My 19 year old has bone spurs, damage to 2nd metatarsal, and no cartilage left in that toe. She saw a podiatrist at an ortho office and he recommended surgery. They would basically clean it out, place some bone from her heel in the defect and place synthetic cartilage in the joint. Other option is a joint replacement The synthetic cartilage has a potentially large failure rate and a replacement would limit mobility. She is 19 and an avid runner and wants to continue running.

Has anyone been through this or any orthopedic surgeons on here with advice?

Just trying to figure out options and would hate for her to go through surgery and then a year later it fails.

I'd get a several opinions. Having surgery on feet is rough and they're rarely ever get back to normal. Also, what is your 19 y/o doing to have that type of damage already?

+1 on the second, third, or fourth opinion. I'm not a doctor, but I am a runner and would want to know with as much certainty as possible that having that operation is the only option.

Yeah multiple opinions for something this drastic at a young age. Ask a lot of questions and do plenty of research from others who have had this done.

She was a gymnast from the age of 4-13 and the last few years of that she was doing 35 hours a week in the gym with lots of skills that are hard on a young body. She "retired " from that after OCD elbow surgery. She then became a distance runner for high school. I imagine this has something to do with her gymnastics history because about a year after being out of the gym she was having back pain and with that mri she showed other healed stress fractures in her back. So I assume she probably broke or damaged this toe growth plate a long time ago and we just didn't know.

Some piece in the joint must have changed recently for her to bring it up because apparently it has hurt for years and she never mentioned it until about 2 weeks ago. Said she was just used to the pain.

And looking at mri surgery is the only option because of the damage to the bone and no cartilage left. It is very obvious this is beyond non surgical options.

For sure get multiple opinions…preferably from orthopedic surgeon who specializes in foot ankle. What more conservative measures have been tried??

She started having knee pain while running which she has never had until about 6 weeks ago. She saw ortho and he had her doing PT for that. She mentioned the foot pain to PT and there is a bump on the top of her foot at the second toe. He recommended that she have doctor look at that. They think she is changing running mechanics because of the foot pain getting worse and that is what caused the knee pain. She had xrays and mri and the report said it is stage 5 Freibergs. I believe only stages 1-3 are treated non surgical.

She is running again because the knee feels better and the foot pain is something that she has dealt with for years apparently. But after runs the pain is lingering longer. Also concerned that if she has bad mechanics this will begin to stress other toes or end of being a knee issue too.

Y'all are definitely dealing with a lot here. I am not saying that mechanics is the reason for the foot thing, but hearing about the back issues makes me wonder if that is not contributing to mechanical and stress issues down the chain.

Just my experience, but I had a back injury from a fall years ago, and I didn't rehab that as well as I should. I then went through a string of injuries - both soft tissue and bone - down the chain in the couple of years after that. It was only once I shut everything down and fixed the back issue that the other injuries tailed off.

Also, I understand what you are saying about the one doctor's diagnosis requiring the operation, but I (and I think others, too) am encouraging getting other opinions on both the diagnosis and the course of treatment. Maybe the diagnosis and course of treatment don't change, but the seeming severity of the operation at her age calls for at least another evaluation or two, in my opinion.