[pct-l] Bunions

["Joanne Lennox" <goforth@cio.net>]

I am not sure who has the bunion or does not have the bunion anymore, but I
have had some sucess treating an incipient bunion, and I'll put it out
there for what it is worth,

the following is from my massage person/teacher.  He is the closest thing
that I have seen to a modern miracle worker.  In one hour, he permanently
changed the shape of my legs,thereby allowing the quadriceps muscles to be
more effective, and reducing a chronic knee problem.  My husband went to
him for a painful and rather large bunion; I also had a tender and
enlarging joint just behind the the big toe on one foot, so I went and
listened in.

He explained that our problem was from lack of range of motion in the big
toe. Instead of the toe absorbing some shock it all goes back into the
joint behind the toe.  This also  causes the joint capsule to contract
somewhat, as the joint capsule contracts, it decreases the range of motion,
and then the joint capsule contracts further. The real critical
nonreversible stage happens when the joint capsule contracts to the extent
that bone is in contact with bone (instead of synovial fluid), at that
point, the slippery surface on the face of the bones begans to erode. This
is a downward spiral, and the earlier you catch and reverse the capsule
contraction, the easier it is. In addition, synovial fluid decreases as the
joint capsule contracts, This is important ,because as there is no blood
supply in the joint itself, the synovial fluid supply  some of the
nutients, etc. to keep the joint healthy.  He explained that the joint does
not act like a hinged door, rather the forward bone slides back and under
the bone behind it as it is bent down..you can see this clearly by looking
at your middle finger joint as you bend your finger down.  When the joint
capsule contracts or is inflammed, the  joint literally does not have the
space to scoot all the back under the opposing bone.

In order to improve range of motion, you have to create more space in the
joint capsule first.  For the big toe, I sit on the floor cross legged,
grab the big toe with aa encircling thumb and first finger, and pull
steadily outward from the joint, and hold a slight pressure, the joint will
began to relax.  Try tractioning the knuckle of your first finger and you
can see the bone ends pulling apart, and a trough like space developing. 
Rocking the bone slightly from side to side a little helps the joint
capsule.  when you have created some space in the capsule, proceed to
rotate the big toe through its range of motion.  repeat a few times. I
actually hear the joint pop sometines (like cracking knuckles), and in a
very few days, I found that my range of motion increased drastically, and
the tenderness went away.  Now I often will do this before retiring at
night on hikes or climbs or when I have foot pain; I've gotten so I like it
, and it has definitely improved my feet.  My husbands pain from his bunion
was decreased in the same manner..  But unfortunately he would rather have
me do all the "massage", so it doesn't get done very often, and he still
has a problem.

In addition, this teacher maintains that you you can remove a bunion
non-surgically over time by flicking pieces of the calcium deposit off the
bone with the tip of the fingernail.  Obviously,one's threshold for pain
must be fairly high!  This definitely was not my husbands cup of tea.

The understanding about the traction-joint capsule size helped me a great
deal when I broke and dislocated my arm while climbing alone in the Sierras
a couple of years back. It took me almost a week to get home, where a real
cast was put on ( it took a day to reach a trail, 2 days to get to the
trailhead alone-I couldn't retrace my steps because I had crossed two cols
with an iceax and could no longer hold anything-, and 3 days to drive
home.). By the time I got home, the arm was bad enough but also my shoulder
had started to seize from trying to hold my arm motinless for a week. 
Eventually, when I got the first full arm cast off, and a forearm cast put
on and I was able to straighten my arm at the elbow , I used the cast
weight to traction my shoulderby leaning over and hanging the arm
down(sometimes added a little weight by wrapping something around the
cast), and then rotating the shouder though the range of motion still
leaning over. It helped a lot.  Later, after the cast was off,I would
traction my wrist by interlacing  my fingers, and pulling directly outward
from the wrist, and just hold it.  The result: my arm healed better than a
similar injury that my orthopedic surgeon had. 

Non Rangerette,
goforth

Thoreau: Start now on the farthest western way, which leads on direct, a
tangent to these spheres, sundown, moondown, and at last earthdown too.

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