nonunion toe fracture

I broke my toe several months ago, pinky toe, by stubbing it. I buddy taped it, but it never seemed to heal correctly. I finally went to a podiatrist, and turns out it never healed at all.

My choice is do bone stimulation and try to get it to heal, or surgery, and remove the chunk of bone that broke off (it's fairly big actually, or looks it to me).

I'm leaning towards the surgery because it's a faster fix (and concern that if it didn't heal to begin with, it might not heal with stimulation, and then I'd be left with the surgery anyway). The idea of wearing this boot for a few months isn't appealing.

Thoughts?

Hi,
I guess I am just old fashioned, but if this was my toe, I would want to do all that I could to keep all parts intact.
Bone stimulation is a great modality and DOES work, particularly if it has only been several months.
Secondly, if it is a large piece of bone that has to removed you have to be concerned about the after affects as it will change the architect of your foot primarily by making your little toe even shorter. This then can create excessive shoe pressure on the fourth toe and depending on the types of shoes that you wear may create a constant painful corn on the fourth toe and that is never good.
Lastly, although I do not know exactly where the break is, your doctor could go in, clean out the fibrous union (nonunion) and put temporary pins in there to re-fuse the broken bone, which to me sounds like a better idea than having a large piece of bone removed.
Marc Mitnick DPM