Or injury, to be specific. I popped my cuboid bone out of place (it's a small bone in your foot) doing a toe rise (that's actually the video I used to learn how to do a toe rise in the first place). For those of you who don't know what a toe rise is, it looks a bit like this:
...except I didn't do it anywhere that prettily. That's not me, by the way (I wish). And I didn't do it with a backbend. I just pressed up. And apparently, I pressed too hard and slid a bone out of place. Yikes. No more toe rises for me! (if you're interested in seeing the performance where I dislocated it, let me know!)
Anyway, all that happened back at the beginning of October 2010. Once it was popped back, I was given the choice of using tape or an ankle brace to physically hold the bone in place. My therapist told me that, since the ankle brace would cut off some circulation in the foot and ankle, it would be best to use tape (which also holds better). Since then, I've been taping my foot every time I danced or wore heels higher than 2 inches (just a safety measure). It's been almost a year, and I can still feel the bone sometimes, not that it hurts chronically, but I tape my foot even though it's probably as good as it's going to get now. It is possible to re-injure - I popped it out again after the initial injury once doing pointe, once dancing on a concrete floor in performance (I was wearing the tape, but the floor was too hard). I'm still a pointe dancer, and I can dance pointe without any popping of bones or pain, if you're wondering.
After trying out a few different tapes, this is the one I've stayed with, and I wanted to recommend it to you guys! It's great, breathable, I tape my foot every day without a prewrap (plastic wrap underneath the tape so the sticky stuff doesn't peel your skin off and irritate it) and it doesn't hurt my skin at all! It does leave a kind of sticky residue on the outlines of the tape, but it comes off with a bit of scrubbing in the shower. Bonus tip: when I started performing and auditioning for college with this injury, I realized I couldn't have a glob of white stuff on my foot. I found this exact tape in beige (skin tone) at Ithacasports.com! It works just as well as the white stuff and might be even softer! If you have to tape some part of your body in place to dance (that sounds horrible...), I highly recommend this beige tape.
my beautiful foot.
Has anyone else had a weird injury like this? How do you avoid bruises/dislocations in your toe rises? Leave me a comment below! :)
I don't know if you'll see this, but if you do please help. I'm an Irish dancer and last summer I landed on my foot wrong and popped my cuboid bone out of place. Since then it has come out several times, and been put back into place. Recently, I started using tape exactly like you show above, but today, I was just doing some silly dancing around my room, and it came out again. I'm at my wits end. I don't want to stop dancing, but I don't know what to do.
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DeleteOf course Arya! Since I injured it, and even since I posted this so long ago, I've learned a lot about the cuboid displacement. First of all, this method of taping may not be right for you. I hope you've seen a doctor or physical therapist to get a diagnosis (assuming you did, cause the cuboid isn't really a well-known bone). If the MD you saw didn't tell you how to tape it or take care of it properly, I suggest you go see another one and ask them specifically what to do.
DeleteThe cuboid is pretty easy to put back in place, but obviously you don't want to live with popping it out and putting it back 24/7. There are exercises to strengthen the muscles surrounding the cuboid. If you like, I've made a video of all the exercises I've been taught to strengthen the bone, since they're kind of hard to describe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi8xFDGKZco
Hope this helps, good luck :)
Daisy
Thank you so much for the video. :) I have seen a physical therapist a few times, but he didn't tell me how to tape it. My dad actually figured out how to pop it back in, but, yes that's the exact problem. I don't want to be constantly putting it back in. I guess I'm lucky that the physical therapist knew what was wrong at all. The first doctor I saw didn't think anything was wrong with my foot at all. Anyway, thanks for your help. :)
DeleteI would really urge you to see another doctor or therapist, hopefully a podiatrist, but I realize that's not always possible. Hope the exercises help :)
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