anyone have experience with bunions?

Mine keep getting worse, and they are not a joke! Ouch!! The pain comes and goes, but the bumps are getting more pronounced, and my big toes have become more tender and less flexible. They didn't stop me from doing a 45 mile trip last summer, and I don't plan to let them keep me from doing the Grand Canyon next month, but a podiatrist told me that they will just keep getting worse and suggests that I get surgery, that the earlier I get it done, the better my results will be. It seems to be partly hereditary, because my Mom has them, too. I also have very flat feet and have had a large assortment of foot ailments over the years, progressively becoming more frequent. I wear good $65 over-the-counter orthotics, which no doubt help my arches, plantar faschitis, etc, but I guess won't do anything for my bunions. It's not like they hurt every day yet, but I want to keep hiking for the rest of my life. thanks!

You doc is right. Both my big toes were injured in separate accidents as a teenager and the joints finally quit functioning, which I could live with except for the pain.
I had "Keller Bunionectomies" on both feet. Look it up...pretty radical stuff....but I'm 100% functional, no pain, and can wear less than EEEE size shoes now.
Depending on your bunion type and the surgery, expect a fairly long recovery time. Mine was 3 months to heal, 1 year to get back to normal. I could still hike during that time but the trekking poles became a staple...and they still are.

I have bunionettes, same as bunions but on the little toe side, sometimes (typically?) this is accompanied by underlapping/overlapping little toe and next-to-little toe. So it can show up as blisters there (Injinji toe socks help, as do silicon spacers).

For the bunionette problem, surgery was an option, but just getting a wide enough shoe turned out to be sufficient. I went with Golite shoes, which have a roomy toe box. I wore Golites for 2600+ miles thru-hiking the PCT this year, with no bunionette problem, whereas with typical hiking shoes I'm sure I would have been in pain early on.

I don't know if, or how any of this relates to big-toe side bunions, and I definitely do not mean to be dispensing amateur medical advice (!), but one possibility would be to try to get a shoe with a wide toe box and try out another 50 or so mile trip and see how it goes.

With a bail out option, perhaps. Trying a 200 mile shakedown hike last year in other shoes, the bunionettes started hurting badly enough I had to walk to where I had cell reception to call for a pickup!

Best of luck with your problem.


Brian Lewis
http://postholer.com/brianle

I have bunions and hammertoes, on one side so badly that toe #2 lies over the top of my big toe. It's definitely hereditary; my mother had them as do two of my children. However, as long as I can find supportive footwear with a sufficiently wide and high toe box, I haven't had pain. The last podiatrist I consulted pointed out that foot surgery is painful and has a long recovery time. Even if I had it in October, I'd probably have to miss the next backpacking season or at least be limited to overnighters. I figure that as long as I can hike without pain, I'm not going to risk the surgery. At my age, the backpacking season I miss might just be my last one.

I've found that twice daily use of Body Glide takes care of the blister problem, as do socks without toe seams (the seams rub on the high point of the hammertoes).

However, we are each individuals, so I'd go with what works for you. If I were having pain, I'd have gone under the knife years ago!

I don't know the type of surgery I had, but I did have rather large bunions removed from the outsides of my feet (below little toe) when I was about 19 years old. I used to alpine ski like a maniac, but when I skied all day not realizing my boots were on the wrong feet, I realized I'd been dealing with the pain too long!

I had to wear goofy styrofoam shoes for a couple months (crutches for a few weeks), and x-rays of my feet show twist-tie type wires in the bones of my feet, but I've been pain-free since. I was SUPPOSED to get orthotics, but never did, and now that I'm pushing 40, I say, "meh".

Try the suggestions above, but don't rule out surgery.

Many man years ago I did have some problems with bunions and blisters too. The bunions just never got really bad but the blisters took some practice to get rid of and then learn how to avoid them. I am not sure that you can do any thing about the bunions except for surgery. I am not really into any doctor cutting on me so my advice if at all possible, avoid the surgery if you can... I can't really remember what the doc said caused the bunions but I don' think that they just go away by themselves...Hope that helps...sabre11004...

The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there !!!!!!

I had a bunion on my right foot for over 20 years. It became more painful over the years. Plastic mountaineering boots were the worst, even after blowing them out at a ski shop.
I had surgery for it 3 years ago, Thank God the body can't remember pain, a week or so of pure agony, then a month or so on cructhes ( some how I forgot to bring them on our trip to Hawaii.)
Today, I think the surgery was one of the best decisions I've made. No more pain and foot wear that lasts more than 3 months. Good luck.