Yo covert.. this might seem dumb and not a VA story, but regarding your gait and back issues subsequent to the foot healing.. I had a sciatica incident in Feb this year. When that happened, I was paralyzed from the waist down and in excruciating pain stuck on my stomach in bed. It took me about 2 hours to roll over and crawl onto the floor like a buffoon while my dogs are licking my face and feet because they needed to poo. eventually I made it to ER.
I saw specialists and docs similar to you. the surgeons want to cut and fuse, the rehab people want to rehab, etc etc. in the end, during a PT session, a nurse told me to take a look at a book called The Back Mechanic. its not some useless book where its trying to sell you something else once you buy it. Its a step by step process to identify specific movements that cause pain and then assigns exercises and flexibility movements to address the root cause of the pain.
anyway, I did it for March - April having barely been walking in February. I am back to deading 315x5x5 belt only across now in July without the surgical path, infusions and lifetime of treatment that conventional medicine wanted to pursue. i really barely even read the book as I already have been active in my life, I read the intro then skipped to the test section. the test and exercise section was legit. in the end, for me, doing decline weighted situps was putting a ton of pressure on my lumbar area. switching to planks from decline situps and doing regular piraformis stretching made a HUGE impact. i'm feeling better than I have in years past and I'm an old piece of shit. go figure
i have a PDF I can send you, LMK
