Endless trails
Does anyone have experience with bunions?
I spent this past winter/spring dealing with a pain in my right foot, the
bone below the big toe. I thought it was my trail shoes bc it didn't
hurt when I ran in my road shoes. Well, yesterday I scrapped a LR
bc I just couldn't take it anymore. When I came home and explained
it to my DW she consulted Google doctor (internet), then I showed
her my feet-they look just like the pictures of bunions.
I have to admit that at 45 years old I had no idea what bunions were. I assumed it was like a wart and you treat it the same way. Boy was I wrong.
Next step for me is to see a podiatrist and get it checked/diagnosed. I'm
currently in denial, but I know this will dramatically effect my running. Anyone
here ever have to deal with this issue? I'm afraid the doc will tell me surgery
is the only option, but until then I'll try home remedies.
Sue
I have a bunion on one foot. Sometimes it hurts more then other times but never enough to sack a run. If this is the first time you felt this pain you may want to ease up on running but I would be afraid to go to the doctor because they will suggest surgery which may or may not fix it. Maybe some shoes your wearing when not running has aggravated your foot. I would look at that first.
I know you have a new job, you didn't go out and buy some skinny toed wingtips to impress those eastern folks did you?
05/13/23 Traverse City Trail Festival 25K
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Snowdenrun
I have relatively bad bunions on both feet. I can pretty much only wear wide toed shoes or sandals. Even so my shoes always blow out on that bone with plenty of life left in them. My toes frequently go numb on almost every run and the "bunion bone" constantly hurts. I feel ya, I've scrapped to many runs because of the pain.
I'm not positive but I believe there is no fix other than surgery where they reset your bones. My thought on the surgery is to hold off as until I can no longer do the things I love to do. My cousin just had the surgery on both feet and her short term recovery time is 6 weeks/foot. Weather or not you're at that point is a decision to be made with a doctor.
...but there are some things to do to ease the pain. I've heard of people wearing a toe spacer between the big toe and the following toe. I've never done this and cannot really speak to it. My mom sent me a lacrosse ball and that...hurts, in a good way. YouTube something along the lines of "foot massage with lacrosse ball". I am constantly rubbing my feet. We've got this coffee table that's got really great edges. It's honestly the most effective thing I've done. I will also on occasion ice my feet. It seems to help and I would do it more if I weren't so lazy. And if I ask really really nicely and DBF is feeling sympathetic I will get a foot massage.
But all that being said I can speak wonders to buying shoes that are comfortable. They will save your running.
++ on what snowdensun said. I stopped wearing heels and buy wide toed shoes (keenes) and it has improved the pain quit a bit. On my run today I thought about you and wanted to tell you...get the brikenstocks back out! you were from San Francisco right?
Thanks for the tips, good to know I'm not alone. I'll see a podiatrist just to get it
actually diagnosed but I don't plan to dive into surgery without trying other things.
I wonder if working with a chiropractor first might help, I'm going to try that too.
I've read in other forums people saying the surgery for bunions is purely for
cosmetic reasons, if that's true I won't be getting surgery! I ran today with my
Brooks Pure Grit's and even though I felt it, I still had a great run. I just need to
fine tune a few things and find a good trail shoe. I tried a new pair of Asics
yesterday but they are already in the box to be returned, way to restrictive in the
toe box area.
Sue-No, I didn't get any skinny wingtips to impress these up-tight eastern folks. In fact,
the pain only happens from running, all my daily shoes have plenty of room. I don't
have Birkenstock's, maybe the medical marijuana would help though.
Snowden-that's funny, I do the exact same thing on our coffee table. Thanks for the
lacrosse ball tip.
My DH has bunions that seem to be relatively mild so he's not contemplating surgery or anything drastic. He had some pain while running but it went away after he started cutting an "X" with an exacto knife into the side of his running shoes where the bone sort of juts out. That doesn't solve the bunion issue, of course, and yours may be more severe than his, but I'm throwing that out that as something that worked for him.
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Thread killer ..
I do in my left foot from breaking my first metatarsal . I ran downhill hard into a rock and broke it , knocked the outside corner off the joint . I kept running on it because I could and broke it again . Finally couldn't take the pain and went to the Podiatrist , she x-rayed it and confirmed the problem . This spring it was getting really bad and so painful . The joint is getting deformed and it would rub on my shoe , so I got special soft bunion guards , I bought the splint you wear at night to straighten it back out ( doesn't work and it hurts ) I put heat on it so I could sleep . Today I have very little pain at all and none when I run , I switched to Hokas ..