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As a retired Podiatrist with PD I should be qualified to comment on the following post: Nick Drozdowski wrote: > My wife has a callus buildup on the ball of her right foot, similar to a Planter's wart, which causes her lots of > pain when walking. The podiatrist says it is caused by walking barefoot too much, meaning no arch support. > He gave her a pair of arch supports to slip into her shoes. Also said to scrape the callus when it grows too big > and becomes very painfull. Five months later, and nothing has changed. She has PD on her right side, > which causes her gait to not be normal, drags her right foot somewhat. > INick Drozdowski wrote: > My wife has a callus buildup on the ball of her right foot, similar to a Planter's wart, which causes her lots of > pain when walking. The podiatrist says it is caused by walking barefoot too much, meaning no arch support. > He gave her a pair of arch supports to slip into her shoes. Also said to scrape the callus when it grows too big > and becomes very painfull. Five months later, and nothing has changed. She has PD on her right side, > which causes her gait to not be normal, drags her right foot somewhat. Of course I can only speculate without seeing the foot but it sounds to me like you have a plantar keratoma. The 5 metatarsal bones are the long bones of the foot. The ends of these bones form the ball of the foot and carry much of the body's weight. Normally these bones are even with each other. Occassionally one (or more) can plantarflex i.e. drop lower than its neighbors and then it carries a disporportionate amount of the body's weight. This puts extra pressure on the skin in this area and whenever there's extra pressure on skin the skin protects itself by forming callous. What do you do? The callous should be periodically paired down by a competent podiatrist, An pad can be applied to the foot that surrouds the lesion like a donut but does not actually cover the sore spot itself. An old fashion accommodative arch support with a build up behind the end of the bone to push it up can be ver y effective if properly made, and finally if all else fails there is a surgical solution. god, it feels good doing podiatry for 5 minutes again... Tom