I'm having cheilectomy surgery in two weeks. I have stage 2 hallux limitus and my podiatric surgeon is please that I'm come in at this stage rather than having waited until it had progressed to stage 3 or beyond. He is going to do what he calls a simple cheilectomy. He says there is no need for an osteotomy or anything more. I have read where osteochondral drilling to promote new cartiladge growth is done in some cases. As my joint is about 50% degenerated, I was curious to know if anyone has had the drilling at stage 2?

Yes, I did. However, they also did the osteotomy as I had a lot of bone build up on either side of the joint. The drilling worked amazingly well. I know they say that they can't tell whether it will help but I believe it truly did for me. Might as well try it while they are already in there. It can't hurt and it could help. I had mine done about 6 years ago and I wear heels (no more 3" spikes though), dance, jog, etc. I do take 2 Aleve every morning and believe that also helps.

Good luck!