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Corns. (Read 3151 times)

Fiend

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Corns.
October 18, 2021, 09:20:21 pm
Or how to get them to just FUCK OFF.

I've got one on a smaller toe knuckle that is a pain in the arse toe for being squished into climbing shoes, especially when I forget to put a plaster or tape over it which I often do. It's slowly got worse over the years.

Recently I have tried:

Carefully slicing hard skin off the surface when dry - doesn't work as I get down to flesh and draw blood quickly, and it's still quite bulbous.

Scrubbing off the hard skin with a pumice stone when wet - doesn't work as I get down to flesh and draw blood quickly, and it's still quite bulbous.

Combining both slicing and sanding after killing the skin with a medicated corn plaster - doesn't work as I get down to flesh and draw blood quickly, and it's still quite bulbous.


(The only thing I think I've missed is doing this stuff "little and often", maybe I've been a bit irregular with it, as well as aggravating the corn by forgetting to pad it)


Generally my feet aren't as fucking rotten as the rest of yours as I have to wear the stockings (and chose to wear socks before that), but I'd quite like to sort this out. Pro-tips gratefully accepted.

kingholmesy

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#1 Re: Corns.
October 18, 2021, 09:42:01 pm
I have no useful advice for you.

FWIW though, my feet are fucking horrible.  The nails on both big toes are permanently bruised and dead looking, and I have big lumps on the knuckles - not dead skin, just quite solid fleshy lumps.

Surely battered feet are par for the course?

Fiend

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#2 Re: Corns.
October 18, 2021, 09:51:29 pm
Mine have always been relatively okay. Socks I'm sure.

I don't mind if they look like a resurrected goblin's feet....or have knobbly bits. I just don't want the knobbly bits to be sore and problematic with climbing shoes.

cheque

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#3 Re: Corns.
October 18, 2021, 10:31:29 pm
Soak your foot Fiend. I’ve got rid of them before by just soaking in hot water every day until one day it just comes out quite easily. Like you I’ve never had luck with more aggressive methods.

Fiend

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#4 Re: Corns.
October 19, 2021, 05:26:41 pm
Soak your foot Fiend. I’ve got rid of them before by just soaking in hot water every day until one day it just comes out quite easily. Like you I’ve never had luck with more aggressive methods.
Okay I'm confused by "comes out quite easily". I suspect there are different sorts of corns (I've heard of hard / soft / seeded). Mine doesn't have a hard centre, it has a hard surface and sometimes a small blistery bit in the very centre. I'm pretty sure it's not a callus as it is always a bit / more painful and is an area of zero friction.


abarro81

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#5 Re: Corns.
October 19, 2021, 06:28:16 pm
I don't get them badly, but when I have one starting I use the little cylindrical corn wraps when in climbing shoes and they work really well

Fiend

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#6 Re: Corns.
October 19, 2021, 06:30:50 pm
Just ordered some of those to protect it, yeah. Seems more logical than plasters / tape.

This one started, ummm, a few years ago?? Just slowly getting bigger and more annoying, and this year has felt actually inhibitive sometimes.

cheque

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#7 Re: Corns.
October 19, 2021, 06:50:47 pm
Okay I'm confused by "comes out quite easily".

Soaking seems to gradually separate the corn from the normal flesh. It’s an imperceptible difference  but there is a difference. One time when you’ve soaked it you’ll just scratch the area and the corn (just a small bit of harder flesh) will come out leaving a shallow depression. You’ll think that it’s going to come back but as long as you’ve fixed the original cause of it (probably worn out shoes that you walk about in- it won’t be climbing shoes as they fit too closely to have any rubbing action. Both corns I’ve had were caused by walking around in work shoes that weren’t meant for that kind of distances) it won’t.

Fiend

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#8 Re: Corns.
October 19, 2021, 07:17:04 pm
Cheers cheque, I will try the soaking then.

I don't think my normal shoes rub much, my feet are protected by thin socks, then stockings, then another layer of thin socks to protect the stockings.

webbo

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#9 Re: Corns.
October 19, 2021, 07:52:57 pm
I have on the underside of my left just below my little toe. So other than grinding the skin away with the wife’s foot grinder, I can’t get at it. I get no pain with my rock shoes but it tends to hurt in all my other shoes which all are quite roomy.
I have had good results in the past seeing a chiropodist which is the plan in the next week or so.
However giving the recent life style  grillings I have from the Dentist and the Dental hygienist I’m not sure I want the 3rd degree on how often I clean my feet.


Oldmanmatt

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#10 Re: Corns.
October 19, 2021, 08:29:36 pm
Did I miss something, have you been diagnosed with a Corn?
Or “probably a Corn”.
Because I was a few years back.
I started to grow a lump at the base of my big toe, that I initially thought was a Corn or similar and so did my GP on the first visit.
 Eventually I realised it wasn’t. It’s Arthritis. I had a lump of extraneous bone growing there (several, it turns out, just one visible).
I would have thought that if you are “wearing through” to the flesh below, that shallow; sure,y there’s something pushing up from below?
You said knuckle, yes? That’s usually where Arthritis shows up.

Edit:
A quick Google throws up such lovelies as the “Tailor’s Bunion” and good old Donnie Trump “Bone spurs” as being the smaller toe alternatives to regular Arthritis too (a Bunion being the big toe version), mines not a Bunion apparently, it’s a Halux Rigidus. There are definitely a few alternatives to Corn, which might explain the difficulty in treating it?
« Last Edit: October 19, 2021, 08:38:43 pm by Oldmanmatt »

shark

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#11 Re: Corns.
October 20, 2021, 12:41:00 am
So other than grinding the skin away with the wife’s foot grinder,

Yes - I find these things work really well to keep hard skin building up at bay particularly on toe knuckles - a more manly one here

Ballsofcottonwool

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#12 Re: Corns.
October 20, 2021, 08:19:30 am
Doesn't sound like a corn, bulbous and blister in the centre could be a ganglion, I have one on my big toe that got infected when the cat stood on it and pierced it with her claw :sick:.  Like Matt said you need to show it to someone qualified to find out what it is, and how or if it can be treated.  Does you GP have an online service where you can send them a photo to help them triage appointments, this was something mine introduced recently.

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#13 Re: Corns.
October 20, 2021, 09:35:04 am
Interesting.

On the occasions that a small blister appears in the middle, it's very small, less pea-size and more quarter peasize. More often there is no blister.
Any small amount of fluid that appears is just fluid, not thick nor jelly like.
There's no indication of any infection (other swelling, redness, generalised pain).
It's not really a smooth lump, it's more like a broad lump with hard skin over the top.
The pain seems to be more on the surface just below the hard skin, rather than in the joint.

(Oh and with further prodding, there doesn't feel like any increase in bone structure there. The issue definitely feels to be a broad softish lump with a hard skin top)

If more determined soaking / sanding doesn't work I'll investigate further.

webbo

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#14 Re: Corns.
October 20, 2021, 09:45:53 am
My understanding of what a corn is and a quick google agrees, that it is a hard skin patch with a central core and it’s the core you need to get out.

SA Chris

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#15 Re: Corns.
October 27, 2021, 01:29:37 pm
Sounds like there might be something embedded or some sort of lump, but it's definitely not a corn.

Could be something a bit worse like Ledderhose (basically Dupuytren's in your feet - I have in both).

Or possibly a Morton's Neuroma?

Fiend

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#16 Re: Corns.
October 30, 2021, 11:29:59 am
Definitely nothing embedded in it.

Nothing like Morton's Neuroma from reading the description.

Nothing like Ledderhose from reading the description

It's more like a hard skin patch without a central core.

I just had a good check and poke around:

It's a broad lump with a hard skin top, and softer underneath.
It's only painful to pressing up the lump, from any angle.
There's no sign of bone growth and no pain from pressing around the area nor underneath.
No fluid and no firm central cores.
No sharp pains, no particular pains walking on it.
Only pain is general pressure / soreness especially in climbing shoes.
It's eased off a fair bit since I've been doing less climbing and less routes, but just as much walking.
I've kept sanding it. When sanding I tend to get to flesh and draw blood quite quickly, without diminishing the lump size much.

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#17 Re: Corns.
October 31, 2021, 11:31:33 am
Legacy of chilblains?

webbo

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#18 Re: Corns.
March 08, 2022, 11:59:40 am
I forgot about this thread. I went to the chiropodist about 3 weeks ago, I did have a corn on the underside of my left little toe. Apparently it was quite deep and narrow, since being removed I’ve had no pain or discomfort from that bit of my foot. The Chiropodist also removed lots of hard skin, she just shaved it off with a scalpel, the amount she removed would taken about a week to do with the foot grinder.
It cost £45 however if things had hadn’t improved after a week I could have a further consultation for free.

 

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