Surgery to correct foot Inversion on 44 yr old w/out CP, has SCI

[Quadzilla]

Hi all,
I am a 44 year old quadriplegic male with a C-4 - C-5 spinal cord injury. I recently saw an orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York regarding a problem I was having with an overlapping toe on my left foot. Before the doctor even took a look at my toe he started to ask questions regarding my left foot which has moderate to severe inversion and foot drop. I've never considered having these surgically corrected but the procedures he mentioned did sound promising. However, I was quite skeptical as my initial visit was only for a consultation regarding the overlapping toe and here he was talking about operating on other parts of my foot.

My reason for seeing this particular doctor was for his excellent reputation. At the time I saw him he was about to drop out of the Medicare network. This meant any surgery he'd perform on me would have to be paid for out of pocket. When I explained to him that Medicare was my primary insurer he said he would gladly perform the entire surgery for free! Any suspicions I had of this doctor's motives went out the window and I now am scheduled for surgery on January 14 to correct the overlapping toe, perform a heel cord lengthening and tendon transfer to correct the foot inversion. My question to the group is do you know any adults that have had these procedures done to correct the foot drop and inversion and if so how did they make out? Were the surgeries a success? What problems, if any, did you have after the surgery both long and short term? Did you experience much post surgical pain?

The doctor said that he's had a high success rate with these types of surgeries but most were performed on children with cerebral palsy. I've been through eight surgeries since my accident in 1981 and a few of those surgeries did more harm than good which makes me a bit nervous about going into this surgery. I did get a second opinion from a physiatrist who said this surgery would help and that there is usually a high success rate. While the problems with my left foot do have a large impact on my day to day activities, I'm having a hard time deciding whether surgery would be right for me at this time. Any info is greatly appreciated!

[BJK]

Well, Quadzilla -- did you have the surgery, and how did it go? What are your results?