Blog
Why My Mother Needed Foot Surgery to Have Her Toes Straightened
For just recently reaching 73 years old, my mom is in remarkably great shape even though her feet have always bothered her. She walks, eats healthy, is active in her church and community, and takes good care of herself and my dad. This past year, she finally began pursuing things to really deal with and not mask the foot problems she’s always lived with, but she still ended up opting for surgery.
Here’s why my mom chose to have foot surgery:
She was done living in pain. She was done dishonoring her God-given footprint by cramming her “larger than ladylike” wide feet into pointy-toed trends. She won’t be around forever, and the reality is – yes, she gave me permission to share all this – that a year’s worth of stretching, and implementing this book, and better shoe choices helped but still weren’t enough to heal 72 years of cramming her feet into the wrong shoes, and her time is limited. Also, the bunion just needed to be gone.
After going through the bunionectomy to remove the bunion AND additional foot surgery to place “minion pins” in her toes for FOUR WEEKS to straighten them, I figured my mother would have some good insights for other women. At first, when I asked her, she told me to wait a bit since she was still processing, but then she came back with some really good advice about feet and shoes. This is what she wrote for us:
Here are my words of wisdom regarding the avoidance of foot surgery:
- If you love the shoe, but there is none in your size, forget the vanity. The kind of looks you insist on wearing may well contribute to long term damage.
-
If you decide that your feet are taking after your grandmother or mother’s feet, quite possibly they didn’t wear shoes that fit properly either {note from Beth: mannerisms that contribute to various issues in the body get handed down, too. If mom tucks her bum under instead of hip-hingeing when she bends over to pick things up, her children will pick up on that. If mom sits with one foot tucked under or walks with her toes turned out… nature vs. nurture … food for thought}
-
If you have to change shoes after a couple of hours, toss them. The times you wear those special occasion shoes adds up to foot damage over time.
-
Feel blessed that shoes have improved greatly over the past 40 years and now are available in many sizes. Make the effort to get the size that is right for you. Most good quality shoe stores will allow you to exchange new shoes after wearing them inside and on carpeted floors for long enough to know that they really do fit properly. If in doubt, ask. And make sure you read this list of truly “good” shoes.
-
While hard for me to do, I now know I need to refrain from buying shoes at the thrift stores. If I had done this previously, this surgery may not have been necessary.
What’s awesome about my mom’s choice to have foot surgery is that now she feels like she has “new feet.” She also has a loving daughter {me} who can walk her through some restorative motions and poses to keep them feeling that way. She’s getting physical therapy, progressing into more minimal shoes with wider toe-boxes to keep her feet happier, and she’ll spend the rest of her life in even better shape now because her feet won’t be impeding her progress anymore!
Click HERE to read an article about whether heeled shoes help tight calves!
I’m proud of my mom for taking care of herself, for not accepting that her foot problems were just a result of again, and for not giving up when the stretches and shoe changes only helped a little and mostly revealed that she needed further help. I’m proud of her for reclaiming her body in this HUGE way and buying herself a higher quality of life for as long as she’s with us because her quality of life matters MORE as she gets older, not less.
Also, I’m selfish. I want my mom to be around, able to walk with me and do things with me for as long as possible without some stupid bunion getting in the way. Why? Because I love her. My kids love her. My dad loves her. And we all need her with us as long as she can!
Of course, choosing surgery is a personal choice between you and your doctor. Sometimes the restorative exercises like the ones she did from this book really help, especially if you start them much earlier in life! But sometimes you just need surgery like I did with my knee to remove the hindrance completely.
Sometimes staying in shape means surgery.
Sometimes it means starting with gentle, corrective moves.
Whatever your situation, we have information on just about all of it here on Fit2B. I hope you enjoy exploring!
Thanks for posting. I just read the book mentioned because I have a painful bunion and want to heal it. I am 45 so hopefully I can avoid surgery. This post is just another confirmation to do my exercises and …gulp… your mom’s hardest recommendation… to stop buying my shoes at the thrift store 🙁
Whew, those photos are motivation to work on my feet sooner rather than later 😉
My mom is in her early fifties and is making a lot of progress on her bunions by using toe spacers and wearing wide, flat shoes with toe socks. In the summers she’s loving her Xero sandals. While you can still *see* the bunions, they’re no longer giving her any pain. She’s inspiring to me! At only 26 I am determined that the bunions that “run” in our family are stopping with my Mom. Thanks to being homeschooled and a mother who was pretty frugal and bought us the cheap sneakers when we were growing up (she knew nothing about foot health at that time but the flat, wide, flexible sneakers were much cheaper than the bulky, structured athletic ones my friends wore), I spend most of my childhood barefoot or in fairly minimal shoes, and therefore my foot shape is better off than many of my peers despite my teenage experiments with froofy heels. I plan to keep them this way by choosing proper footwear for the next 60+ years I have to live 🙂
Good post! I have a wide forefoot with a narrow heel, and the only shoes that don’t squish my toes are Altra. https://www.altrarunning.com/run-better#FootShaped
I have never found dress shoes or non-athletic shoes that don’t squish my toes. (Good think I can wear athletic shoes to work!) I followed your link above to nutritiousmovement and looked at their list… sad to see it was full of toe-squishers I have tried before (New balance, merrel, etc.)
Thanks for sharing 🙂 I have a similar problem with my toes except I can’t find a surgeon to straighten my toes. I have had surgery in the past but wasn’t successful
I want the before picture!!!!
I’m not sure she has any photos of her feet prior to the surgery! Making a blog out of it didn’t even dawn on me until a day after I’d gone home from seeing her and taking these pics.
I have been assured by my consultant that bunions are an hereditary condition and is nothing to do with shoes or anything else . The poor shoe choice is a myth.
Wrong.Bunions aren’t usually hereitary.The three major reasons are high heels pointed toeshoes.Prior injuries and too shallow of a toe box.
I actually agree with you. My mom thinks it’s hereditary, and I quoted her. However, I talk a lot in our videos and in other blogs on this site about shoes, toe spread, ways to prevent bunions, etc. Thanks for your comment.