bumps on feet - what causes them?

[Sessy]

Bumps and feet turns up no hits in threat title search so I'm starting a new one:

Hey I know it's pretty normal for figure skaters to get bumps on their feet, but besides getting them on the back of my heels where I can see them originating from the jumps, I'm also getting them on a toe which to my idea isn't even being pressed on in the boots!

Now I know my grandma had an awful lot of these bumps on her toes, she said they were from wearing too tight shoes but her whole toes were filled with them and her whole toes were like... bent. And my toes got bent too over the years despite that I always wore shoes a size up. And now I've got a bump on my little toe.

I'm wondering, is there any way these bumps are genetical? Mom doesn't have them by the way.

And also, is there any way that certain things in your diet or something are worsening the problem?

Is there any cure, besides chirurgical? Has anybody had them chirurgically removed and how did that go? Does that require full aenesthesia, did you feel tired for long after the operation? I know it takes about 6 weeks before you can skate again with that.

And most importantly - what are they called, so I can google it?

[Derek]

I have started getting one on the front of my right ankle, where the tongue sits ... it looks like a third ankle bone !!! This is my jumping leg, and I think it is a result of the pressure caused by practicing jumps (in my case). I googled 'bone callous' to find out more.

[jenlyon60]

Try googling on Bunions or Bone Spurs.

[Team Arthritis]

Skaters and Ballet dancers have the most UGLY feet IMHO because we abuse our poor tootsies so much I guess. The physiology behind this is that the body is programmed to grow more tissue or bone in a spot that is stressed, perhaps to spread the stress out over a bigger area. Take a look at knees one day - notice how the older you get, the wider they get, especially if you are over weight and have arthritis. The same thing happens to feet. The bump on the back of the heel bone is called a Haglund's deformity and its eather due to pressure on the back of the heel (rarely) or in response to stress on the Achilles tendon. Now if your Achilles is injured, it releases chemicals that stimulate the bone to grow even faster. Mine got so bad, I had to have surgery to chisel down the bone and reattach the tendon! (which worked very very well BTW)

So there really isn't much we can do about this other than take off your boots whenever you can, even if for only a few minutes, and make sure that you make your muscles do the work rather than the joints and ligaments.
Lyle

[Sessy]

Thank you for the replies everybody.


Actually yeah it seems it started to REALLY grow after I sprained my anckle, but the anckle sprain was kinda... atypical. Like, normally you sprain the anckle in the width, mine was sprained in the length (backways instead of sideways if you will). So my achilles is making my bone grow? So what muscle is making my toe grow?

Okay well at least I'm glad the surgery thing helped, so I know it's not uncurable. Was it under total aenesthesia?

[Team Arthritis]

Thank you for the replies everybody.


Actually yeah it seems it started to REALLY grow after I sprained my anckle, but the anckle sprain was kinda... atypical. Like, normally you sprain the anckle in the width, mine was sprained in the length (backways instead of sideways if you will). So my achilles is making my bone grow? So what muscle is making my toe grow?

Okay well at least I'm glad the surgery thing helped, so I know it's not uncurable. Was it under total aenesthesia?

Toes growing more than likely from pressure from the skate, especially on landing jumps - feet do that a lot! I also have "prehensile toes" which means I try to grip the ice with my toes whenever scared which causes more pressure (sigh).

Surgery was General anaesthesia and intubated as you have to lay on your stomach through the whole thing.
Lyle

[slusher]

I did a skating seminar last summer, and while we were all lying about in the grass outside during lunch break, I started the "guess the landing foot" game. Take a look at your feet, the one that you land on all the time will be wider, possibly with a bone spur at the baby toe, if not more down the side of the foot. In every case, I could tell whether the person was a right or left jumper. I've got it bad on my landing foot, there's a bone spur that's like an outrigger.

Coincidentially, most of us were wearing sandals or flip flops because regular shoes weren't comfortable.

[Sessy]

Except the little toe that's growing is not on my landing foot. :lol:
And my non-landingfoot is getting almost as bad a bone spur at the back of the heel as the landing foot does... Almost.


If I'd have to wear sandals or flip flops, that would be disastrous for me. My feet are always wet because they constantly sweat and as a result, always cold in those and as soon as they get cold, I get a bladder infection (I have a chronical one they can't cure and it's worsened by certain things).

WAHHHHH now you've scared me!!! :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[jenlyon60]

I have large callouses on both little toes, but I don't think from skating (I do ice dance, not jumping). I suspect they're probably from a mixture of normal shoes and years of wearing combat boots.

[icedancer2]

combat boots.

Of course I haven't met you, but I have this great image of this lovely ice-dancer and her Combat boots!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:bow:

[doubletoe]

One thing that might help (which you may already be doing) is to really push your heel down into the back of the boot as you lace up your skates, then make sure you lace them rather tight in the toes and ankle. That should keep your foot from sliding forward in the boot, which is something that can cause both toe scrunching and heel sliding/scraping.

[jenlyon60]

Of course I haven't met you, but I have this great image of this lovely ice-dancer and her Combat boots!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:bow:


The combat boots were discarded now 4 years ago. But I used to get looks walking into the rink in BDUs after work.

[Sessy]

Did you work in the military?


BTW, the Netherlands sent a lady from the military to the olympics in fencing a while ago! Yep. Anyway she works for the military but she trains 20 hours a week during work hours so she really only works parttime and they sponsor her for the rest of it. But that's pretty weird too...

[jenlyon60]

I spent quite a few years in the military. Enough to call it a first career.

[jak0203]

Right after I got my new boots, I got a bump on my pinky toe that turned out to be a corn. I had it for about 6 months before someone finally told me what it was. So I got those over the counter corn removers and it's been fine ever since.

[Sessy]

what is a corn?

[jenlyon60]

Here is some information on corns

http://www.epodiatry.com/corns-callus.htm

[Award]

what is a corn?

Here's some info too ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn

Anyway, I definitely got bumps on the back of my ankle on the side-rear, and some different bumps on the top of my foot just before the toes. These are definitely something to do with my boots.....probably some rubbing etc. But the bump on the rear side of the ankle is some kind of bunion/spur thing. Not sure how that occurred exactly, but pretty sure that is boot related too. Maybe the boot is slowly doing some kind of damage to the foot at that region, and instead of healing normally, it's forming some kind of bone there. Mine's not too big though. I put a band-aid over it every time I go skating now....the band-aid just gives some cushioning and a barrier between that part of the foot and the boot.

[Sessy]

I stumbled across something funny this week reading a book about russian folk medicine... These bone spurs are called "miortvaja kost" - dead bone in Russian. It's said you get them from accidently crossing the path of a funeral procession... :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Team Arthritis]

It's said you get them from accidently crossing the path of a funeral procession... :lol: :lol: :lol:
hmm maybe if the carriage runs over your foot!
Lyle