Posted on 10/10/2011 12:25:10 PM PDT by incredulous joe
How to Treat Bunions
A more serious sort of everyday foot problem is bunions, which are formed inside the foot, rather than on the surface. A bunion is frequently a form of arthritis, or bone degeneration. It usually takes the form of a bony bump on the outside of your big toe, although bunions can sometimes appear on the top of the big toe joint or even on the little toe (often called a “bunionette”).
More than four million Americans have bunions. Most bunions are painful because they’re accompanied by bursitis and/or because they’re so prominent that there’s no way to avoid bumping and rubbing them. A bunion may also force your big toe to point inward and rub against the next toe, eventually causing the second toe to become a hammertoe.
A common myth about bunions is that they’re caused by wearing high heels or other shoes that exert pressure on the outside of your big toe. While ill-fitting shoes can certainly make bunions worse, bunions are mostly hereditary. If your parents have bunions, you stand a good chance of having them, too. Bunions tend to come in pairs. In other words, if you have a bunion on your left foot, you’ll probably also have one on your right foot.
The best immediate treatments for bunion discomfort include the following:
Apply ice to the area several times a day.
Soak the affected foot, or feet, in a mixture of one cup vinegar to one gallon warm water.
Pad the insides of shoes with moleskin or foam rubber cut into a doughnut shape (the hole is for the bunion).
Switch to shoes with a bigger toe box, or, best of all, wear sandals that leave the bunion area exposed.
In the early stages of bunion pain, a doctor may prescribe orthotics (insoles) and exercises that may stabilize the foot and prevent further development of bunions. For continuing pain, however, you may need bunion surgery, which can often be performed on an outpatient basis.
Bunions are also troubling because they can lead to other foot problems, including hammertoe. Learn more about hammertoe and its treatments on the next page.
To learn more about treating and avoiding problems with your feet, visit:
Foot Injuries: Find out how to avoid unpleasant injuries to your feet, or at least reduce pain and prevent infection after they occur, with these simple suggestions.
How to Care for Your Feet: Learn how to keep your feet — and yourself — healthy and happy with these tips on caring for your feet, including selecting the rig
I think that you’re right. This is my livelihood right now. Chances are that my insurance can help out with some of this, too. Once, I start losing time at work or going on light duty, I will have even more financial problems.
I hope to nip it in the bud.
My wife had one removed also. Pretty much the same recover scenario. Once healed she was very happy she decided on the surgery.
Wide shoes works for me. A medical doctor would probably want to operate. A Chiropractor can adjust it and give you advice.
I really think it is strain caused by positioning, which I always just worked through. In addition to the swelling and pain, I also have some occasional numbness, which would indicate possible nerve damage.
I have an unusually high pain threshold and this has always worked against me with injuries or ailments which should have otherwise been treated early on.
Thanks and good luck with yer deal!
I’m not really getting the chuckles out the puns on the thread. If I go on disability I will be screwed. I’m pleased that some FRiends have come through for me with some helpful advice.
Congratulations for the steps you have taken to get medical training and make career changes to stay afloat and move forward. And BLESS YOU for working with dementia patients.
As for the bunion... I don’t have much to offer. Buy shoes that are wide enough at the point of painful contact, and that do not slip around on your feet.
And the very same ones who are mocking now, maybe the ones searching for this thread one day to seek advice. I was thinking of gout, also, as one freeper mentioned. You may have a bunion but it could be gout that is making it inflamed. You might want to do a self test and check the foods that contribute to gout and see if there is a difference while waiting for a doctor’s appt. A regular GP should be able to diagnosis it. Foot doctors are into $urgery - so go to a GP to check for gout.
You hold the key to this in your hand right there, FRiend. Good luck to you. It could be worse. I just had my second total hip replacement (within a year) last week. I pray your insurance is as good as mine.
Make sure you call agood one - you don't want toemaine poisoning.
I had a bunion repaired.
Doc put a screw in the bone to keep it straight. I recovered (stayed off of it) for 2 weeks, then wore a stiff shoe for a month. No problem after that. Never took a pain pill after the surgery, just Motrin. Not all of these have to involve a horror story. Incision scar is about 2 inches long.
A quick check - stand barefooted along a line on the floor. Feet together. Line your “good” foot up on the line, put the “bad” foot against your good foot. Does the big toe on your “bad” foot lean out toward the other (smaller) toes? Is it trying to dive over or under the rest of the toes on the foot? Or are your big toes about equidistant from that line?
You should see a doctor about any consistent pain, but if that toe on your bad foot isn’t misaligned, you probably don’t have a bunion.
Arch support is key as is positioning of the big toe. As a bunion begins to form, often the big toe is pushed slightly toward the other toes instead of staying in place and helping to support the arch of the foot (keep it from flattening - the big toe has a big job to play). With the big toe out of position, more of your body weight rests on the unsupported arch and this pushes the big toe even farther toward the other toes. The podiatrist I saw told me that as the big toe is oriented toward the others, there isn’t the normal wear down of bone occurring where it should in the ‘bunion’ location - the bone begins to enlarge in that area - forcing the toe to remain or move farther out of position while the tendons adjust to hold the toe out of position. Because I was ‘pre-permanent’ bunion at that point (my term not hers), she recommended anti-pronation (anti arches falling, basically) support shoes or shoe inserts to help take some of the force off of pushing the big toe out of position. I haven’t found anti pronation arch support athletic shoes that are inexpensive, yet - the Dr. gave me a coupon to an athletic shoe company in town and they fitted me to $120 Brooks athletic shoes that have, hidden in the arch, a block of hard support (can’t feel it but it’s there) and it is this extra support that co$t$ extra and is not found on less expensive athletic shoes.
Then she suggested toe separators - she didn’t know how long I would need to wear them and said it can take a long time but using toe separators to push the big toe back into position where it takes some weight off of the arch helps. So I’ll put a link here for the kind of toe separator that is cheap, comfortable and can be ignored (not irritating to skin etc.) when worn. Note that there are different sizes - one of these offerings shows multiple sizes in one pack - that might help you determine what size to wear. This kind of toe separator are available at drug stores.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=gel+toe+separator&x=0&y=0
The podiatrist had her staff make ‘casts’ of my feet and then had those sent to a company that makes orthotics (shoe inserts) and those were fantastic! I went back 4 months later and asked that another set be made from the same molds - wish I had done that up front because I wanted a pair for both casual and work shoes. Insurance paid for the orthotics both times but I was so sold on them that I would have paid for the second set out of pocket but only because molds had already been made and paid for by insurance. I’ve since heard that a local ‘shoe/foot’ store will make orthotics for runners for $90. You can buy gel orthotics (e.g., Costco) but it is really much better to have them made to meet the needs of your specific feet. Or perhaps get gel arch supports only (not the whole foot)?
So I wear the orthotics. After awhile I stopped wearing toe separators because I was using foam (scratch, compressible) ones that were irritating and the orthotics felt so good. I also made sure to purge any shoes that emphasized shifting the big toe out of position (shoes too pointy or with a tight seam across the toe box, or narrow toe box).
I recently started having pain in the bunion forming area and have started wearing gel toe separators. Pushing the toe back into position created odd achy foot pain as the arch and rest of the toes had to get used to it. After about 3 weeks of new adjustment pain - the bunion area joint feels great and I have gotten used to the gel inserts. I can still feel some tendon soreness but it is going away. The whole foot feels better AFTER it gets used to it. The left foot with this issue now feels entirely better so I am going to start wearing gel toe separator on the right foot (between the big toe and its neighbor) as I suspect some faint arch pain that I can ignore is due to slight shifting of the big toe.
Lastly, see if you can reduce inflammation. I discovered recently that my EFA 3’s and EFA 6’s were out of balance and that was causing excessive inflammation. I was using almond flour to make breads and using grape seed oil and other things that have 10’s of thousands of the wrong kind of EFA’s (I think it’s 6s) so I cut down on those and boosted my fish oil supplements that had more EFA 3s’ Strangely, inflammation went way down in my foot and an old knee injury that had been acting up. If I have almond bread for a few days, the inflammation comes back. I also take co-enzyme Q10 for sleep but I have read it is anti-inflammatory. In other words, have a look and see if there is some easy changes you can make to your diet or supplements that might reduce inflammation. And good luck! :)
There are various surgical and non-surgical treatments that may work to varying degrees.
My wife’s doctor basically sanded them down and fitted her for orthotics that made it worse.
I always kid her that I could treat her problem more cheaply by just plugging in the Dremel or the belt sander but for some reason she has never bought into that idea.
How do I post a pic?
What’s a bunion? (Before you flame me, know that I did make an honest effort to find it in my Rhyming Dictionary, but it don’t show up!)
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