An Active Life Impacted by a Painful Bunion

Always on the move, Patricia C found her active lifestyle halted by bunion pain about 10 years ago.

A teacher for more than 25 years, Patricia also devoted her time to an after-school program and teaching summer school every year. Additionally, three daughters and their activities—not to mention her own pastimes, including softball and dancing—kept her constantly busy.

“I move around a lot,” she says.

About a decade ago, the bunions she’d had on both feet for years began making a major impact on daily activities and favorite hobbies, Patricia explains. “Driving was becoming a problem, shoes would be a problem… I couldn’t get through a whole song [dancing] in heels.”

A favorite pair of heeled boots became “a punishment” and her regular shoes began getting holes where her bunions were located.

Turning to Surgery When Conservative Options Failed

Patricia iced her feet every day after work, tried gel spacers between her toes designed to help relieve bunion pain, and even tested out various topical lotions.

“I got pedicures just to get my feet massaged,” she says.

Finally, the pain became too much, and Patricia wanted a future in which simple tasks like walking her dog weren’t unmanageable due to her bunions. Shortly after retiring and gearing up for a move from New Jersey to Florida, Patricia was ready to find relief despite her hesitance to undergo any kind of surgery.

In 2022, she began researching surgical options for bunion correction and quickly underwent a Lapiplasty® procedure on her left foot. In this procedure, the surgeon performs a fusion using plates and screws with the goal to have two bones in the foot grow together. Today, Patricia wishes she had explored other options more thoroughly, as her recovery was not as she expected.

After the nerve block she got during surgery wore off, Patricia was in significant pain. In the days after, still in pain, she became worried that the moving-related activities she had planned would be impeded by her recovery.

“I needed to unpack and be on my feet. I couldn’t be helpless…but the pain was really bad and I couldn’t do anything,” she says.

Recovery from any procedure differs from patient to patient. Patricia’s recovery entailed crutches and a walking boot for more than 6 weeks, which she eventually swapped out for a knee scooter. She underwent physical therapy, but 2 years after her surgery still has pain at her incision site.

Ready to Explore Another Option

Although not interested in surgery to revise the procedure she underwent on her left foot, Patricia decided to explore a new option for the bunion on her right foot that had not yet been treated.

A different doctor in Florida introduced her to the Arthrex Minimally Invasive Bunionectomy procedure and, although she was worried about “regretting it,” she decided to learn more.

Her doctor explained that the Arthrex Bunionectomy uses tiny instruments and leaves a much smaller scar than traditional bunion surgery ¹ or the Lapiplasty procedure.²

Using her x-ray as a guide, her doctor walked her through the procedure and its benefits, including that it is designed to maintain motion in the toe.^1,3

A few months later, after exploring social media groups to hear real patients’ experiences with various bunion correction options, Patricia underwent an Arthrex Minimally Invasive Bunionectomy. It was a very different experience from her first procedure.

Getting Back to Activity

Upon waking up after her Arthrex Bunionectomy procedure, which did not require a nerve block, Patricia already noticed a difference in her pain level, which she managed with an over-the-counter pain reliever. “I never even took the painkiller prescription to the pharmacy,” she says.

While taking her first steps in a surgical shoe was nerve-wracking, and she took it slowly, Patricia was able to begin walking the day after her procedure. Just a few weeks later, she cooked Thanksgiving dinner for her entire family.

“That was great. It was so fast to be doing normal things,” she says.

Approximately 6 months after undergoing the Arthrex Minimally Invasive Bunionectomy, Patricia can “do things and not even notice I’m putting my foot a certain way” that used to be painful, she explains.

Patricia is very pleased with the appearance of her right foot and its barely-there scars, as opposed to the large scar she still has on her left foot. She is also pleased with her right foot’s appearance. She has only “very small dots” on the side of her foot, a big contrast to the much larger scar on her left foot.

“For me, it was in and out, a surgical shoe, and you’re back to normal. Really back to normal,” she says.