I guess this is a real nuisance only when, as in my case, the spur is in such a place as on the bottom of a heel. Tomorrow morning I’m going to a doctor’s office to get a “sound-wave” treatment, by a podiatrist, to blast the bone spur to bits; it’s impaired my walking for months.
What have YOU done about bone spurs (wherever they are/were)?
I had a bone spur on my instep removed. It was a major problem with my ski boots, and I was skiing 30 days a year at that point. This was about 20 years ago, and it was done surgically. Crutches for a few weeks, walking boot and all that.
I’m going to point my husband at this thread - he has a bone spur in one of his cervical vertebrae that presses on his nerves, causing pain and numbness in his arm and hand. He has been told that an operation is possible, but it comes with the possibility of permanent damage to his spinal cord, so that’s a very last option. If he could get it blasted non-surgically, I think he’d have it done ASAP.
I have a penny-sized one on the top of my left foot that makes wearing shoes uncomfortable.
So, what size must the “bits” be? Where do they go?
I had a cervical spur, but it was removed as part of a disc replacement surgery.
AFAIK, spinal surgery solely to remove a spur or osteophyte is uncommon, but certainly not impossible.
Yup, in the acetabular sockets on both sides, and both sides of my sacrum [where the pelvis joints the spine] and not actually bone spurs, but crystals of calcium building up in the joints in both feet [CPPD]
A fair amount of pain ensues.
I have two wee little bone spurs poking at the left side nerve core at C-6 in my neck. The nerve runs down my arm and controls my thumb and forefinger. A steady diet of conventional stretching, along with regular use of a neck traction device and ongoing visits to the chiropractor seem to mostly keep things under control but occasionally it flares up, causing steady aching in my neck, down the back of my left arm and numbness or tingling in my thumb and forefinger. There’s no relief from this unpleasantness once it begins except time—several weeks of time.
In order to avoid flare ups, I generally walk with my head a little forward and my chin down, and I usually sit in a semi-slumped position so I can look forward without tilting my head into what most would consider a “neutral position.” Looking up for anything more than a couple seconds also causes problems.
Apparently my neck is almost completely missing the typical cervical curve which has resulted in the lower three or four vertebrae in my neck being progressively more deformed and the spurs are a part of that problem.
On the upside, I have some lovely X-rays of my neck now. 
I had a minor bone spur mixed with a bit of cartilage which caused one of my knees to lock up for a few days last summer. It went away on its own.
My dad had this done. His body likes to grow spurs. Years ago (late 90’s) he was t-boned in his van resulting in I think two fractured cervical vertebrae plus slipped disks. That was bad enough, then enter his body making spurs that exacerbated things after the first surgery, and by the third surgery (these taking place a year or two apart) IIRC he ended up with three vertebrae fused and kind of a pie slice taken out of each, to stop the spurs from growing inward and causing debilitating chronic pain. Instead, he has chronic discomfort and occasional pain, plus reduced motility in his neck so he can turn it only about 15 degrees left or right. But, he can manage, and doesn’t take any pain meds. The surgeries were done at University of Chicago.
In the 80’s he injured his elbow on the job, and his bone spur problem raised its ugly head back then, causing multiple surgeries needed, disability enough that he couldn’t be a mechanic after that, and eventually a surgery to solve it by just removing the nerve from the elbow and putting it somewhere else.
Bone spurs bad!
The podiatrist who is treating me did not “blast away” the bone spur as I described in the OP. He uses an electric device that works much like a massager and is shaped much like a hand hair-dryer, that goes rat-tat-tat on my heel. The treatment is such that the spike-shaped spur becomes ignored by the bones, muscles, and tendons in the heel. It no longer impedes my walking. It is just “there.” The podiatrist said the only way to remove the spur is by surgery, and he considers that too drastic, I believe, for someone my age (64).