Hi, I’m 26 and I have bunions

Yep, I am officially outing my bunions.  I don’t want to hide them anymore.  OK, I’ve only realized I’ve had bunions in the last month since I’ve been doing more ballet and living with someone else who has bunions.

They don’t really look all that bad, they’ve always been there since I can remember, I just never thought anything of them.  But they have been sore lately.  The soreness probably started when I got my first pair of demi-pointe shoes a few weeks ago and have been working on my tip-toes in ballet more.  I went to a store with a fitting specialist and she helped me get another pair of demi-pointes that should help out a little with the soreness.

As we speak, I am icing my pussy-itis…which in this household is known as something that hurts, but isn’t really that bad, but you still complain about it.  I’m not just mad that they are sore, but as a budding ballerina with desires to go en pointe, I don’t want something stupid like bunions to get in my way.

I’ve done some research on bunions, and here is what I have come up with.

What is a bunion?:

It’s not as gross as it sounds.  It’s when the bone in your foot that connects the ankle to your big toe drifts outwards and your toe drifts inwards creating a bony bump on the outside of your foot.

Bad stuff:

Bunions are sort of inherited because your foot shape determines whether or not you will have bunions, and of course, you inherit your foot shape.

If you are pre-disposed to bunions, you will probably get them just from walking around, though things like wearing ill-fitting shoes, high heels or ballet dancing will hasten there appearence, which is why women have more problems with them.  What woman hasn’t jammed their foot into a shoes that’s a 1/2 size too small?

You can’t make them go away.  Only surgery can make them go away.

“Good” things:

They don’t necessarily hurt.

You can slow or halt their formation by wearing properly fitting shoes or my wearing toe spacers while doing ballet.

Some people think that bunions create a more beautiful line while dancing en pointe.

Weird thing:

Some blame bunions on evolution.  Humans and apes have a common ancestor, which likely had a thumb on their foot.  As humans evolved and began walking upright, the thumbs on our foot turned into our big toes to facilitate walking.  Getting a bunion is kind of like having your big toe go back to a thumb because of a non-perfectly evolved foot.  Awesome.

So I guess, if I going en pointe causes my bunions to get so bad that I have a thumb on my foot, I can always learn how to hold a pencil with my big toe, draw pictures of dead presidents and join the circus.