Mr. Masternick needs to stick to corns ,calluses and ingrown toenails. DO NOT let him preform bunion surgery on you! Someone just recently told me that medicine is a practice and they are "practicing" on YOU!Do yourself a huge favor and get a second opinion about the surgery from a foot and ankle Orthopaedic doctor or multiple orthopedics not a podiatrist. Under the recommendation of Mr Masternick, I had Lapidus bunion surgery because he said the cuneiform bone was at an angle and that's the only type of surgery that would work. (Years later and after a lot of research, I learned that most people have an angle on this bone and there are over 100 different types of bunion surgery.) He told me that the downside to the surgery was that I may experience some arthritis pain. He didn't tell me anything else as far as what to expect long term. I trusted him to know what he was doing and how to do expertly preform this procedure. I should not have been so trusting!
Following the surgery, when the bandages were removed, I noticed immediately that my big toe looked a lot shorter! Later I learned that the first metatarsal bone and cuneiform bone are both considerably shorter and the big toe has been pulled into the body of the foot. My big toe is comically short and is even more embarrassing then the bunion was! Having this surgery has caused me way more physical pain then my bunion ever did! I recall that days after surgery I asked for something stronger for the pain and he compared me with another one of his patients that just had the same surgery and HIS pain level and that he didn't require extra pain meds. He made me feel like MY pain didn't matter and somehow I wasn't strong enough! What an awful way to treat your patient! He later told me that the amount of dissection he had to do in my foot was a lot! My foot only had a bunion, what do you mean a lot of dissection? Now I know, he took too much bone away and for years I thought this pain must be arthritis or pain from the hardware. (Note about the hardware, I had Masternick remove the hardware last year thinking this was the source of my pain, it wasn't. I also still have a screw that is buried in the bone and pokes out the bottom part of my metatarsal into my arch..OUCH...that was Masternick not paying special attention to detail. They can't get that one out unless they break the bone. WTF! So I elected not to have that done and live with that stinging pain for now). Following the hardware removal surgery and another year of heightened pain, I recently discovered that I don't have arthritis after getting a 2nd and 3rd and soon to be 4th opinions.
A few years following the initial surgery and after buying hundreds of dollars of metatarsal pads, toe spacers, orthotics, inserts, tape,etc. and in being in denial of choosing the wrong doctor, I am unable to roll or push off of my foot properly and cannot run much less walk very far. My big toe joint has become inflamed because I put so much pressure on the first over-shortened metatarsal head. It is so extremely painful that I have to tape the big toe into a plantar position and buddy tape it to the second toe everyday to try to stop it from bending. My second toe has been acting as my big toe and causing pain called capsulitis or Morton's Toe. (I didn't have that prior to this surgery and had more then enough bone to make the surgery successful without so much removal). Over the years, Sesamoiditis has become a huge problem and just recently, I thought I had fractured one. Due to unnecessarily cutting the ligament that holds the big toe to the rest of the foot with the Lapidus procedure, my medial sesamoid ligaments have been damaged causing it to dislocate from time to time. This dislocation of the sesamoid causes so much pain that I recently had someone take me to the emergency room and have been off work for weeks because I could not put any weight on the the foot! Now I have the rest of my life to live and I'm only 44, with a right foot that has been so severely altered, that I cannot take a step without thinking "how am I going to put this foot down", the pain keeps me up at night and wakes me in the morning, and I have been living on Tylenol and Advil for the past few years! Needless to say, Mr Masternick, I'll always remember you! Also...According to the recent multiple MRIs, I don't have plantar fasciitis like you tried to label this pain under. Lastly, The physical therapist treatment that Masternick just recently recommended before I went for a second and third doctors opinion.... one of the therapist said she has never seen this before and asked me "Did he mean to do that"? I just broke down and cried right there in the office. Very depressing knowing there is nothing that can be a "fix" for my problem. People...Find a true foot and ankle orthopedic for your bunion surgery...not a podiatrist foot doctor... better yet, Don't Have Bunion Surgery! read more
