'My Feet Are Killing Me': Kiara asks Dr. Brad Schaeffer to help her get rid of a painful extra toe
Kiara Barnett has had an oversized toe ever since she was young but now as she is growing older, things have been getting harder for her. Kiara confessed that she finds it hard to wear shoes as most of the time she feels a pain rushing through her because her toe is too big to fit in the shoe perfectly.
To make things worse, the big toe makes it hard for Kiara to workout and makes her emotional because she is not able to do things freely as she would like to. While she has always thought about the toe as having two toes in one, many of the doctors suggested that it is not the case. She felt that it is a second toe because there is another nail growing in the same area which also created a division.
However, her mother revealed that when she was born the doctors assured them that it was just one toe. While the toe makes it hard for her to do everyday activities, another thing that bothers her is the comments that she receives from people. There have been times when people have laughed at her and called her ugly because of her toe.
Kiara confessed that it is hard for her to deal with such comments. She also explained what she has to deal with every day. She recalled that she had recently gone to a salon to get her nails done and the lady working there asked if Kiara had another toe. While she assured that it was one toe, Kiara revealed that she was charged an extra $10 for it.
Kiara thought that meeting Dr. Brad Schaeffer would help her know what was going on with her toe. When Dr. Schaeffer took an X-Ray of her toe he found out that Kiara had another toe growing inside her feet. He called it polydactyly, a condition where the extra toe or finger is growing inside.
Kiara was fascinated to find out that she had another toe growing inside. Dr. Schaeffer suggested that they do surgery to make sure that her toe is back to normal. While this would be the first surgery she would be going through, Kiara agreed.
Dr. Schaeffer prepared to get the surgery started but after starting the surgery he was shocked to find out that the bone was attached in a way that he could not get through with just blade. He decided to use a sharper tool to get through the bone. However, that wasn't the only obstacle that he felt during the surgery. Dr. Schaeffer took an X-Ray and found out that there was another bone hiding under her toe.
Luckily, with the help of the x-ray, he was able to remove it and it happened to be going under the tip of her toe and this was what was causing her pain. After removing the bones, Dr. Schaeffer had to make sure that he got the skin incision right to ensure she gets a good shape. The surgery ended with Dr. Schaeffer being satisfied with the surgery and how her toe looked.
After a couple of weeks, Kiara was back to meet Dr. Schaeffer and see the result. She revealed that the pain had reduced and completely stopped. Once Dr. Schaeffer removed the bandages, Kiara was more than satisfied with the results and stated that she was excited about how things would be from this day forward.
'My Feet Are Killing Me' airs on Thursdays at 10 pm ET on TLC.