The above photograph features the recently-operated-upon left foot of my WGTD colleague Dave McGrath. What a colossal pain this has been for Dave, and all because of bunion surgery. I don’t know about you, but I always thought that a bunion was just some little painful sore like a corn – and you dealt with it with one of those little pads you buy at Walgreen’s and maybe some kind of cream. No big deal. And the term sounds so quaint, the kind of thing that might be experienced by a character in a Mark Twain short story. But no, it turns out that a bunion is more like a bone spur and they can really cause a lot of trouble- and the surgery done in this instance was quite complicated, involving breaking a bone, re-aligning it, and sticking two pins in it. I think I’d rather live with the bunion, actually. In the case of Dave, he has had to suffer through this without the benefit of the most commonly effective anti- inflammatory medication. (Dave donated a kidney to one of his sons several years ago, which is why he can’t be given the medication in question.) So the recovery time for Dave has been much much slower and harder than he ever imagined, and although Dave is finally back working half days, he’s not able to drive, to walk up and down stairs unattended – and everything is just that much tougher and slower to do because of this. And this is even more unfortunate when you know Dave and his style. He is an incredibly energetic guy who is typically so light on his feet and just on the go all morning long at the studio. So it has to be positively MADDENING for him to be hobbling around like Grandma Walton. And he called it the worst pain he has ever experienced, bar none.
So the next time you hear about someone dealing with a bunion problem, don’t say “isn’t that cute?!?” Summon up all of the sympathy you possibly can – and then say your prayers that night that you never have to experience this for yourself.