Judy,
I actually consulted 3 other podiatrists which I didn't like enough to follow their advice! One only wanted me to wear a certain brand of tennis shoe and in fact told me "don't come back until you've bought xyz shoe" so I said "screw that" and then one said there's no way he'd do the surgery my podiatrist did on my left foot so I knew this wasn't the guy for me because I got good relief on my left foot and another one told me that he never heard of orthotics giving someone sciatic pain but mine gave me that so I won't wear them. He didn't even make them! I wear these really good inserts that are called SOLE and they have helped me greatly re the posterior tibial tendonitis w/o giving me sciatica.
I really don't want to have surgery unless I'm really hurting badly more often. I know what my problem is on my right foot. I have a bunion that doesn't have to be surgically corrected but I think it would be a good idea for when it does bother me tho the hammertoes really would improve "I believe" with the same surgery the guy that did my left foot did."
However I have learned to be discerning and will find the right person to do this. I do not trust my body easily anymore to the hands of whomever agrees or recommends surgery.
I am pretty mobile so will keep going. The posterior tibial tendonitis flares up and that too isn't something surgery is done for unless one has a near a complete snap or tear of the tendon or cannot recover from as well as I can so I do know what is going on with my feet. Today I was able to take my regular fairly long walk as my feet felt better as the day wore on! Yippeee!!!
There was a time when I too thought I had enough surgeries that I didn't really mind one more (one good spine surgery so thought the 2nd would turn out that way too but it outcome was far worse than I could have ever imagined) but when one fails you very badly and it takes forever (more than 5 years) to recover from you might have a different perspective (or maybe not/maybe wouldn't make any diff). I'm very glad I haven't had more spine surgery tho can understand why you've had the number you have to date. To each his/her own in our pursuit of betterment!
