Dr. Ebonie Vincent has her work cut out for her when what appears to be a routine case of a child with an extra toe turns out to be far more complicated. In a PopCulture exclusive sneak peek of Thursday’s all-new My Feet Are Killing Me: First Steps on TLC, the doctor gets to the bottom of a “lucky toe” that has turned out to be far from lucky for Troy, who deals with constant pain and frustration due to his polydactyly, and his mom Debbie, who can only buy her son adult women’s shoes.
After Vincent reveals Troy’s bone structure presents an unusual problem upon review of his X-rays, Debbie muses, “So this sounds a little bit more involved than just cutting off the toe.” Looking back on before Troy’s sixth toe presented such a problem, she recalls, “The sad thing is when he’s born, they tell you, ‘Oh, your baby has a sixth toe.’ And you’re like, ‘Oh, how cute. Oh, he’s got a lucky toe, that’s so great.’”
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Troy chimes in, “Yeah, what they really meant to say is, are you sure you want to spend lots of [money on] shoes on this child?” as his mom agrees, “I mean, I just had no idea how crazy it would be to try to fit this kid into shoes!” Asking to see Tory’s shoe closet, Vincent was in for a shock to see the clunky “women’s size 5” that is one of the only shoes the family has found to fit his extra toe. “OK, I think I saw like an indention … I can already see where it might be rubbing or indenting,” Vincent tells Debbie, who agrees, “Yeah. You can see where it’s wearing.”
Vincent has treated some of the most serious and bizarre cases in podiatry, telling the Los Angeles Sentinel in January of the TLC show’s appeal, “People are curious because there is a huge stigma about feet. People are less likely to talk about their foot problems. I’m hoping the show will help break down some of that stigma.” As for her passion for podiatry, she told the publication she loved having “more happy feelings than sad ones,” as she can generally fix or improve a patient’s condition. Will Vincent be able to help Troy lose his not-so-lucky toe? My Feet Are Killing Me: First Steps airs Thursdays at 10:30 p.m. ET on TLC.
