Information on my Feet

Ok, so I've decided to take the time out to let everyone get in on the "know" with my feet. Ever since I was little I've had problems with my feet. (Some of you know and remember me in casts.) I remember when I graduated from 8th grade and we had a day at the park. I just walked most of the day and I distinctly remember when we were heading back to the school that my feet were hurting extremely bad. The next morning, I couldn't walk, and had to crawl to get anywhere and I used crutches for two days to get around. Things haven't gotten much better since then. I saw some doctors when I was in high school and they told me I could get an operation (I don't remember what they were going to do) but they said I would have to be in a cast and have physical therapy for 6 months. I opted not to do it. Even when I was on my mission, I had extreme problems with pain in my feet for those two years. Weight doesn't seem to be an issue, just how much I’m walking or standing on them.

Now, we had the chance to see some new doctors and get some opinions on what can be done. The first doctor told me I had some major arthritis in my joints and wanted to refer me to another doctor. So then he told me the same but elaborated a little bit. Said the subtalar joint needed to be fused, as that is where most of the pain was coming from. He said my feet were fusing themselves together and the pressure and limited motion in the joints cause the pain. He told I would have to be off my feet (no weight at all) for 10-12 weeks, then a walking cast for another 2-3 months. Then they would give it a year to heal, and then operate on the other one.

We set a date for the surgery and after doing that decided to visit a orthopedic surgeon to hear yet another opinion. I had my visit with him last Tuesday (the 9th of April). After looking at the X-rays he gave me a grimmer picture of what my bones looked like and what the options were.


Here is the x-ray of my left and right feet.


Take a good look at it. Here is the same picture with some lines I've placed on it. I've drawn attention to the joint in the red circles. The green line is where "normal" peoples bone is. It is round as that is the joint that enables the motion. The blue line represents what mine is. The surgeon told me that years ago the bone had collapsed making it an extremely dense bone.


Here in the third picture I've placed emphasis on the joints that would need to eventually be fused together. If you notice in my left foot the joint on the left (the one between the heel and the ankle also known as the subtalar joint) is virtually already gone. That is why I have more pain in my right foot then in the left.


So, there were four options the surgeon gave me.

The first suggestion was to have injections into the joints. This would help to determine where the worst joints were and how bad off they were. It would alleviate pain, but only temporarily.

Second was to fuse all the joints (the three main ones) and eliminate all movement in the foot almost guarantying the elimination of pain. Bad thing is that it then makes my foot a virtual "club" with 0% movement in my feet at all. He did not recommend this option and said it should only be done as a last resort.

Third was to fuse the subtalar joint (the one that is almost gone in my left foot). This would eliminate the majority of the pain while still allowing a certain percentage of movement in my feet. The downfall was that bone that was collapsed. He told me it needed to be packed with a bone graft from my hip. But since it was in the shape it was in they would have to use artificial bone and that the likely hood of the bone not taking, and not fusing the "dense" bone was high, causing more problems or even a loose fusion. I would have to have no weight on that foot for a minimum of 6 months or more giving time enough for the graft to take and the wound to heal.

Fourth was to try a brace around my foot. It wraps around my foot then draws together making it very snug. These would be worn basically for the remainder of my life, or until I had to have surgery and likely would need to wear them even if I had surgery. He suggested he would do everything he could to do anything but surgery for my feet.

The outlook did not look very good. I decided to try the "foot gauntlet". I've had it for about a week and before I say if it has helped or not, I am waiting until the time is up that he wanted me to wear it for. (8 weeks).

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to let everyone know. I think that covers most of the questions anyone might have, but if you do have any more just let me know.

If you want to read more about either club feet or feet in general here are a few links:

http://www.footmaxx.com/clinicians/joints.html

http://www.podiatrychannel.com/anatomy/

http://www.clubfootclub.org/

http://www.blackburnfeet.org.uk/index.htm

(Sorry for the errors in spelling. It's late.)