The pre-surgery photo on the left was taken in September 2012. The plantar plate split is evident by the gap between my first and second toe as well as the cupping of my first and second toes. The post-surgery photograph on the right was taken last month. You can see the plantar plate repair; the first and second toes are again in alignment and straight.

I went back to my doctor a couple week s ago for a recheck. I told her that everything felt really good except for my third toe; that it was really sore. She asked me if I had been massaging it and as she was saying this, she was rubbing the sides of my toe. I told her I had been massaging the top of my foot, but not the toes. She kept massaging and rubbing that toe and I said to her “that really hurts”. She stopped rubbing it and pulled up my x-ray and asked when I had the x-ray taken. I told her it had been done a couple weeks ago. “Hmm” was her answer.  She typed a little more on the computer and then brought up another x-ray and positioned it beside the first x-ray. She pointed to the first x-ray and said, “well, no wonder it hurts, the implant has cracked through the side of the toe bone” and of course, my thought was “no wonder it hurt when you kept rubbing it!” She said she had never seen anything like that before and asked it I had  hurt my foot. I told her that back in August, I had opened  a heavy glass door and somehow drug it across the top of my foot. It really hadn’t hurt very much, but the top of my foot and baby toe turned black and blue. She said toes don’t have a lot of feeling and undoubtedly this accident caused the damage to my toe. Unfortunately, what this means now is  this implant has to be removed. Back when I had my first surgery, the pre-surgical notes I received indicated that she had planned to put an implant in my baby toe as well as do a “complete bunionectomy.” I never recall her discussing this part of the surgery with me, (although she swears she did) so I panicked and wouldn’t let her do it. Well, now that she has to go back in and remove the implant, I’m having her do my baby toe, but not the bunion!  At least I don’t think so.  🙂