Even I, as a naturopathic medical student, am awe struck by what I have seen in the last week.

My wife had major ankle surgery to restore movement once again. For two years, we have tried every form of physical medicine and rehabilitation. We managed to maintain some semblance of movement but no way could she point her toes upwards.

After meeting with 10+ orthopedic surgeons, all of which wanted to fuse her ankle joint, my wife's naturopathic physician finally found one that did not. Ankle fusion was not the way to go for her as she is only 28 years old and the outcome of fusion for her is not the best as she is quite young.

Dr Lowinger, a podiatrist, found that her condition was due to ankle arthrosis and may be improved by 'cleaning up the joint space.' This is what I was looking for the last year of searching. It was a welcome alternative to fusion even if it fails. We are at least giving it a shot.

The surgery lasted about 3 hours. A quick summary:

• 5 incisions
  
• calcaneal shif...