Drop Foot
 

I have just diagnosed with drop foot probably resulting in a severely broken ankle 3-4 years ago, or possibly a meningioma in my brain or even several mild strokes I had several years ago. They do not know what is causing it. I was just sent for a brace yesterday and will receive it in tow weeks. My left leg is weak and I trip a lot.

I have had lots of physical therapy and nobody can understand why both ankles collapse with severe stabbing pain at any time. The physical therapist thinks it is severe inflammation in both fibular nerve roots in the ankle. I can just get out of bed and be completely unable to walk and it takes days to get to where I can walk.

I am 67 and used to teach aerobics and it is so hard to have such a hard time walking. I just would love a diagnosis soon. My balance is not good and I have a hard time walking in a straight line and run in to things.

If you have drop foot I am very interested in your experiences.

Please share your experiences with anything I have mentioned.

I have CMT, and was very clumsy as a child, with a very high instep. About 12 years ago I started having numbness in my toes, which has now progressed to a complete loss of sensation to just above the knees. Skin punch biopsy showed severe length dependent small fiber neuropathy, NCS shows large fiber neuropathy with muscle loss. All is slowly progressive. This is by way of background.
As to your question, I experience the weakness, lack of balance, and stabbing pains in the ankles that you describe. I do not have complete foot drop as yet, but I am dragging and catching my feet more often. The ankle pain is weird, it feels like it should be something serious but it comes and goes without treatment. I just assume it is part of the neuropathy. I am 49.

I have bilatral footdrop and wear the AFO braces. Mine is from dying and damaged nerves in my L/S spine from toxic neuropathy and pressure on my spinal cord. I have no balance. I got myself a rollator walker and it was life changing, allowing me to walk without fear of falling. Mine did progress to severe leg weakness and walking anywhere but around the house is a big time chore. I am not saying you will progress to this. I am 63, retired emergency room nurse manager, used to running around like crazy. It all seem so unreal at times.:(

Drop Foot
 

how quickly does 'drop foot' happen and is it a 'given' that it will happen with PN in the legs?

AFO got mine today
 

I got my brace today and it is easier to walk. I was wondering if prolonged wearing of this brace or braces cause the calf muscles to atrophy making walking almost impossible without the brace?

Do they know what causes the stabbing pains in the ankles? Nobody can figure out what is happening yet.

It seems as if nearly any pain or weakness can be attributed to neuropathy, so they do not usually look further for a cause. In my case there is quite a bit of atrophy in the foot and calf muscles, which could easily be causing other muscles to overwork, or the affected muscles to become painful. The stabbing pains happen most often if I am walking on concrete or blacktop, and feel like a turned or twisted ankle, very sharp, or a stress fracture, but nothing has shown up on x-rays so I put it down to the CMT.
Foot drop does not come up suddenly, as far as I know, unless you have disc problems that cause it. I have dragged my feet slightly since childhood, and am only reaching the point of considering AFO supports at 49. Also, it is not a feature of all neuropathies, mainly the inherited ones.

What is CMT
 

Yes, you describe my sharp pains and the feeling like you just twisted your ankle perfectly..it is just what i feel and most of the time I cannot walk on the ankle at all for up to a day or so.

What does your brace look like? Does it have a name such as Toe Off or something like that. Is it a casted one? Thanks.

it is casted
 

it is casted and today I need to go out and get wider shoes. It hurts

It should not hurt. I would think that an adjustment is in order.

It is always a toss up but you probably will be able to walk around the house some being very careful without your AFO. JMO.

I wish you well.

calf atrophy
 

right now my calves are pretty strong. If I wear theis AFO will my calf muscle get weak with atrophy? I would love to hear your experiences.

I think it all depended on the basic cause. For me, motor neuropathy prevented the nerves to send the proper signal to the muscle. Essentially, all the exercise in the world is not going to stop the loss of MY muscle, but exercise does help strengthen the muscle fibers not effected and this all help in mobility. Atrophy is basically going to happen in this situation until, if ever, the motor neuropathy resolves. I can say for certain, the braces did not cause the atophy and allowed me to at least stand to walk without falling. This week, I noticed I am getting movement in my calf muscles and some muscle mass is returning, all wonderful news. My quads are still weak, but now I am hopeful they will follow in return. It took me 11 months to got from foot drop to wheel chair. This is not typical and kind of frightenening.

I guess the bottom line is if you trip over your toes and break a hip or leg, atophy will occur as you recover from your injury. You also do not need to be snapping your ankle. Think safety.

My diseased muscles will never return. They just atrophy/die. However, healthy muscles can be built up. With CMT it pretty much becomes a losing battle. :( For those who do not have CMT there is hope for the muscles to become strong again.

i had drop foot in my right foot.drs. Told me that there was no cure.i too bought a brace,$50.00,it did no good.p.t. Did no good.they were amazed after 1 mo.i had cured it.

And how did you "cure" foot drop? Thanks.

My drop foot was caused by a compressed nerve in my leg next to my knee. It was diagnosed by a neurosurgeon at the University of Michigan. She specializes in peripheral nerve surgery. She operated and decompredded the nerve in a 20 minute procedure. My drop foot was cured by the surgery, although I now have PN.