The Sabbatical Is Over: the AO is Back With a Request or Two Of My Own
First, to my request before you stop reading. If you like or feel there is value in the content on the Angry Orthopod please spread the word on social media or any way you feel you can. This is particularly true when you have personally benefited as a result. This is a groundswell process and thus requires your support. Thank you, no, really, thank you..
"...please spread the word on social media or any way you feel you can"
my desire to help you all here has only strengthened
Recently I read a transformative book that confirmed my long-held conscious realization that elective and even some trauma surgery wasn’t all that. Professor (Dr.) Ian Harris, the author of Surgery, The Ultimate Placebo: A Surgeon Cuts through the Evidence, is a seasoned Australian orthopaedic surgeon, traumatologist and serial researcher. Amazon sums it up perfectly, "For many complaints and conditions, the benefits from surgery are lower, and the risks higher, than you or your surgeon think.” Dr. Harris focuses more on the ineffectiveness of many common mainstream surgeries accurately covering the evidence that they are all too often no better than doing nothing and can clearly cause harm. I would vehemently add that there are many curative non-operative treatments out there that are either unknown by your doc or are suppressed.
When it comes to the risks and surgical complications, we surgeons have a saying you need to know: “The risk of complications for <insert your surgery here> is about 1%, until it happens to you, then it is 100%.” And every surgery brings the risk of harm into play. Period. Harris covers this point to perfection.
Don’t get me wrong, surgery definitely has its place and can be life-changing, but only after an informed, careful consideration and a collaborative decision process between surgeon and patient. You are in control and you have the right and power, and you should make these critical decisions for yourself. I highly recommend this book whether surgery is a consideration or not.
surgery...a collaborative decision process between surgeon and patient
My last request. I welcome your requests for blogs on subjects that might be of interest to you and others. Please keep focused on basically foot and ankle issues. I will be selective on which are chosen especially if there are numerous requests. Finally, I am in the process of answering many of your regretfully neglected comments/questions you all have posted over the past 18 months. Even if your problem has resolved or the question is “off the table” for you, I will still answer because the questions are excellent and the answers are even better, if I don't mind saying so (and I don't mind), for all to see. Keep moving, my friends,
AO
Archived Comments
Below is a collection of comments from previous versions of the blog. They are preserved for historical context and the richness they add to our discussions. If I lost them I would be angry indeed.
See Comments Blog
Keep moving, my friends,
AO
Jane Smeltzer on January 3, 2022 at 10:26 am
Plantar flexed 4th metatarsal head. I am actually feel the bone when I rub the bottom of my foot. A few years ago I had stump neuroma surgery and the head is very near the incision. I wish I had never had surgery. I have tried offloading the area. Are there stretches, taping, etc that will help. Thanks in advance for your time.
aoeditor on January 4, 2022 at 9:23 am
Hi Jane,
I must say I have heard "I wish I had never had surgery" so many times, and a few have been my own doing. Surgery is undoubtedly a two-edged sword. No matter how “simple,” there are risks to every surgery, even in…
joy on May 6, 2021 at 5:13 am
just thank you ! . . I have shared your site with friends
aoeditor on May 9, 2021 at 9:00 pm
Hi Joy,Thank you. Much appreciated. It is a labor of love and I am trying to help people where too many of my colleagues can’t or won’t. AND it keeps me angry.
Keep moving, my friends,
AO
Alison Brothers on January 11, 2020 at 2:04 amAfter 2 years of trying all the usual treatments for plantar fasciitis in my left foot (orthotics, cortisone injection, shockwave therapy), I came across your very valuable website and started the calf stretching as recommended by you. As it continued to worsen, about 9 months later I consulted an orthopaedic specialist/surgeon (foot/ankle). Based on the MRI and physical examination he told me that the plantar fasciitis had mostly healed however the ongoing cause of my pain was atrophy of the heel pad, for which there is no actual “cure”. He was quite positive about being able to manage it though and arranged for an orthotist to custom make a UCBL orthotic which I…
Jane Smeltzer on July 22, 2019 at 4:49 pm
I am 6 months out from surgery. How long does it take to heal from stump neuroma surgery through the bottom of the foot? And for the scar tissue to no longer be an issue?
aoeditor on December 1, 2019 at 9:43 am
Hi Jane,
So, this was surgery number two. Give it a year and start deep cross friction massage now. Look up cross friction massage on YouTube or visit a PT and let them show you how it is done. This activity can be a lifesaver for painful incisions and stump neuromas.
Keep moving, my friends,
AO