StarNosedMole of Leave
Oct. 23rd, 2018 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ismoFun facts one learns late in life: apparently I have a thing called Tailor's Bunion. According to the orthopod I visited yesterday, and the handout she gave me, it's a bump on the side of the foot, next to the little toe. "Often a tailor's bunion is caused by an inherited faulty structure of the foot. In those cases, changes occur in the foot's bony framework that result in the development of an enlargement. The fifth metatarsal bone starts to protrude outward, while the little toe moves inward. This shift creates a bump on the outside of the foot that becomes irritated whenever a shoe presses against it. . . . Wearing shoes with a tight toe box can make the deformity get progressively worse."
Sigh. It's a minor thing. About a year ago I got this bump of callus on the side of my foot. Unlike other calluses, it hurt when I stepped on it or touched it. I showed it to my doctor, and she said "Oh, it's just a callus." Well, okay . . . but it hurt me Every. Time. I. Took. A. Step. So I brought it up again, and she said, "Okay, I'll refer you." So I went to the orthopedic clinic. The first thing I noticed was that all the people with crutches, walkers, boots, and casts were standing in line in front of the reception desk. What's wrong with this picture?! Anyway, then I saw the doctor. She took a scalpel and scraped the callus off. It also had a keratosis in the middle of it, which is why it hurt. So she dug that out with the scalpel too. I observed mildly, "That hurts." She said "Oh, well, I could stop but then you wouldn't get better." She went on poking away, tra la la, while I made Grrr, rowrr faces and thought about how I'd really like to poke her foot with a scalpel a couple of times and see how she liked it. However, it was worth it because now my foot doesn't hurt when I walk any more.
She also gave me some salicylic acid for burning off the callus if it shows up again, and a recommendation for things I can rasp my foot with to get rid of it. I said, "That sounds gross," and she laughed merrily. I'm really not in the habit of putting acid on my skin. And she gave me recommendations for types of shoes and good shoe stores, which is helpful. Because my feet will always have an extra part to them that makes them wide at the toes, and it's important that I get wide shoes with flexibility in the toes. This is something I figured out for myself, but now I actually have a diagnosis.
As I said, it's a minor thing, and yet it bothers me. Perhaps because, as long as I can remember, my feet have been unusually wide. My parents used to point this out--ha ha, you have such big feet. Why yes, I do. AND YET--it never once occurred to them to make sure my shoes fit. I wore the same shoes all year, because it was just a rule that you only got one pair of shoes per year, no matter whether your feet grew or not. Buying new shoes was too expensive. My shoes always hurt my feet. Sometimes, they got so much too small they actually split at the seams, and I had to sew them up with upholstery thread, which certainly didn't add to my popularity at school. It's just painful to know I had a problem that actually has a name, and that it got worse over time because it was poorly treated. I'm sure I'll get over the indignation in a few days.
Sigh. It's a minor thing. About a year ago I got this bump of callus on the side of my foot. Unlike other calluses, it hurt when I stepped on it or touched it. I showed it to my doctor, and she said "Oh, it's just a callus." Well, okay . . . but it hurt me Every. Time. I. Took. A. Step. So I brought it up again, and she said, "Okay, I'll refer you." So I went to the orthopedic clinic. The first thing I noticed was that all the people with crutches, walkers, boots, and casts were standing in line in front of the reception desk. What's wrong with this picture?! Anyway, then I saw the doctor. She took a scalpel and scraped the callus off. It also had a keratosis in the middle of it, which is why it hurt. So she dug that out with the scalpel too. I observed mildly, "That hurts." She said "Oh, well, I could stop but then you wouldn't get better." She went on poking away, tra la la, while I made Grrr, rowrr faces and thought about how I'd really like to poke her foot with a scalpel a couple of times and see how she liked it. However, it was worth it because now my foot doesn't hurt when I walk any more.
She also gave me some salicylic acid for burning off the callus if it shows up again, and a recommendation for things I can rasp my foot with to get rid of it. I said, "That sounds gross," and she laughed merrily. I'm really not in the habit of putting acid on my skin. And she gave me recommendations for types of shoes and good shoe stores, which is helpful. Because my feet will always have an extra part to them that makes them wide at the toes, and it's important that I get wide shoes with flexibility in the toes. This is something I figured out for myself, but now I actually have a diagnosis.
As I said, it's a minor thing, and yet it bothers me. Perhaps because, as long as I can remember, my feet have been unusually wide. My parents used to point this out--ha ha, you have such big feet. Why yes, I do. AND YET--it never once occurred to them to make sure my shoes fit. I wore the same shoes all year, because it was just a rule that you only got one pair of shoes per year, no matter whether your feet grew or not. Buying new shoes was too expensive. My shoes always hurt my feet. Sometimes, they got so much too small they actually split at the seams, and I had to sew them up with upholstery thread, which certainly didn't add to my popularity at school. It's just painful to know I had a problem that actually has a name, and that it got worse over time because it was poorly treated. I'm sure I'll get over the indignation in a few days.
