Feet First; Or, How To Live With Bunions

How to live with bunions? Not your normal blog topic.

But this Thriving Thursday, that is our subject. My subject. (Oh, in case you didn’t know, I am not normal.) Yes, indeed, it’s true. I, The Crunchy Coach, have bunions. On both feet, no less.

No, I’ve never worn high heels (except once in a play–but most of the time during the performance I was sitting down). My father did not have bunions (although he did have flat feet) and my mother has just now, at the age of seventy-two, developed a slight bunion. So I’m not sure I’m genetically predisposed.

The best I can come up with is that during my thirteen years in the classroom, I was on my feet most of the day. I’ve read that the root cause of bunions (and a few other feet problems) is overpronation of the big toe. Overpronation simply means the rolling of the big toe toward the other toes, a process which most shoes, unfortunately, encourage.

I didn’t know all that then. Nor did I understand the importance of sole support, so I never bothered with insoles, and wouldn’t even dream of purchasing a ninety dollar pair of shoes for the sake of my feet’s health. Not on a teacher’s salary.

The truth is, I didn’t even know my feet were abnormal until my brother noticed them one summer and asked my mother if I might not have problems later on. That was the first time I realized that not everyone’s big toe joint stuck out like that.

And I was in my late twenties! Yes, yes, sad, I know. What can I say? I was single until the age of thirty-five and never had a roomate, so my only gauge of physically normality was me, myself, and I.

About a year ago, I finally Googled “pictures of bunions.” What came up horrified me. Photos of big toe joints sticking out at painful looking sharp angles, with the big toe overlapping the next toe.

My bunions as of September 2008

No, no, no, I thought. That is NOT going to happen to me. But I realized that if I didn’t do something to start taking better care of my feet, that just might happen to me. And there was NO WAY I was going to allow myself to get to the point of needing surgery. As bad as my bunions might look in the above photo, they don’t cause me any pain. That, and being unable to find footwear that fits comfortably, are the two indicators for bunion surgery.

I went on a search. Soon, I was wearing bunion splints during the day and a bunion regulator on my left foot at night. I tried those gel toe separators, too, but quickly decided they were too uncomfortable (I would probably get used to them if I wore them every day for a week, but when you’ve got a toddler around who thinks everything at eye level is a toy, you don’t want to even bother).

I subsequently purchased a pair of slippers and a pair of sandals, each especially crafted to prevent overpronation of the big toe. And, I have to say, they are the most comfortable slippers and sandals I have ever owned. I bought a pair of therapeutic insoles for my tennis shoes. I also make it a point to sit down more throughout the day, to take the pressure off my feet.

Has all this worked? Have my joints shown any signs of normalizing?

Well, time to ‘fess up. I got tired of wearing the splints, and for a couple months this past year didn’t wear them at all. The next month or so I wore them sporadically. And I quit wearing them during the day altogether, for convenience’s sake.

Perhaps if I had worn them consistently, and more frequently, I would be able to honestly say that they both haven’t gotten any worse.

But I can’t say that honestly. I did wear my left bunion regulator more faithfully, even during those blow-off months. That’s probably why my left foot currently matches the one in the photo above. Unfortunately, the right bunion looks a little more pronounced.

Yikes.

I am suddenly spurred on to start wearing the splints during the day. And to order those homeopathic medicines that I recently read are supposed to break down the calcification in bunion joints and thus bring the big toes back into a more normal position. I am going to get on that, and will certainly let you know if I notice any improvement after I start taking the homeopathics.

The moral of this story? Ignoring your feet is easy. Taking parts of your body that are not in pain for granted is easier still. But if you want to be as physically well as possible – be at the top of healthy living – you need to give all of your physical self some attention on a regular basis.

(At least having bunions doesn’t increase your risk of developing degenerative disease. But eating the wrong foods and generally ignoring the care of your body do. Here’s a great resource to help you get started on a healthier path.)

Any other ideas on how give your feet routine TLC?

Tagged as: how to live with bunions, how to prevent bunions, how to treat bunions, treatment for bunions