Bunion surgery?

[skatingatty]

With the talk about foot problems, I'm wondering if any of you have had bunion removal surgery, and how long did it take to heal? My bunions often hurt when I skate and look terrible when I take off my skates. Sometimes I get a big bruise around my left bunion while skating. I also feel ankle pain and bruising when I bend forward in my right skate, but that's b/c my right ankle's thicker after surgery on it, so the boot doesn't fit right. Skating is becoming less fun these days w/my foot problems. (When I'm not skating and wearing my typical wide-width shoes, it feels fine.)

[skaternum]

You could always go for custom Klingbeils. I don't have bunions as bad as yours (lordy, nothing is that bad! ;) I've seen them! ), but I have lots of other foot problems. Mr. K fixed me right up!! He started out making corrective shoes, so he's a genius at REALLY custom fitting boots. Since they're truly custom (unlike other custom boot makers, the last is made just for you from a mold of each foot) they'd easily accomodate the differences between feet and the bunions and bumps and any other weird stuff you've got.

[skatingatty]

I do have custom Klingbeils! They seem to be causing me as much pain as my old custom Harlicks, but in different areas. They felt really good at first (compared to the ultra thick, stiff, and heavy Harlicks), but now I have these bruising problems that hurt like heck most of the time. Ah well, back to the rink now.... :)

[skaternum]

Weird. How old are your Klingbeils? And more importantly, who did the fitting? I had Mr. K do mine, so they'd be right. Other fitters may be okay for "normal" feet, but not for oddities like ours! ;)

[samba]

I had mine done years ago and I'm sorry to say, pain pain pain. :cry: However one of the women at our rink had one done just before Christmas and has not had nearly such a bad experience she is not back on the ice yet but she is in her 70's and raring to go as soon as she is given the ok, so maybe methods have either improved since or I'm just a plain whimp. :lol:

[dbny]

Weird. How old are your Klingbeils? And more importantly, who did the fitting? I had Mr. K do mine, so they'd be right. Other fitters may be okay for "normal" feet, but not for oddities like ours! ;)

I was just at Klingbeil's again this morning, and agree that if you really have problem feet, you need Bill and Don to do the fitting. BTW, Tim Goebel now wears Klingbeils, which finally solved the "equipment" problems he was having last year.

[fadedstardust]

I mentioned it to my physical therapist and to a foot surgeon in the past, and they both told me that basically, IF you can so much as live with the pain (not necessarily comfortably) it is absolutely not worth it to get the surgery because the rehab time is endless, for some reason. So I deal with the pain. They said if I got it done, I could pretty much kiss my competitive career goodbye, it would take that long to heal. So, I've been told it's not worth it. And I DO get pain from mine. But oh well.

[JulieN]

I've had bunion surgery on both feet -- on both the regular bunion (by the big toe) and the tailor's bunion (by the little toe). I was a marginal case, but decided to do it. It wasn't so much for skating because my feet were fine for the most part in the skates. It was that even wearing comfortable sneakers, my bunions would throb by the end of the day.

I had my left foot done in 1998 and then my right foot in 2001. Each time, it was about 6 weeks before I was back on the ice, and about 3 months before I was close to 100%. But I thought it was well worth it for me.

I have a picture of an X-Ray of my feet, taken right before my second foot surgery. It shows the difference between my left and right feet (one with the surgery, and one without). I can try and locate it if you are interested. I now haved 5 screws in my feet (and no, I do not set off the metal detectors at the airport). :)

[fadedstardust]

Do they put screws in your foot when they take a bunion out? How come? I didn't know about that part. Then I'm definitely out of the surgery chair, screws really creep me out, for my own body.

[Mrs Redboots]

One of our skaters has had them done on both feet. Both times, she was off ice for three months, and waited until her doctors gave her the go-ahead to resume skating (I suspect that she probably could have gone back a few weeks earlier, but, unlike many of us, she's sensible!).

She told me that her first operation had been absolutely magic, made all the difference in the world to the comfort of her feet, both in and out of skates. Her second foot, she said, didn't need doing nearly as urgently, but since she'd got to the top of the waiting list, she might as well get it done before it got urgent!

[Elsy2]

Do they put screws in your foot when they take a bunion out? How come? I didn't know about that part. Then I'm definitely out of the surgery chair, screws really creep me out, for my own body.

In some cases they just shave off the bump which is cosmetically better, but that is not enough for a true repair to straighten out the alignment of the bones.

I guess it depends on how bad the bunion is. My daughter has a terrible one on only one foot. I've been told to leave it alone if it doesn't cause pain, as repair can alter the way your foot functions. But I think someday as an adult she will have this repaired. Her big toe actually crosses the others, and it's gotten worse as time goes on.

I'm glad to hear that some have had successful repairs. I've hear that because your feet have less circulation that healing is slower.

[skatingatty]

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts and advice. I've had these Klingbeils for almost a year, and I got them fitted by the local skate pro, not at the actual Klingbeil headquarters. From what people have posted, I don't think I'll go through with the surgery, since my feet feel fine (even though they look like #$%^ :) ) when I'm not squashing them with the ice skates. Plus, I already have 5 screws and a plate in my right ankle. I plan to see a podiatrist nearby. Maybe I should get some lambswool too. There's now a slight bump over the bruised area on my ankle. But, skating is overall worth the pain!

[JulieN]

Do they put screws in your foot when they take a bunion out? How come? I didn't know about that part. Then I'm definitely out of the surgery chair, screws really creep me out, for my own body.

In addition to shaving a part of the bunion off, the broke the bone to leading to my big toe and realigned it to straighten it, holding it in place with a screw while the bone recovers. After it is recovered, they do not remove the screw unless it works it's way out somehow.

There is another girl on my synchro team that had bunion surgery done and it worked out well for her too.

[Kristin]

With the talk about foot problems, I'm wondering if any of you have had bunion removal surgery, and how long did it take to heal? My bunions often hurt when I skate and look terrible when I take off my skates. Sometimes I get a big bruise around my left bunion while skating. I also feel ankle pain and bruising when I bend forward in my right skate, but that's b/c my right ankle's thicker after surgery on it, so the boot doesn't fit right. Skating is becoming less fun these days w/my foot problems. (When I'm not skating and wearing my typical wide-width shoes, it feels fine.)

It sounds to me like your skates are too narrow (coming from someone who had this problem firsthand!!!!!!!). See if your local boot fitter can stretch your boots to make them wider in the short term, and for the long term, you may want to consider either a custom or wider stock boot. Here's my mini-story about my nasty bunions:

I have bunions on both feet (from 5 years of toe ballet as a kid & 6 yrs of skating as an adult) that flare up occasionally so I know exactly how you feel! Most of my issues were remedied by going from a AA width SP Teri to a B width Jackson boot and then getting the bunion areas punched out in addition to that. I had the boot fitter put the largest punch he had on my left boot (since it is the really BIG bunion that hurts) and we left the boot on the punch apparatus overnight. When I went to pick up my boot the next day, it looked like an alien was growing out of my boot, but BOY DID MY FOOT FEEL WAY BETTER!!!!!!!! Don't let them just punch it out for 20 min., let them do it overnight. Trust me, this helps a lot. And you may have to do it more than once to get permanent relief.

As if that isn't enough, my boot fitter told me that in one skater's boot, he had to make small cuts in the bunion area of the boots to help alleviate the pressure so this is another option.

[bladebabe69]

My bunions became bad when i got my Harlicks they are the worst skate that i have ever had i went from Jacksons to Graf , and now i have Harlicks and they really rub and stuff and have given me huge bunions and they tear up my feet!

[Elsy2]

I agree with Kristin to punch out the bunion areas. We would do this about every 3 months, as the boot would start reverting back to it's original shape and cause pain.
The skate did look horrible after punching out, but the relief was worth it.

When I wore Jacksons that were too narrow I developed Taylor's bunions by the little toes. Had to have a cortisone shot to relieve the constant inflammation from one of them.
The podiatrist said the way by bones were aligned I would be prone to problems always. But getting wider skates in front, with a combination width (smaller heel width) cured my problem.

Babeblade69.....I suggest you get your skates stretched if they are that painful. Seems like the front of Harlick's are more tapered and narrow than other boots. We took our last pair of custom Harlicks to a pro who put them in the oven and then on the stretcher. Then they were wearable.

[skatingatty]

Thanks again for your comments and advice, folks! I had my boots punched out in the bunion areas at least twice, but yeah, I should get it done again. As I expected, the podiatrist didn't think I needed bunion surgery b/c they aren't hurting all the time (only when + after I skate!). However, he did think something was weird about a screw protruding from my ankle, so I'm going to have minor surgery to get out the metal plate and screws. This'll hopefully make my right boot fit better afterwards. :) It'll only keep me from skating for a couple of weeks.