Eh, I appreciate the support, but don’t feel too hard! In my 20s I wore whatever the heck I felt like, 4" heels included. I’m surprised it took until now to catch me up to reality.
But what did his podiatrist DO? I have never seen one and am suspicious of the breed, and wish to be schooled.
I cannot believe “nobody had bunions before there wear shoes”. Unless they mean “Everyone would get eaten by a bear before they were old enough to have developed bunions” or something. We will need an archeaologist or anthropologist expert on that. Emilyforce, I am of the opinion that shoes must be tried on prior to final purchase, even if it means standing around and walking around the shoe store in said shoes. I have found the same shoe by the same maker in a different color will be different enough to cause/prevent pinching. Demand a perfect fit right away, there is no such thing as breaking them in.
I must be the only person here whose bunion surgery was a resounding success 
I wore the protective boot, kept it raised, and faithfully did my post-op exercises to increase the range of motion. The only reminder I have is the scar.
However, just thinking of how the pin rotated every time I moved still gives me the heebie-jeebies :eek:
I second whoever mentioned getting a PT workup to ascertain if the bunion isn’t caused by something biomechanical. Mine wasn’t caused by pointy-toed shoes – my feet roll inward as I walk. I had custom-made shoes as a kid which prevented the rolling inward. I don’t remember how old I was when I stopped wearing them. According to the surgeon, if I had kept wearing them, I probably wouldn’t have had the bunion.
I’ve never worn orthotics. The best advice I’ve ever received is to make sure your shoes fit properly. For me, that means wide width, no pointy stuff, slight heel, has ample support in both the arch and heel. Sometimes it’s a trial trying to find shoes that will fit all those requirements, but when I do find them, I try to buy multiple pairs, depending on how much they cost.
Nope: the toe box area is long enough that my toes do quite well in them and there’s a small amount of padding to help cushion my feet. I’m just really glad I spotted them on the clearance table! I almost picked up a pair of boots by the same company (Frye), but they were on the clearance rack because the zipper didn’t work properly. 
I tried on other styles of shoes from the same company at the same time I got the ‘sandals’, and all of them were comfortable from the get go. Just too expensive for my budget though, even on clearance (they were the more popular/current styles so they weren’t marked down as much).
I’m in Memphis: the flea market I’m talking about is ‘The Big One’. I know the shoe guy does other flea markets, but I don’t know how far he roams.
And I’ve never had problems with pushy shoe sales people, mostly because I nearly always shop at discount places: outlet stores/malls, flea markets, etc. Heck, if there’s a nearby outlet mall with a shoe place you may find shoes cheap enough to afford buying two pair: one for your left, one for your right, then use the remaining shoes for craft projects or something.
The doctor I went to was a bit of an odd case: one of his specializations was charity orthopedic work on children, so he would see a much higher incidence of bunions caused by ‘internal’ factors (improper bone growth, off kilter gait due to various issues, etc.) instead of external (ill fitting shoes). I had gotten the impression when I was doing research at the time that most people have legs that are a little off: but for the majority of people it isn’t enough of a difference to case a problem, as the body can adjust adequately enough. Unless there are other contributing factors, problems generally don’t start creeping in until the difference is at about the 1/4" length. Unfortunately, I don’t remember if there was any indication of how frequent this is, other than an general impression that while it wasn’t a common occurrence, it wasn’t exactly rare either.
As to figuring out the problem, well, for me it was easy to see that something was off kilter once we started to try to figure out what was going on. If I stand up ‘straight’ without shoes on if you look close enough you can see that my hips and knees aren’t lining up with each other. It’s just off enough that if you just glance you probably won’t notice, especially since with the difference I generally never really stood equally on both legs: I would shift my weight from one leg to the other.
Emilyforce, thank you for finding me in the Shoes Off thread! Ah, what a relief to know that I am not alone in my bunion-ness.
I am 52, have bunions on both feet, my left foot is worse. Figuring out that I actually had bunions only dawned slowly on me over time, as my feet widened and the bumps grew noticeable.
Up until recently, I never had any pain. I still do not have regular pain.
I very rarely ever wear “girly” type shoes.
I have always gravitated towards comfy shoes with wide toe boxes. I am a pronator, also when I stand up straight I am similar to** Nightsong,** things don’t line up perfectly.
Unfortunately,I love to walk, plus my job keeps me on my feet.
Walking on the beach has probably contributed to the worsening of my bunions.
The first time I had pain (on the metatarsal pad), I visited a podiatrist and he suggested surgery but fitted me with orthotics, which actually have helped quite a bit. He said I should never go barefoot again–and I don’t.
Surgery scares me to death, but my bunions are getting wider and wider, and the big toe on my left foot is beginning to push into my “index” toe.
Right now, it looks like my health insurance does not cover surgery, so I am not sure how much of an option it would be, anyway.
I just keep wearing wide shoes, use the orthotics for long walks, and pray that the pain stays away.
My mom is long gone, but her twin sister is still alive, and I marveled at how my feet look identical to hers except for being larger. She has never had surgery, maybe I will squeak by as well? Dunno.