Has anyone ever heard of Freiberg's Disease or Infraction? No? Don't worry, you aren't alone.

I had never heard of it before, in my life, until I was told by a doctor that I had it. It's not hard to imagine my surprise when I discovered that my routine sport's injury turned out to be something much weirder and more involved.

I was in my sophomore year of high school at the time, during basketball season, and I had a dull aching pain on the top of my foot that wouldn't go away, which seemed to be getting worse. It became unbearable during one game, so I went to the sport's medic who directed me to a clinic to get my foot looked at. I had x-rays done and they told me that I had something called Freiberg's Disease. He roughly explained that one of my toes did not get enough blood flow and it eventually died. I was extremely confused because I had never heard of a bone in your toe dying before. I didn't even realize they could just die like that anyways.

There are different stages of the disease and I had to get a CAT scan to see how far along it was. I was given an air-cast and was instructed to wear it full-time to see if the pain would go away to stop the damage from getting worse. I had to wear the air-cast for a few months. They eventually realized that it was too far along to just get better on its own. I was going to doctor's appointments frequently and it was a very stressful time. The doctor then informed me that having surgery on my foot would be one of my only options to relieve the pain. After some thought and discussion with my parents, I decided to have the surgery on my foot.

It was a pretty intensive surgery. The doctors would go in and remove the dead part of my toe bone. Then to keep this toe from becoming deformed, they would have to stitch it to the toe next to it. It was extremely hard for me to imagine having two of my toes permanently stuck together. Now how would I wear those weird socks that have the individual toes like gloves do for fingers? What if I wanted to wear a toe ring?? They put a long metal pin in my foot after the surgery. The end stuck out and I had to leave it there for a month before I went back and they removed it. I was on crutches for three weeks, after the surgery, and then I was back in the air-cast for a few more months.

The whole ordeal was overwhelming and long-lasting. I had many many doctor's appointments and follow-up visits. I missed some school to be fit in for the surgery. It was exhausting not having two working feet for that long of a time period. It took a while to get used to the way my toes feel now. Walking on that foot felt much different after the operation, but I have mostly gotten used to it by now. My foot still does not bend and flex as much as my other foot. Overall, I have been mostly pain free for a while now and my scar is not as visible as it first was.

If anyone else out there has experienced this same disease and operation, I want you to know that you are not alone! I felt all alone in this at first and I was scared of what my foot would look like in the end. It took a lot of getting used to but, I have adapted to it well. I realized that there are many worse things in life that could have happened and that having a weird toe is not a big deal. At least now, I have a cool story to tell at parties!