Sixth Toe

[ArmchairExtreme]

Last 3 or 4 seasons, I have been getting "sixth toe" pain a little more each year and I went to a podiatrist to get it checked out.

It turns out I have what's known as tailor's bunion. It is a slight outward curve of the fifth metatarsal. That's the bone that runs along the outside of your foot between the middle of your foot and pinky toe "knuckle".

The foot doc sez that that bone will curve a bit if your feet are splayed due to long periods of standing or crossing your feet at the ankles and constantly rubbing the pinky toe knuckles together (hence the tailor reference) At my job, I am usually standing 8 out of 12 hours a day.

As the season progresses, the pain gets worse until by May, the pinky toe knuckles are so swollen that they resemble nubby little sixth toe. when I cross my ankles and touch those nubs together it is painful.

I the off season, the swelling goes away and there is no pain.

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/podiatry/R...ncysticchanges

The doc recommended blowing my boots out a little right at the spot. If that doesn't work, he said surgery is an option, but the bone would have to be broken and straightened. yech. Other than that, he said just take up to 16 advils a day and tough it out.

[snow_slider]

I'd be very leary of foot surgery. There are just too many nerve endings in your feet to mess up. My mom had foot surgery and it's totally screwed her foot up for life. On the other hand, I also have a cousin that had bunion surgery on both of her feet and she said it's the best decision she's ever made.

I'd try to explore all other means of pain relief first, like blowing out the boots, custom orthotics, etc. before resorting to surgery. All of those solutions won't permanantly change your body - surgery will.

[Tavi]

I agree with Slider. I would get about 3-4 opinions from sports med clinics and exhaust all other options before letting anyone cut my foot. Definitely blow out your boots at the metatarsal line on both sides of the foot and all the way down the lateral aspect of the boot (the length of the metatarsal).

One of the problems with ibuprophen is that it will eat holes in your stomach with chronic use. You can, and should load up on days of heavy inflammation but don't take that stuff chronically. It can cause blind ulcers with chronic use that you only find out about when you start burping up blood. Perhaps a script for Vioxx would be a better option.

[acostiga]

my pops had surgery on his big toe a few months ago, for something called "hammertoe". he is otherwise a very healthy man for his age, and not wimpy by any stretch of the imagination, but the situation has been giving him problems.

he's been stuggling with the recovery for quite some time now. for the first five weeks he wasn't putting any pressure on the foot, and keeping it elevated almost constantly. i'm not sure what the doctor's orders were for rehab/recovery, but i am sure that my dad has followed them to the letter.

the toe is still giving him problems a few months later, and his ski season could be in jeopardy. the inflammation has been a real problem, as has the general soreness. he has always been an active person and before the surgery would exercise every morning. now, he is limited to hobbling around and can't be on his feet for any extended period of time without swelling and pain. the situation with the toe before the surgery was such that if he didn't act when he did the doctors informed him that the hammertoe would only get worse and lead to more problems. a catch-22, right?

perhaps waiting until after the season would be your best play here? good luck either way.

[iceman]

What is hammertoe?

[Keoni]

Originally posted by iceman
What is hammertoe?

Dunno, but I can break it down for ya when it's HAMMERTIME! Yo!

[iceman]

I've had hammerthumb a few times, that hurts.

[acostiga]

his big toe on the right foot was bending inward toward the rest of the toes and forcing the second toe, which was longer than the big toe, to curl underneath. supposedly this condition makes the big toe look like a hammer or something and thus the name. maybe the second toe was curling over top of the big toe?

i think that is what was going on, all of this happened while i was out of town and i hadn't ever really concentrated on how my dad's toes looked before this happened. sorry to be so vague. the good news for me is that this problem is supposed to be passed along unto me. awesome.

[Mulletizer]

I've had this problem too but only on my right foot. A badly made Conformable moulded footbed brought it on initially (I didn't know this at the time); wearing a pair of race stock boots with them for a season was what really got the bone building up. As it got worse I got my boots blown out more and more but never enough to stop the build up getting worse. In the end I blew the boots out quite a lot, but taking sandpaper to the liner, rubbing them down on the outside over the affected spot then putting small squares to build up (and immobilise) either side of the swelling sorted it out. The next season the swelling had gone down and the boots were fine.

And the pain because of that got me to try tele - which I did all last season. Will be getting geared up on alpine again though.

M

[Keoni]

'nuff said.

http://www.foottalk.com/hamtoe.jpg

[iceman]

WAAYYY too much said, actually. Yikes.