Thanks Mrs. D

You are a fountain of information. I appreciate you intrest.

I am trying to use Lidocaine (Lidoderm) patches for my arch pain. Its not plantar faciitis or a heel spur according the x-rays and MRIs. I am getting a neuropathy test in a couple of weeks but I am trying to address the pain now on my own as the podiatric solutions have not worked.

The patches are leftover from a back injury i had a couple of years ago. I put them on the bottom of my feet but they only seemed to lessen the pain slightly.

I am intrigued by your recommendations to put the patches on top of the feet or on the ankle. I was wondering if you had a diagram or photo of exactly what you do?

Also, do you know where I can find more information on using lidocaine patches for foot pain? I also plan on asking my PCP for lidocaine creaam b/c the patches seem to move around too much.

THanks for the help!!!!

I'll have to find some pics of the anatomy on the net, put them into my graphics and colorize them. This will take some time.
I'll make a new thread. (it is not an easy task).

In the meantime--- this link shows a side view of the tarsal ligament:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...num=3&ct=image

The placement of the patch for the ankle area is just at the pointer of the the yellow arrow. I have used just above the bone, and just below the bone placement successfully. The nerves from the feet bundle there to go up
the leg. When that ligament is tight, from hypothyroidism deposits, or from fluid retention, or scars from injuries, it compesses the nerves going to the foot. If a doctor injects lidocaine here at this point, it will numb the whole foot. That is why the patches work here the same way, only they are not strong enough to totally numb the foot. I had a lidocaine+ steroid shot in my left ankle once...it lasted almost a day, and I couldn't even walk right! Talk about NUMB. (this was inflammation from a nasty spider bite).

My son had the pronation that is also in that article. When we had orthotics made for him, all his pain went away.

I may not need to do much after all--- this site shows alot:

https://www.northcoastfootcare.com/f...t-anatomy.html

The bottom pictures on the page show the nerves (in tan/yellow)

Some go under the ligaments, some on top (cutaneous--meaning skin).

The last illustration shows the top of the instep, and you can see all the nerves are THERE. That is why I put 1/2 Lidoderm in that location. Some of the nerves are MOTOR.. meaning movement. Cutaneous means the sensations from the skin and superficial areas. Interruption of the cutaneous nerve on the instep catches mostly all the foot.

The other nerves go under the ligaments in the ankle, on both the left side and right, of this diagram which is the right foot, facing the viewer.

I do not believe putting the patches on the bottoms of the feet help much if at all. I believe that the nerves are misfiring and are not doing so because of the dendrites at the end points/tips.
They are misfiring because something is wrong within them.

I use the patches at night. They stay on better then. Clean dry feet are a must. You take them off after 12 hours on.

MrsD, I have a lot of burning in my back, especially the upper back. Should I try and put the patches right along the the spine, or just anywhere on the upper back? Thanks...

mrs d
Do you know of any sites that portray the hands as well as this site does the foot?. I have both foot, and hand pain, and these photos help a lot in determining the conditions I have, and explaining to my neuro where the pain is.
Thanks

I'll look around for you tomorrow, before I leave this weekend.

But I suspect around the wrist (proximal) before the carpal tunnel ligament, might be a good spot. That is where I put my Salonpas when I have wrist/hand pain.

Can you be specific about the hand pain. Is it only certain fingers, the whole hand, or what?

Some links showing the 3 main nerves and how they enter the hand at the wrist:

http://www.orthogate.org/patient-edu...d-anatomy.html
at the bottom of the page is a close up showing nerves in yellow.

http://www.fpnotebook.com/Ortho/Exam/HndAntmy.htm
This one shows two photos with distribution of feeling in the hand, click on each picture to make it bigger.

another:
http://www.scoi.com/handanat.htm
notice the median nerve goes UNDER the carpal ligament.
The ulnar does not. So the median is more likely to be squashed by tension in the wrist. Hypothyroidism is one cause of this. The ulnar nerve may be compressed at the elbow.

This one shows the nerves in more detail on the first page.
http://www.eatonhand.com/ner/ner091.htm

Do these work for you?