New member been offered surgery on my foot

Hi I'm Jane, and I'm a new member.

I was diagnosed with arthritis in my foot several years ago which I've managed by wearing orthotics and dosing up on Ibuprofen when it was bad or when I knew I'd be on my feet a lot like Christmas shopping trips. Lately a friend lent me her TENS machine and it is helpful in sort of calming the pain down a bit after I've aggravated it for example after a day in my local Oxfam shop where I volunteer.

If you understand what it means, it's in the second tarsometatarsal joint. Basically it's a toe joint smack bang in the middle of the foot.

But it's got much worse in the last couple of years to the point where it's beginning to feel quite disabling and it's starting to restrict me.

I December I was given a steroid injection which was like a miracle - for about a month / six weeks. So now I've been offered an operation to fuse the joint.

On the one hand if anything will reduce the pain and keep me mobile for longer (I'm 61) I'm all over it. On the other hand I know there's a 15% chance it won't succeed and surgery has all its inherent risks as well as reducing the flexibility in my foot (although thanks to the arthritis pain I'd say that's gone anyway) so it would be useful to hear from anyone who's had this done and how much it helped.

On a personal note I have two cats and my avatar is one of them and she's a real diva as you can see.