'My Feet Are Killing Me': Dr Sarah Haller helps Corey Taylor deal with pain of toe transplant
TLC is back with Season 4 of its hit show 'My Feet Are Killing Me'. The medical series had a successful run for 3 seasons now, having first premiered in January 2020.
On the all-new season of one of TLC's best medical reality shows, we'll be seeing Dr Sarah Haller's patient Corey Taylor being treated for his condition. Corey lost his thumb in a table saw accident back in 2011. Having said that, doctors found a way to replace his thumb by performing a toe transplant - the man now has a toe for a thumb! However, his current issue is the excruciating pain from the joint across the arch of his foot. Corey experiences an acute pain next to the area where his big toe would have been; and this is where Dr Haller comes in to work her magic.
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Baltimore County man Taylor is quite thankful to be able to use both of his hands, ever since the shocking table saw accident. Soon after, his then doctor found a rather unconventional yet creative way to replace it. "I can do everything I was able to do before with no problem," Corey told 11 News. What's more, he even takes pride in going about his day-to-day tasks without much ado!
After his accident, Corey managed to go about his everyday life without a thumb for the next six months while his hand took time to heal. He said it was extremely difficult to even grab onto things, for the most part.
Dr Ryan Katz from the Curtis National Hand Center at Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, made the suggestion of using Corey's big toe as a replacement. The hospital undertakes about five such surgeries every year.
In conversation with Corey, Dr Katz added, "You have to be very precise in dissecting out all of the elements of the toe, and all of the elements of the toe are all of the elements of the missing thumb. So, you have bone, tendon, nerve, skin, and soft tissue. Everything you need is down there. When you're trying to reconstruct a thumb, you say, 'What's missing, and where can we get that to help rebuild the thumb?' When you're missing the thumb, you're missing length, sensibility, motion, and aesthetic, and a toe has all of that."
Doctors say that most patients don't seem to have any problems with regard to balance if they lose a toe. What's more, a toe works just as well as a thumb since their functions are very similar.
After the toe transplant, Corey went through months of vigorous physical therapy in order to learn and practice how to use his new toe thumb. About his experience, Corey said, "Recovery and the rehabilitation, a lot of that was stretching, getting the thumb to move and work, and picking up little things", to which Dr Katz added, "The thing that's the hardest to get back is the motion, and that's really the thing we're focusing on".
Ever since the accident and the much-needed post-recovery sessions, Corey has had his life back on track, and hardly even notices anything different about his left thumb. He says, "Every time I mention it to everybody, they're astounded. They don't even believe it's my big toe. It's great. I couldn't ask for anything better. I've told Dr Katz he's a miracle worker."
Let's hope Dr Sarah can lend a helping hand to Corey's now aching foot.
Season 4 of 'My Feet Are Killing Me' premieres on May 4, 2022, on TLC.
