Hi Terry,
I was not sure if you can see the other parts of the Status Panel or not from your original post so I am going to assume you can't. If you do see the Status Panel and you are just missing the one drop down you can jump to step 3. Not being able to see exactly what you are seeing, these are the steps I would take to try to get you back to where I think you would want to be.
1. Verify that the Status Toolbar is turned on. You can do that by going up to the View menu at the top of the screen and down to Toolbars. In the popup, make sure Status Panel is checked and then click OK.
2. Unlock the toolbars by going up to View menu, and uncheck Lock Toolbars (if checked). Next, see if something has been stretched in your toolbar layouts that might be hiding the Input Mode drop down part of the Status Panel. Later when done and you have everything laid out and back the way you want, you can relock your toolbars be rechecking Lock Toolbars.
3. At this point if you see the Status Panel, but are missing the individual drop down part for Input Modes, go up to Tools, Program Preferences, on the Toolbars tab, on the right side under Customize Built-In Toolbars, use the drop down to select Status Toolbars (should really be named Status Panel). You should see the familiar buttons and drop downs of the Status Panel. For the input mode, you will want to make sure the check box for the drop down second from the bottom is checked. Click Apply and then OK and see if that brings it back for you.
Let us know if this works for ya or if you still need assistance.