The Misadventures of Ada: ICD-10 Cartoon, "The Wrong Procedure" Y65.5

For many folks, bunions are painful and can easily disrupt daily life. Walking can be difficult. Tap dancing is out. And often, the only choice is to live with it or have it surgically treated. Ada is one of those people.

It didn’t bother her when walking made her foot a little sore, but when her doctor told her that it would prevent her from learning how to Flamenco dance, she started to consider her options for treatment.

Since she spends so much time in the ER from random accidents throughout the year, she tends to put off other medical appointments until she can’t wait anymore (Ada is all of us, minus being inexplicably accident-prone, of course). But recently, her bunion was getting way too painful, and impacting her life way too much, so she finally made an appointment to have it fixed through a “minimally invasive bunion surgery.” At least, that’s what the podiatrist’s website read.

Ada was excited to be back on her feet, pain-free, and doing the things she loved (like starring in community theater plays). So when she woke up from surgery, a little groggy but excited, she immediately asked her doctor how the surgery went. Unfortunately, it was not what she expected. Ada let out a blood-curdling scream loud enough to shatter glass. “Don’t worry, ma’am, I think we can fix it,” the doctor tried to assure her when she paused to take a breath before shrieking in shock again. Then it got eerily quiet as Ada stared in hollow disbelief.