with the Lidoderm patches is that you need to do 2 things:

1) place them in the right spot for best results

2) use them for at least a week, or more.

They are not like oral drugs like opiates/aspirin etc and give relief immediately.

For my feet I place them in two places..
a) either on the top of my foot...I cut one patch in half and put one half on each foot, vertically so they cover the top area from ankle to toes (I don't need this very often), and 3 days usually will stop a major burning attack.

b) across the ankle, where the main nerve comes down from the leg, this may work for me in a day or so.

For knee pain, I put 1/2 across the back of my knee on the thigh side of the bend, this takes about 3 to 5 days.

For leg pain, I put them across my sacral area, or higher in the lumbar depending on the pain. For my thigh groin pull, I use the sacral area.
If I have pain following gardening/bending I put them higher up in the lumbar area. These take at least a week.

When I had severe meralgia parethestica I put 1/2 in the groin on the upper thigh and 1/2 on the upper side of the hip.
This was my first experience. For me, after two weeks of everyday, it actually stopped the nerve from firing like it was and now I have a 90% cure. This was unexpected. But it did teach me that putting the Lidoderm in the WRONG spot, can actually make the pain worse. Putting them on the MP pain where I felt it, did nothing but make it shoot MORE.

So time and some experimentation is needed. They work by interrupting the axon, from what I observed.

Thanks Mrs. D
Today I put a the pads under my toes and over the ball. Did I understand you that it
might take several days to feel improvement? I have found it hard to pinpoint source
of burning. I have felt like I am walking on a claw and the my toes are curling under but
when I take of my shoes my toes are not curling under. Even though it is a bit awkward
I put the pad uner my toes.

on the tops of the feet. The nerves there are not endpoint
dendrites, they are the axons, and closer to the skin.

Putting them on the bottom is rather pointless I think.

I get the fastest results on the feet. As the tissue gets thicker, it takes LONGER. My thigh took 2 weeks. (for example).

I think the doctors have no clue. I even talked to a sales rep and she knew next to nothing as well. Because I am creative, I figured how to make them work for me.

I know from experience that when you put numbing agents in the mouth for sores or toothaches, they hurt worse when the agent wears off. This is endpoint intervention.

What you want to do is block the nerve as it goes to the spinal cord. Those nerves are bundles of individual ones, and you accomplish much more. In some cases of pain, I think that the nerves are firing automatically, irregardless of the stimulus at the endpoint dendrites. That is just my observation with my various experiments with the patches.

Mrs. D

Did I understand that you had burning feet and you put the patches on the top of your foot? I just thought the bottom of my foot was where the burning felt. I am taking the pads of right now and taking your advice.
Thanks so much!

It seems to be reducing for me now, I am getting it less often.

The nightshade family of veggies makes it much worse...potatoes and sometimes some tomato sauces.

When my burning is bad, it will go up my shins.
I don't have potatoes anymore at night, as they also seem to
trigger me.

I eliminated all sugar/fructose this summer and have been much much better also. Fructose especially I am intolerant of and probably all my life as well. (I could never drink apple juice for example without much GI distress).

Just cut one patch in half and try one foot if you don't want to waste them. I used to get 90 for a $35 copay (it is going up to $65 in Jan) so I had plenty to experiment with.
One has to understand the anatomy to picture it.
I don't think the pain is generated at the endpoints. I think the nerve CELLS are misfiring and stopping the train, is more effective when they group into a bundle and leave the skin.

Also when using Lidoderms, you often don't need a whole one.
I can't recall when I have used a whole one! When placed well 1/2 does the same job!

When I use the Salonpas for the ball of my foot, (I have broken sesamoid bones there that get inflamed), I wrap the Salonpas around the arch and don't put it on the ball itself (since the skin is so thick there). Around the arch, the skin is thinner. There are new Salonpas out there now, I just found them in my email. I have a short thread about them on Medications right now. The FDA has approved a new version which is much stronger (almost double). I bet they are nice.
So if your ball of the foot pain is more arthritic or tendonitis, then Salonpas OTC may work better, than Lidoderm.