My bunions have been cured!!

[onedayatatime73]

I don't normally think to post things like this but I am so happy I thought I would share.

I have had bunions on both feet for the last 6 years or so. Got to the point where is was dreading summer as couldn't wear nice shoes or flip flops anymore.

I read story after story of people who had them treated and were in casts for months, one done at a time and extremely painful.

After much research I found a place down in Brighton where an Austrian surgeon comes over twice a month to do a completely different kind of correction surgery.

I had both feet done at the same time and came out walking.

When I say walking, I mean wearing 'special shoes' with a wire (I couldn't see) inside both feet. It was more like shuffling but I was certainly mobile and able to look after the children at home. I took five days off work and got a taxi there for the following 3 weeks. Went back to have the wires taken out and then was pain free but tender. Was in normal shoes a few weeks later. That was last autumn and on Christmas Day I wore heels (first time in years).

Just thought I would post as am sat in the sunshine wearing flip flops and feel so chuffed I have lovely looking feet again

Hoping this might help someone else who is as miserable as I was about my feet.

I have terrible bunions but I'm nowhere near Brighton. I wonder if he does work in any other parts of the U.K. What's the Drs name ?

Oh and how much did it cost ?

Tell me more! My bunions are diabolical.

More details please! Would love to have this done.

Me too, the pain from mine is awful

It's called the European Foot Institute. His name is Dr Nowak. I need to check but think it was about £3000 for both feet? But you can claim on medical insurance if you have that - although need a doctors note referral to confirm they are uncomfortable etc. The think with bunions is they will just get worse and worse anyway.
My feet are now back to the way they used to be. And there's no scar as it's done with micro incision
There's a fb page you can look at as well with lots of pics of people's feet.
It was done under sedation with an anaesthetist who came to the clinic. It was a pretty miserable four weeks wearing the special shoes with the wires in - made me feel like my big toes had heat in them. But it was totally bearable and I was able to go to work after the first week. But I mainly sit at a desk so different if you have an active job. So so pleased I had it done. Let me know if have any more specific questions.

I can't find the info but I think it was £3000 for one foot but £4500 for both. So not cheap. But the surgeon pays an anaesthetist and staff to come in on a Saturday (he is only over twice a month a think) so actually if lots of people booked the same day the price might come down? It's a strange little clinic based inside a dental clinic I think. When I first went I really wasn't sure I was doing the right thing because it wasn't the sort of set up I was expecting. But it was brilliant.

What did he actually do?

If you look at the website it will explain it much better than I can but my understanding it

He drilled a little hole somewhere
And then using micro surgery (so I wasn't actually cut open) he rotated the actual bunion so it was sitting in a different way. Or something like that. I think he said something like bunions aren't the bones growing larger they are the way they have moved and sort of spread out. He then put a wire in to keep it in that position and then put the foot into a Velcro bandage thing that then kept the big toe away from the others. (. I then bought really big socks to go over them) and then on top you have these special shoes - that look like black sandals with Velcro straps. Not very stylish but much better than I was expecting. At the time my footwear was pretty rubbish anyway as my bunions couldn't fit into nice shoes anymore anyway so I didn't really care.

I went back 4 weeks later to have the wire taken out. I kept the bandages on and shoes in for longer than I needed to because they felt comfier. Then a couple of weeks later wore ugg boots. And not long after I was back at Zumba and then in heels.

Am no expert and someone will know better than I but as I understand it then have version means actually shaving the bone off and then the foot is in a cast for weeks and takes months and months to recover - and can come back. And is painful. So this seemed a much better / quicker option.

I hope that makes sense.

Hello, just discovered this post. Thanks for sharing. If you don't mind, what type of insurance did you have?
L.x

I had my bunion surgery on the NHS. It was free. Prior to surgery I couldn't walk or drive because of the pain. Now I can do whatever I want. Was only in a cast for 2 weeks then crutches needed for 2 weeks with special shoe. No wires had to be taken out.

I don't get this. How come no one else does this op, and why is it only available in a Brighton backstreet?
How come you can't remember how much it cost? If I'd spent a few grand on foot surgery I think I'd remember the cost.
I don't mean to be negative, as I have horrible bunions that I would love to be free of, but there's something a bit odd about all this.

It seems odd that you know more about the dr's overheads than where a hole was drilled in your foot or what the operation actually involved.

OK putting scepticism to one side for a mo, does anyone have any experience of this clinic which now looks as if it's in Worthing?

It was £k, no wait £4.5k

Hi. Has anyone else had experience of this clinic please, good or bad? I’m thinking of having my bunions done but normally you’d have screws put into your feet to stabilise the new joint. I’m concerned that this wouldn’t work for everyone.

Have any of you ladies got Diabetes, as I'm wondering if my Type 2 would ou trule my having surgery on my bunions.
Feet are a partcularly difficult problem for diabetics

Also the joints of the toes next to both big toes are very pronounced through the effects of bunions pressing them out of line and hurt with most shoes. Does anyone else have the same?
Thanking you all in anticipation

The method described by onedayatatime73 (cutting then rotating the bone under fluoroscopy, then splinted with a Kirschner wire) is what is normally done with minimally invasive bunion surgery and it is called percutaneous distal osteotomy. I mentioned it to an orthopaedic surgery consultant and he said it was popular about 10 years ago but he stopped doing it because he was having to deal with so many problems arising from it from patients all over Europe. He said you can still get it done, though. It's just that he personally doesn't think it's much good. He also said, you need to just accept it that your bone takes about 6 weeks to heal, and your skin cut about 2 weeks, no matter what technique you use. He said, "bunion surgery is not as complex as open heart surgery but it's not minor surgery either, proper recovery just does take time."
Oh and I looked at the European Foot clinic website and to me it looks like a cosmetic place, their references are all from the Daily Mail or private individuals who are happy, etc. and they don't state the medical name of their procedure. So I would be kinda suspicious though I am sure they are fine for most patients, but perhaps there is some hype involved in their method being so very special when in fact it sounds like the kind of thing you could probably get on the NHS. So really worth asking your doc about it before you travel from Australia or pay out thousands of pounds for it.

Forgot to say, this consultant guy also said that you also have to accept that you might not feel normal for up to a year afterward, but surgically you should be on the mend after 6 weeks and able to do more and more as time goes on. But is a matter of how your body deals with the after effects of having had surgery and this affects different people in different ways. It comes back to the fact that this is really quite significant surgery and this is why they try to dissuade you from having it unless you are really sure you need it.

Accept your bunions. That's what I do. I couldn't deal with the pain. I just think we are all different. I have worn good shoes mostly all my life. It can be hereditary.

I had both of mine done on the NHS five years ago with a similar op.
My feet were deformed from childhood due to stretching ligaments. I am also completely flat footed.
Very similar result - both feet done in a day. I had some bunion removed ( I have thin scars on the edge both big toes), the tendons were cut between big toe to allow them to straighten, wire and pins.

Walked out on those sandadals with crutches. Really rested up for a week. Was in sandals dancing at a wedding five weeks later. After 3 months a could walk miles as normal.
Worse bit was the scars healing and rubbing. The rest just felt like you had done a hard days shopping. Really not that painful.

I have no idea how you find a good doctor. I was never asked whether I was pleased with my surgery or not. Turned out my doctor was a military surgeon which apparently is a good thing.

Mine were so so painful and literally three acupuncture sessions later and I don't feel a thing...I was very sceptical and was actually at the acupuncturist for something else and happened to mention my bunions and she said that it had worked for a friend of hers so why not give it a go. It worked fantastically the first time but the pain came back a few weeks later, second time it took a bit longer for the pain to come back a little bit and third time was ages ago and I no longer feel anything from them. It is such a relief not to have the constant nagging pain...

I'm on week 3.5 of having had both feet done at the clinic in Worthing. It's a fantastic place and I highly recommend it. Cost me 4750 sterling for both feet and I flew home within hours if having it done. Wires are coming out in Friday and then 2 weeks of taking it easy and I'm back with nice new feet. For all the sceptics out there I didn't want screws or bolts left in my foot I wanted to be able to wear high shoes again and everywhere I went in ireland told me I'd never be able to wear anything higher than an inch . My father had his done in ireland 10 years ago and has a screw still in his toe which restricts his movement and he still has pain sometimes. Hes said he would have happily paid for the same operation and recovery I've had , if he'd known about it.