequate. And I never got into the whole pump/FMP/sexah pointy heels that the average woman seems to like. [worked male dominated fields most all of my life so I rarely was ‘required’ to be sexy-shoed.]