Anyone had a bunion removal under local anaesthetic?

[CrowsInMyGarden]

I've Had a bunion since age 12. I'm 63 now. It doesn't hurt. Had hammer toe due to the bunion for 10 years, again it doesn't hurt. For the past few months I've had a sore spot on the ball of my foot and for the last few weeks a very painful knee, both of which mean I cannot go for long walks. Had appt with podiatry surgeon who said the knee and pain in foot is due to bunion. Offered me an op under local anaesthetic but said if I lost weight it might improve. Have joined Slimming World as want to lose weight anyway. Can't decide whether to go for the op or not. Has anyone had a bunion sorted under local anaesthetic? The recovery is quite long, I'd have to sit with leg raised and only move to go to the loo for the first 2 weeks..... I have two old dogs who won't mind missing their walks if they have the door open to go in the garden so I may have to wait till it warms up a bit. Can't decide what to do.....

my neighbour said if she’d known how painful it would he she would never have gotten it done. it was under GA.

I've a bunion on my left big toe. I have been manipulating my toe/toes anytime I'm sat down reading or watching TV, and stretching my toes sideways when sat eg at the table eating, since just before Christmas. I have to say that a) bunion is now less pronounced and b) I can spread my toes better and c) foot is less painful.
I think half my problem is the slippers I've had for the last year are actually a tad narrow, so have ordered some wide ones

Depending on severity you can get minimal invasive /keyhole one (you do need to go to specialist); apparently minimum downtime , been looking it up for myself worth exploring

I have almost exact issue and am waiting on a good time for the surgery.

Yes I know a couple of people who have. Both said it’s agony and the recovery time takes a long time.

My close friend (early 40s) had local anaesthetic bunion surgery on one foot, and was going to have it done to the other foot as well once the first foot had healed. She found it being done under a local anaesthetic utterly traumatic due to the sounds she could hear throughout. She also found the healing process excruciatingly painful. The whole thing was so bad that she won’t have the bunion surgery on the other foot.

Jesus Christ there is no way in hell I’d have a bunion op for a bunion that doesn’t hurt.

The recovery is brutal you shouldn’t weight-bear for 6 weeks but patients often do.

Is it a private surgeon?

It’s not coming from your foot/knee.
Its down to an imbalance in you pelvis/hip which causes the leg to fall in the way, creating knee pain and bunion.
I’d recommend spending the money seeing a good physio (privately because NHS will only let you be referred for one joint which is ridiculous) who can assess your whole biomechanics.

@ThisHazelPombear It’s NHS. Although the bunion itself doesn’t hurt the pain on bottom of foot really hurts. Cannot walk barefoot at all. I can only wear ugly special shoes and have to wear a knee bandage. With both of these I can take dogs for a short walk, go supermarket etc but can’t get my 10,000 steps in or go for a long walk just for exercise/enjoyment so I don’t want to carry on as I am. NHS wouldn’t offer it for cosmetic reasons. I think I’ll lose a bit of weight and see if it gets any better.

Crikey, it could just be a plantar plate tear ask for the MSK dept in podiatry instead.

Losing weight does help your skeletons expecting us to be a certain weight and if we go over it causes issues.

This is what the old ladies i know say.

I would think hard before agreeing.
I would want a second opinion and GA if I did agree!!!

I stopped wearing heels at.30 as a result of.tge tales.i heard as i have mild ones.

I would explore other options as PP have said.

I am a clinical negligence solicitor and would be very reluctant to have to surgery you are describing . Plenty can go wrong

I wonder if the people who say they regret the surgery because of the painful recovery have had the operation recently? It might be worth hearing from someone who has completed their recovery to see if it was worth it. I had total knee replacement, it was agony and took two years for me to be pain free but in the end it was very much worth it.

It’s not clear the OPs pain is caused by the bunion. That’s pretty important

I had bunion surgery on Monday, not under local though, I had a general. They shaved the bone down, broke my big toe and put two pins in to straighten it. It was very painful the day after but if you stick to the painkiller regime (I’m on cocodamol and ibuprofen) it’s fine. I’ve been hobbling around the house on my crutches since Monday evening and even went to the pub (as a car passenger) for my breakfast this morning! I’m not doing anything that can wait and am sitting with it up most of the time and I won’t hesitate to have my other foot done when the time comes!

this is what it looks like. I have a special shoe and crutches for when I want to walk around.

I had bunion surgery under local anaesthetic 11 years ago. I was supposed to be having a general but on the day of surgery I had an allergic reaction to some medication and so the surgeon said they could only go ahead with a local. I had some sedation which made me sleepy and as I had to wait until 10pm for the operation I actually fell straight to sleep! It was a big relief to awaken when it was almost done. I didn't find the recovery particularly painful and only took paracetamol. I used crutches and couldn't drive for a few weeks. Unfortunately, the bunion came back after 7 years so I'm considering having it re-done.

I have had both feet done over the last year. Am on week 5 after the second at the moment. I took pain relief for about the first 3 days each time, then stopped. Off crutches and just in a surgical shoe within 2 weeks. I took one day off work the first time and have had about 4 in total this time (home based job that I can do with my foot up). I was running again within 12 weeks of the first one and have no reason to think the second will be different. After the left one, I was allowed to drive after 3 weeks in surgical shoe, but have to wait until 8 weeks and the shoe is off for the right.

Personally, I would not just go with local anaesthetic, I don't want to be awake while my bones are being broken and pinned! My surgeon used a regional block as well as the GA. I was home within a couple of hours of waking up both times.

My surgeon strongly advised me that it was better to get it done now (in my 50s) rather than wait until I am older and have other foot pathology and generally lower mobility.

This is all a bit scary! I’m on the list for bunion surgery too (bunion is one of the worst the podiatrist surgeon has seen) but not painful. The issue is that the big toe has moved under my second toe so the second toe is bent at the joint (dislocated apparently) and it is nearly impossible to get shoes to accommodate it. It is also starting to affect my balance. But I am not in pain and the thought of a very painful recovery is scary! My mother had both feet done at the same time when she was in her 50s and reckoned it was worth it.

just wanted to post a reminder to anyone starting a codeine based painkillers like cocodomol (excuse my spelling) to remember to increase the fruit and veg or whatever fibre you take as it bungs you up badly and you don’t want to add constipation to your list of problems 🤣.
you think it’ll be fine. it won’t. eat more veg now to stay ahead of the game.

I was given lactose on discharge and told to make sure I take them. I have followed their instructions and so far (1 week post op) have had no problems.

Yup, that’s me too!

Please don't be scared about it.
I was up for having both mine done at once, but the surgeon strongly advised against it. His experience is that recovery is better doing them separately as you can at least have some movement, whereas both at once, you really are stuck on your bum and have no foot that you can securely balance on to get to the loo, or shower etc.

As several of us have said, the recovery really is not as horrendous as it gets portrqyed. From my view, the worst part is having to sleep in a surgical shoe. Modern pain relief is so much more effective than was available in previous generations.

You don't say how old you are, but if you are starting to become unbalanced, at some point, a fall becomes almost inevitable. And without wanting to scare you, the potential damage from that would be so much worse than a few day's on codeine/paracetamol.

@BunionRecovery yes I am becoming unbalanced so think I will go for the op.

I had both feet done at the same time when I was mid 40's, I'd seen how much my mother suffered with her bunions and how she left it too late for surgery so it wasn't as successful. The recovery wasn't too bad, I had a ga and was offered an epidural also which I refused. I had the odd tilted boots and crutches to get around the house but did spend a lot of time with my feet up. Unfortunately one foot had to be repeated within a year, it didn't set right due to arthritis, this is still a problem because the big toe is 'humped' and restricts what shoes I can wear but I still think it was worth it, my bunions were quite bad and getting worse and I definitely didn't want 'monster feet', my niece was 3 when she enquired why Nana had monster feet!!!