Anyone have experience skating with a fused big toe joint?

[alexbmang]

Managed to give myself arthritis in my big toe after not really recovering from a skate injury at the tender age of 19!
Might be able to get surgery to fuse my big toe. Anyone have any experience?
I am regular stance and this would be on my right foot so does it stop you pushing easily? Any tricks you have more difficulty with? Any you have less?

Also general operation details would be nice to know about. For example do you still experience any pain or difficulty walking.
Any tips would be much appreciated
Thanks so much <3

[GBLange]

Managed to give myself arthritis in my big toe after not really recovering from a skate injury at the tender age of 19!
Might be able to get surgery to fuse my big toe. Anyone have any experience?
I am regular stance and this would be on my right foot so does it stop you pushing easily? Any tricks you have more difficulty with? Any you have less?

Also general operation details would be nice to know about. For example do you still experience any pain or difficulty walking.
Any tips would be much appreciated
Thanks so much <3

gout?

[Sativa Lung]

No. But I do have a toe that I can't feel due to breaking/dislocating and not properly healing too many times. It's the pinky toe on my push/pop foot so not the biggest deal but I have trouble finding the edges of my board sometimes and end up with a lot of aborted takeoffs because I don't know where my feet are. I would be less worried about range of motion and more about pain and sensation - I think you'd be able to adapt your skating to it (and maybe even learn some new tricks if forced to work around it) as long as you're comfortable skating on it.

[Mean salto]

My toes are all fucked (always hurt, don't really bend, sometimes bend the wrong way to what I want them to do) had a doctor say arthritis but had another say probably not (but they were basing that more on my age) do you mean fuse the toe knuckle so you have a toe that doesn't bend in the middle or fuse the entire like ball of your foot, so your foot is solid from the tip of your toe to your heel?

The surgery will definatly affect how you skate and probably do anything so it's probably more about pain relief. You can get splints that hold your toe solid or even wrap your foot a bit like a boxer would do their hands and I guess get a feel for what a solid toe is like before committing to surgery.
I've had some similar problems with my hands and had to get wrist surgery a few years back and the doctors were pretty much trying to get any other option to work before fusing. 

[PuffinMuffin]

No personal experience, but I have a friend with a fused foot, and as @Mean salto said it affected his skating. He can't pop his board like he used to, so he primarily skates transition. He still shreds hard, just in a different way.

[J.Hawkes]

I have experience of this…

When I was 20 I broke my big toe (bent it right back). I rested, it healed and I thought nothing of it.

Until 5 years ago I started getting pain in the joint (right foot, regular stance). Struggled to put any pressure through my big toe, and it even hurt when I rolled over bumpy ground.

Had and x-ray and saw an NHS physio who told me I had arthritis in the joint, and pointed to the cloudy area of crystallisation between the two toe bones. Diagnosis: ‘Hallux Limitus’, which he said could get worse and I may need the joint fused.

He gave me an insole to try that had a removable tab under the big toe. (Like the light blue tab on this insole: https://footwarehouse.co.uk/product/x-line-djd-for-degenerative-joint-disease/).

I didn’t get on with the insole in my skate shoes, but I put it in every other shoe I wore and it completely solved the problem. 5 years later I still have the insole in my running shoes and I have zero pain in the toe when I skate.

You may well need the joint fused, but see a physio and ask about this type of insole first. I still don’t fully understand what the insole does (takes pressure off of the joint?) but it worked for me.

[Samirmagdy]

Guys Im a bit late but i need some help, Im having my toe fused in a couple weeks. I can imagine it that it will definitely affect my skating a lot as pretty much all tricks require you to be standing on your toes which i will no longer be able to do. What i need to know though is will i be able to pop!? Like can i get up on a ledge comfortably? Something not too high.. its just the thought of not being able to skate terrifies me. Was looking for someone who has had this done and sill skates.

[scab]

^You'll skate again. As humans, we're pretty good at figuring out how to perform movements differently if the way we used to do them doesn't work anymore. Sure, you may have to adjust how you go about it, but there's no reason to think you won't skate anymore. Also necessity begets ingenuity, so you may actually learn a bunch of new stuff because you're forced to take a different approach.

tl;dr: Don't sweat it, you'll be fine.

[Mean salto]

I think ave filmed his vans propeller part (which is when he got soty) with his big toes and ball of foot completely wrapped so they couldn't move. It could be a pain in the ass (and feet) to get used to the difference but you'll probably work out something.

[switchfakie]

when i read your title, i thought you were talking about skating while smoking a family sized joint

i thought perhaps "a fused big toe" joint was colloquial for a fatty j