“I spent years in some pretty major pain in my ankle. I’m not a doctor, but I was 90% sure that I had a bone spur on the back of my right heel. Being stubborn when it comes to doctors, I dealt with it for probably 2 years hoping that the problem would take care of itself.
It didn’t and actually got worse over time. I spent all of this time limping and turning my right foot outward to avoid having to bend my ankle in the normal way to avoid the pain. I slowly developed pain in my hip joint that I later found out from Dr. Stewart was pain being caused from compensating for the heel pain and this made total sense to me.
The pain in my heel was a terrible stabbing and burning pain as the bone spur was cutting into my Achilles tendon with every step.
I had finally had enough. It was time to look for a doctor. I had been seeing the television commercials for the Timonium Foot and Ankle Center. I was impressed with the commercials and seeing what seemed to me to be state of the art equipment. I saw that Dr. Stewart was a young doctor and my thinking was that he had to be educated in the most modern treatments.
My decision was made and it was the right decision.
Dr. Stewart and his staff were very professional and very friendly. I was happy right from the start. After x-rays and examination, my own diagnosis was right. I had a huge bone spur and severe Achilles tendinitis.
Dr. Stewart mentioned that surgery could be required if all measures failed, but he did not jump to that treatment and made it clear to me that surgery was the last option.
He decided to immobilize my ankle with a boot. He wanted to see if this would stop the inflammation. I tried this for about 1 month and it didn’t make the pain better. He made the decision that surgery was the only choice and I was in agreement.
Then something happened that I never expected. Knowing that I smoked, Dr. Stewart told me that he was always concerned about performing surgery on smokers. He explained that smoking impedes the healing process in a big way.
Especially the area of the Achilles tendon due to the limited blood flow in this area which smoking makes worse. He told me that I would have to stop smoking for at last 6 months before he would even consider operating on me.
He told me to think about it and let him know what I decided. I thought about this for a while. I had many other reasons to quit smoking and on August 14th, 2013 at 9:00am, after 35 years of smoking, I made the decision and snuffed out my last cigarette.
About 6 months later I decided it was time to have the surgery. When I saw Dr. Stewart to tell him my decision, I told him that I had quit smoking 6months ago. His face lit up lit up and I received a big high 5. He was genuinely happy.
I scheduled my surgery and it went very very well. He removed my bone spur, repaired my diseased Achilles tendon, and he released the tight muscle in my calf. He told my wife it was the largest bone spur he’d ever seen in that area. He told me to expect to be on disability for 3 to 6 months.
Of course there was some pain after surgery, but not nearly as bad as I expected. The pain diminished greatly after only a few days and with the exception of having to be in a cast and non-weight bearing for almost 2 months, I was very comfortable from that point forward.
It was only 3 1/2 months and I was back to work. Dr. Stewart was quick to say that quitting smoking was a big reason for my rapid healing time. He was quite happy and so was I.
With all of my appointments, Dr. Stewart and I got to know each other quite well. He is not only very professional, but very friendly. He relieved me of the pain I had dealt with for years and he without a doubt helped me with my decision to quit smoking and I’m happy to say that I just passed my one year anniversary. I’m still smoke free.
I would absolutely recommend Timonium Foot and Ankle, Dr. Stewart and his staff to anyone. I want to give them all a HUGE Thank You !!!”
* Results may vary from person to person