There's an old adage in diagnosis . . . "When you hear hoof-beats think horse, not zebras." I would hope that other, more common causes of heel pain were thoroughly eliminated prior to the exploratory surgery for the needle and that the surgeon's diagnosis was not prejudiced by the fact that the needle fragments were present.
You seem to indicate that the surgeon only discovered that there were 3 fragments when he went in surgically, but this should have been totally evident from the x-rays which he must have taken prior to surgery.
In any event, removal of such foreign bodies years after they have been there is no where near as easy as it would appear to be on the x-rays. By that time, the fragments are totally walled off by encapsulation and fibrosis, and finding them proves to be no easy task. As far as their being rusted, I doubt it, as rust requires oxygen, and other than the fact that hemoglobin carries bound oxygen within the blood vessels, the internal tissues of the foot presents an anaerobic environment.
The body does do strange things to foreign bodies though. I had occasion to remove glass from the plantar of a patient's foot several years after he had stepped on fragments from a broken Coke bottle (yes, Virginia . . . they use to be made of glass) Anyhow, for those who remember the glass Coke bottles, the glass was very thick. It had been in his foot for some 10 years and had, for some reason begun to work itself superficially and was causing him pain. I was able to see the multiple fragments on x-ray, ostensibly due to the heavy metal content of the glass. Finding the fragments in surgery was a real chore, and I was surprised that the body had transformed this thick glass into what appeared to be glass so fine it looked like fine crystal.
Anyhow, the probable reason that you have sensory loss is because a lot of dissection through some very tough and fibrous tissue was carried out and small nerves were sectioned.
I would hope that the neurologist's diagnosis regarding post-traumatic sympathetic reflex dystrophy (RSD), sometimes know as Sudeck's Atrophy is incorrect, as it can be a very nasty, sometimes intractable condition. Are there color changes and mottling of the skin? Is the skin either unusually warm and dry or cold and clammy? Is it hypersensitive to touch even though you have sensory deficit? Does the underlying bone show spotty atrophy and demineralization? Is there joint pain? if you truly have this condition, conventional wisdom dictates early and aggressive treatment. Trouble is that nobody really knows what to do for it, and the condition itself is poorly understood. It typically happens several weeks or so after some sort of relatively minor trauma which might include surgery. The resultant symptomology is not commensurate with the mild degree of trauma. The symptoms have been know to progress up the affected extremity and down the other. If this condition is truly suspected, I would not delay in trying to find someone, somewhere who has at least a fair degree of experience with this problem. This may be hard to do as few know much about it beyond its diagnosis. Everything from regional nerve block, chemical sympathectomies, sympathetic ganglion blocks, treatment with anti-depressive medication and hyperbaric oxygen, to name a few has been tried with varying degrees of success. Some doctors believe that force weight bearing is helpful, while some feel that weight bearing should be avoided.
In any event, I would have the RSD diagnosis confirmed and hope its not. As far as any sensory loss due to dissection is concerned, it may persist or some sensation may return in time. It's really impossible to say how long discomfort from the surgical procedure might persist.
Good luck!
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