Thank you so much for your input. Is cryosurgery a one time surgery? I do wear custom orthotics that were made through my physiotherapist, but when I had worn them for 2 weeks the pain intensified in the ball of my foot. I took them along with me to show my Podiatrist and apparently he is the guy that designed them. He took it apart for me and added cushioning support right there in the office and I walked out with a much more comfortable orthotic. The only type of shoes I wear is sneakers. I can't wear heels or anything heavier than a running shoe because of the foot drop.

I appreciate your input. thanks

Jayneway,

Yes I believe that the cryosurgery is usually one time although Dr. Katz told me that some people need to have it repeated.  My foot is about 95 percent better than before the surgery.  I have some minor aches but nothing compared to the pain, tenderness and burning that I had before.  I would repeat the cryo down the road if I had to but I am hoping that I have made positive changes to improve my gait so that it won't be necessary. I only wear sneakers as well because I don't want to mess up my foot again.  I also follow the concepts in the book, Chi Running.  I changed my running and walking form and focus on lifting my forefoot more just before landing and relaxing my whole body except for my core which I engage.  I realize that the cryosurgery is controversial because you are intentionally destroying a nerve but from what I have read the nerve grows back and the cryo can be preferable to traditional surgery because a portion of the nerve is left so if it grows back there is little chance of a stump neuroma. If you decide be sure that the Dr. is good.  I was happy with the one I chose.  Best of luck.

I'm not sure if you intended to reply to my message in your original   post, or if you simply clicked "reply" on the last post at the time,  but  I'll address your question anyway. If you've read much of my stuff  you  can probably tell I'm not a big fan of surgery, for other reasons   including potential nerve damage as may be your case (peroneal nerve?),   but it may be too late to discuss that. With any luck, perhaps there is   scar tissue resulting from the hip surgery that has put pressure on a   nerve trunk leading to the area of dysfunction, but I doubt it. It is   also risky opening people up to see. Perhaps there is an MRI that can   illuminate the problem, but for now you must deal with it.

SInce   the drop foot results when the dorsiflexors are dormant, it occurs to   me that dorsiflexion may not be necessary when your plantarflexor   muscles are much more powerful than their weaker antagonists, if you'll   pardon the redundancy I use for emphasis. If I were you - and I offer   this in all seriousness - I'd hook a long bungee cord from my waist band   to the lower laces of my shoe to mimick the dorsiflexors and take 'er   out for a spin. The plantarflexors already take on a much greater load   than that bungee just propelling you forward, let alone running, but I   digress.

Meanwhile, there is that neuroma factory down   there. Please note that neuroma surgeries are not final. The tendency to   create one (or two in your case) is a virtual guarantee to create more   if the cause is not removed. Much surgery as medicine is remedial and   practiced as a last resort. The only preventive surgery I could see   would be 1st to restore function to your foot and 2nd to remodel the   bone structure to make neuromas unlikely. This is rarely done and   probably not covered by insurance, and yes there would be huge risks   involved according to accounts I've read but failed to bookmark. My   money's on the bungee - or some high tech equivalent.

You   asked whether drop foot is known to lead to neuromas. A brief search   found no discussion of this, but in my opinion it goes without saying,   and the Dr's conclusion is logical. This is why I keep thinking Cause   and not about endlessly chasing Symptom. I did however, find a short  discussion of potential nerve damage during hip  surgery.

Another possibility occurred to  me as an  afterthought, even though it concerns my area of expertise.  Surgery  often causes muscular spasm, and hip surgery would be likely to  cause  some dysfunction in the muscles of the hip, some of which might be   dangerously close to branches of the Sciatic Nerve, which of course   feeds the Peroneal Nerve that is apparently not activating your   dorsiflexor muscles. Knots called trigger points are potentially   powerful enough to do this in the right location(s), but muscles in   spasm also tighten other structures through which nerves pass, including   vertebrae like L5, an area that is associated with drop foot and tends   to be one of the first to weaken with age.

A piece of  information that could help is whether or not your drop foot  is  accompanied by Trendelenburg or stepping gait, both evidence of hip   muscle dysfunction. Meanwhile, lets look at some of the interweaving  that goes on between muscles and nerves...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_gluteal_nerve

Tracing  upward from the Peroneal nerve that activates dorsiflexion, you can see  its origins in the jungle of gluteal muscles illustrated in the link  above. Note the powerful hip rotator muscle Piriformis which in some  persons wraps around the Sciatic Nerve that carries nerve impulses to  your lower leg. Problems with this and other nuscles in the gluteal area  could conceivably affect portions of the Sciatic Nerve. It would be  interesting to see if palpation and manipulation of this area could  restore some function, but this may already have been tried after your  unexpected condition was discovered. Prognosis in these cases is  normally not good but if not tried it's worth a shot, especially if the  onset was not immediate but gradual.

Ok, I've given you enough to think about for now, so I'll go  about my business, wishing you every possibility of full recovery.

The good news about scoliosis is that it is usually an adaptation or  condition, not a disease. The bad news is the the longer it takes to  eliminate the cause of the adaptation, the longer it may persist, and  the longer it may take to correct. In some cases the adaptation may  become permanent since bone can remodel itself over time in response to  repeated stress.

Typically, there is a difference in  leg length, arch height, pelvic symmetry, or hip muscle dysfunction that  forces the spine to right itself, usually in a simple lateral S-curve,  which is probably in your case lumbar dextroscoliosis (leaning to the  right away from the "shorter" leg, and thoracic levoscoliosis (leaning  to the left) to correct (sometimes over-correct) the angle, which is  often further corrected by dextroscoliosis in the upper thoracic and/or  cervical vertebrae to center the head over the pelvis. Whew... all  because of a simple leg length discrepancy.

Of  course, a tilted or asymmetric pelvis may present a dilemma to the hip  rotator muscles, which can torque the femur to adjust tension and  present another problem for the foot - under all the weight of the above  structures - to adapt to. Perhaps this is what you have seen in your  case. I wore a wedge in my left shoe for a while to correct a problem  with MN, but I removed it later after I started to develop ITB syndrome  in the left knee. I still use a tough gel pad just a few millimeters  thick in the left shoe, but I seem to have reached muscular equilibrium,  knock on wood. Most of a year and a few marathon-length runs later,  things are under control. Once again I want to underscore the often  temporary nature of adaptations.

When scoliosis is a more difficult problem to solve, there may be a neurological component, either in the central nervous system (which may be impossible to correct) or in the form of a pinched nerve down the spine or elsewhere that can sometimes be corrected. More complicated rotoscoliosis involves the twisting of the spine on its axis, which is even more difficult to trace and correct. Adaptations to this kind of scoliosis can be severe, because the twisting can result in more nerve impairment and a viscious circle of more scoliosis and further adaptations.

The good news is, it sounds like you are on the mend... so good luck to you in your prognosis and complete recovery!

I have been struggling with pain in the ball of my foot for months. I am a relately new runner and I run half marathons.

Anyway, my doc wanted to do cortisone shots and custom orthotics but I didn't want to spend the money and my pain has not been that severe.  I have found a lot of relief from icing daily. I soak my foot in ICE water for atleast 10 minutes daily. I wear crocs around the house. I use Healthy Toes toe stretchers in the evenings.  I have occassional pain but it is maneagable. 

If you are just starting with this kind of pain, try the ice water soaks. it has been be so cold that I can hardly stand it. I have 2 dish pans, one for ice water, one for warm water, 30 seconds in each pan, alternating for as long as I can manage.

Good Luck!