Should Surgery Be Done For Recurring Knots On Ball Of Foot?

IN 2014 I had knots on the ball of my foot that my podiatrist said were caused by viruses and he "picked" them out, but they came back. He did it a second time before he retired. My new podiatrist inserted a small circular tube-like instrument to see what was happening. This time, they came back within 6 weeks. He now says they are being caused by a bunion and he wants to do surgery using a screw to straighten out the big toe (and scraping something off the bone of the second toe. I have heard some horror stories of foot surgery, so I am anxious. He said that the surgery would give me 80% chance that the knots would not come back. Would you give me your advice?
Thanks so much!
Sorry. I thought this was a free service of WEBMD, a website that I really respect. If I have to pay I should just get a second opinion here. I live in rural area where specialists are not plentiful, so I thought this was a good choice to make to get confirmation of my decisions for surgery.