I am combining several different people here to illustrate the problems we may have in expecting experts to know what is best.
Take David, an affectionate hard working  husband,father and grandfather in his mid sixties.He has been sufferimg from bronchial asthma for many years and is often on steroids.As he worked for a small business he never felt able to take m uch time off when he caught a severe cold.Given false energy by the steroids and being very conscientious he would go back to work rapidly even when he spent most of the night in an armchair,unable to lie down.
On one visit to a consultant he is told he has a heart murmur and needs a valve operation.One of symptoms is coughing so it seems he didn’t have asthma after all……
Waiting anxiously for 11 months he eventually has his surgery which is very arduous.He eventually recovers and that winter has no cough.He and his wife plan for all the excitement of travel,visiting children, and doing voluntary jobs.
The following winter he catches a cold and the cough returns.And refuses to go away.Now he is back on steroids and is said to be allergic to something unknown………. so is  on asthma meds again
Was the heart operation of any benefit? Was it really needed as the waiting was very difficult causing him to lose a good deal of weight and sleep.

Now take Jane a lady with four adult children who has had bunions for many years but has not been stopped in her tracks by them though she did have some aching.
She has  now got pain in her metatarsal arch, bad enough for her to be referred to an orthaepedic surgeon.
He tells he it is caused by the bunions making her walk wrongly and as she has wide feet and would like narrower feet she agrees.She persuades him to do both at once…. possibly a serious mistake.
She eventually gets a date  for the operation ,the day after they move house, and goes ahead.After some months she recovers but finds her feet are now wider than before and that the metatarsal pain is still there.And she has long scars on the sides of her great toes towards her heels.These get blisters on when she wears shoes… and she can’t find shoes wide enough.
Talking to a friend she admits the bunions had not been giving her much pain.She suffered low blod pressure after the long operation and was kept in hospital for 2 days.Unfortunately then she was not given any information about how long to rest and she resumed walking in a couple of days.
Given all the info on the net,one might be surprises she did not look it up and see that you need 4 weeks off your feet.
Both of these people have undergone surgery but their original symptom is still with them and they now have scars and other problems.
What can we say?
You need to find out a lot of information from the net or elsewhere when told you need surgery.And may be join an online forum to hear what others have undergone.
Bunions may seem to be just a lump on your big toe joint but it usually stems from misplacement of the long bones of the foot and surgery is not much good for that… Treatment in childhod or adolescence using orthotics can preven this condition so keep watch on your children’s feet
Emergency surgery is different of course.And the above stories make me wonder whether a lot of surgery is not much help…and that’s not counting women who want to have their labia partly removed as they watch soft porn and believe that their labia are ugly. when they are perfectly ok