My Experience

I think it is time for a blog that has everything you would want to know about Brachymetarsia and the surgery for it.

First of all Brachymetatarsia is a genetic condition that involves the 4th metatarsal being short. There are some severe cases like mine where it is the 3rd and 4th metatarsal that are short. This unique difference is not noticed until you are a child between the ages of 5-8.

My Experience: So like I said I have the 3rd and 4th on my right foot, I also have the 4th on my left foot. I only had surgery on my right. Over the years I battled with the decision to have the surgery or not to have it. Because the complications are some of the biggest risks.

• My doctor told me that it was 99% chance that the pin sites would have some kind of infection.
• You could lose the toe if the veins, and bone do not heal back. Or do not gain its blood flow back.
• You could end up with multiple surgeries if you don't like how it turns out, or didn't heal back correctly.
• You could end up having a bone graft if the bone doesn't fill back in.

I made the decision to have the surgery because there was a callus on the bottom of my foot, that literally felt like it was a bone itself. Plus it was hard for me just to work 8 hour shifts and not be in excruciating pain at the end of the day.
May 19, 2014 was my surgery day, they hooked me up to IV's and gave me my general anesthesia, next thing I knew I woke up in another room, my foot was wrap and had an ice pack over it. If you don't know what the surgery consist of, basically the doctor will, break the tarsal of your short toe in your foot, then he/she will place 4 pins or in my case 8 pins in place to hold the two broken pieces of bone. Also known as an external fixator. So when the doctor says its ok, you will start turning that screw making the break further apart, and making your toe move up. Some people mistake it is growing, but you can't really say that until your doc sees it healing, which can take up to 6-8 weeks min, and 4 months max.

So the first week I didn't touch anything on my foot, I just needed to stay non weight bearing until the pins were out. Also your foot can't get wet, so make sure you wrap it when you shower. Also your foot my leak or feel like it is draining. As long as is it isn't yellowish, or blood, and the pin sites are not swollen or have a bad smell, its normal. That would be an infection if that was the case. My BIGGEST advice is to keep your foot elevated and Ice it every few hours for at least that first week or when ever you feel pain that the meds can't help. 

May 27, 2014 was the first day I started turning, for me my 3rd toe didn't hurt to turn all I felt was a little pressure, but my 4th did hurt to turn. Majority of the pain I felt was 20 minutes after the screw was turned. My doctor gave me hydroconde and tramadol for pain meds I altered them every 4 hours and even that, could not stop me from feeling my bones moving. In the beginning it was terrible all I felt was complete pressure, I could feel me bones moving one bone one way and another the other way. Towards my 4th week of turning, my doctor cut me down to just a quarter of a turn, twice a day, he didn't want them to go to far cause then they would be hanging to far over my foot and would not lay down right. Also towards the end the screws do get tighter and harder to turn. Lucky for me my day to stop turning was June 20, 2014. I had turned for about 4 weeks.

As you can see in the pictures there was a difference in how my toes looked before and after. Now came the waiting game...the test to see if my body would start to lay bone back down. To help my bones grow, I started taking two calcium pills a day and started drinking two glasses of milk a day. July 17, 2014 was the day I got my pins out! I had to go back under, but the surgery didn't take long. Only 15 minutes and the pins were out of my foot. I was sent home with a cast and a special walking shoe. I was told to only walk on my heel, the pain was non existing...I had not took any pain pills since I had stopped turning. One thing that my doctor said would happen but didn't, and what happen to a lot of people is an infection. I did not get and infection like he said. I don't know why, but clearly I'm happy that I didn't. The only advice I could give is to clean the pins twice a day. That's what I did and it worked. I did lose the muscle in my leg and that's the tough part, because getting back to walking has been very tough for me. So make sure to keep your leg doing some kind of movement. The saying is if you don't use it, you lose it!

One week later July 25, 2014 was my appointment where my cast was removed, and my doctor told me that bone was laying down and in a week or so I could bear weight.

Even with the worst of this surgery being over, I still feel like I wouldn't do this surgery again, it just was not worth it for me. But I am happy with the results and hope that I will still be happy once I start walking on my foot and for years to come. Always happy to answer questions and thanks for reading about my experience with Brachymetatarsia.

If you have any questions feel free to email me at trubrachygirl@gmail.com