Sharp shooting foot pain

I am a 42 y.o female (RN) active and on my feet all day. I have developed a "mild" bunion on the right foot. I have had sharp shooting pain at the site of the bunion for 3 months which lead me to see a podiatrist. The pain is getting worse, it is always there now. The podiatrist isn't sure what would be causing such intense pain with a small bunion. The pain is greatly relieved when I take my shoe off (flat footed). Ibuprofen 800mg does not relieve the shooting pain. The podiatrist wants to either do injections (absolutely not an option for me) or make me arches for my shoes (sounds expensive and like a waste of time to me). I am 5 ft 9 in and live in tennis shoes or flip flops. I have never worn any type of dress shoe and never heels d/t my height. I put some arch supports in my tennis shoes and they have not helped. As I said, no shoe and flat foot is the only thing that relieves the pain. I would prefer to have the foot surgically fixed, done and over with rather than try to figure out what is going to make my foot feel better. The podiatrist is convinced that changing the arch and stability of my foot will "probably" make the pain better. I've recently had xrays/MRI of the foot which showed nothing abnormal other than a small bunion. It almost feels like some type of nerve pain the way it shoots up into the big toe or down towards the inner arch/heel. It gives me goose bumps on my scalp at times. Am I nuts for just wanting it fixed? Just looking for another opinion. Thank you.

[Yena H Do, DPM]

sounds like the medial digital nerve gets aggravated when you wear shoes. i would try the injection b/f having this surgicallly fixed.  people with flat feet tend to have a recurrence of bunions after getting it fixed unless the flat feet deformity is corrected or addressed with orthotics.