Warts - will they go?
 

Hiyo,

Ok here's the deal. I've done a search on TFP and come up with bits and pieces but nothing really conclusive. So this is the situation~

I have a couple of warts on my fingers, quite large ones. Probably about 8mm diameter and 5mm in height max (which is big for a wart right ;)). I've had them for about a year, and today I went to the doctor. He froze them with a heavy dose of nitrogen which felt pretty weird.

He also suggested that I use white vinegar to increase the chances of removing them. So I've been using white vinegar on them for a few hours, keeping them well and truely covered in it.

My question is, is this the fastest way to success? Are there quicker, failproof ways anyone has used? Last resort I guess is to dig them out but that'd be painful but. And I'm a wuss hehe. So gimme the bottom line, am I doing it right? Can I do better?

<3

spotila

My neighbor swore that rubbing a potato on it everyday would get rid of it. A co-worker swore duct tape was the answer. Sticks, liquids, pads; freezing, cutting, soaking. There's a lot of different choices out there.

In my opinion, you just have to try a bit of everything and see what works. My nephew had to use this stick thing. It kind of looked like Chapstick, but it was for getting rid of warts. Nothing else seemed to work.

What works for me are those stupid little medicated pads. One of those and a couple of band-aids to see me through the day. At night, I cut away the dead shit with a pair of fingernail clippers only to do it all again the next day.

The over the counter products usually contain a mild acid solution to dissolve the wart. You doc suggested vinegar because it also is a (mild) acid (acetic acid). The wart pads are impregnated with acid also. Also available are cannisters that freeze the wart(although not as cold- or destructive- as liquid nitrogen).

Essentially, any destructive method, including scraping, electrocautery, etc. can be used. Warts are viral infections, and if left alone, believe it or not, will eventually go away, although that may take years.

I believe the reason some home remedies work- potatoes, howling at the moon, etc. is because there seems to be a link, at least in some people, between the attention given to the wart and the speed at which it resolves. I believe strongly your mind influences your immune system, and for some people, no matter what they do, the mere attention given to the wart will help resolve it. I've seen it over and over again.

So treat it any way you want-just be persistent and keep at it and you'll be rid of those bastards soon!

i had one on my thumb for a few years..froze them a few times and that didnt rid of them, they always came back.. then a few years ago it just went away.. how and why? im not sure..didnt really pay attention..kinda looked at my thumb one day and said.. god damn, no more wart!

sory i couodnt be of help, but thats my story

ok so it's been 10 days since. I've kept them taped up, sealing off oxygen to them, replacing the tape every couple of days. Before I replace the tape I submerge them in white vinegar.

Progress report - they are still here, but definatly are being effected. The are starting to go black, and stay around skin level rather than having height to them.

I plan to get another nitrogen blast in 4 or 5 days, will report back in another 10 ;).

spotila

At one time in high school, I had literally at least 25 warts on both of my hands.

It took about a year, but eventually they went away on their own. I used duct tape to try to kill them, but nothing worked except time.

Duct tape worked best for me. I had a horribly painful plantar wart on the ball of my foot. I kept it taped constantly. I only took the tape off to soak the foot and cut away the wart. Eventually, I picked at it one day with some tweezers and the whole thing came out, root and all.

I had one of those on my little toe and used a 'corn pad' for a couple of weeks. It actually came out like a plug right thru the toe!!
I've used the "freeze-away"-it takes a few applications but it does work-works great on skin tags too.

No fucking way! I had numerous and large warts on my fricking feet. The acid and digging it out absolutely made the whole fucking situation worse!

It was extremely painful and I couldn't walk normally.

Granted, it might be less painfull on fingers, but you use your fingers more than feet right?

I had a wart on my finger. I cut it out 3 times, the last time it didnt come back. They go deep and bleed a lot. I would advise you to say on the course you are on.

Damn, I have been curious about this too.

I have a plantar wart on my left foot, between the pinky and the 4th toe. Has been there for 1.5 years, maybe longer... can't remember now. I've trimmed it many times but never "dug it out." It doesn't hurt and isn't getting bigger.

Should I be worried? Do warts go "deeper" if you don't try to get rid of them? When I was a kid I had a few warts frozen off (didn't really hurt)... wonder if I should try that again, or get OTC stuff.

I had some on my feet. The doc gave me a weak acid solution (via a chemist). In between applications I sorta rubbed the things using the end of the same matchstick that I used to apply the solution.

I don't think digging is a good idea (in terms of doing something painful) - but it seems helpful to rub off the dead skin. Especially when the things are wet...

For me... the warts themselves actually made walking/running a pain. Getting rid of them was fairly easy.. it just took a bit of consistency. Also - I'd back off the treatment every now and then, if they get extra senstive.

well it's been a little more than 10 days since the last post, 20 infact. I've kept them taped up and each time I replace the tape (every day or 2) I submerge them in white vinegar. It seems to be working, every time the tap is renewed part of the wart comes off with it. It's been about 28 days since the nitrogen attack, and I'm optimistic in saying I expect they will be fully gone in a week or less!

I've got one on my foot for 3 months. Still can't get rid of it. Doctor is useless.

nothing to say

What would keep a doctor from just cutting them out?would think they could dig out the roots and stuff better then doing it yourself. i mean if they can remove a birth mark or something a wart shouldnt be a real problem. cut the thing out get a couple stiches to close it and the problem would be gone right?

I had them as a kid, on my fingers. They'd come and go. Some of them stayed longer than I'd like. I noticed that there were dark flecks inside the wart; somebody told me that these were called "seeds," and were the source of the viral infection that caused the wart; and, if I was able to get the seeds out the wart would not return. So I used nail clippers to cut away the top layers of the wart (pretty painlessly), then used tweezers to pull the seeds. There was some pain, not a lot, and no blood.

Sure enough: what was left of the wart faded away in a week. I don't know if this is a safe or recommended procedure -- and it would be pretty much impossible if the wart was in a position that made it difficult to see -- but that was my experience.

Update Spotila?

Reading this thread has made me nauseous, in a helpful sort of way I guess. I just had the doc freeze the crap out of a wart on my palm (of all the painful places) and it is blistering up quite nicely, looks a bit bloody underneath the skin though.

I was in the same boat as dlishsguy in middle school. I had a wart on my thumb that would not go away regardless of how many times I froze it or treated it. Then one week it just faded away.

I don't know how much evidence there is for the "seed theory" though.

Alright, wart advice needed: I got Dr. Scholl's "Clear Away" for plantar warts (bottom of feet) and used the stuff for over a week. I noticed that one day, I lifted the pad and the acid patch had peeled off a large round, thick portion of my skin (didn't hurt), including the top of the wart. That was weird.

I wasn't sure if that was the whole thing, so I put another acid patch back on and let it be. It seemed to hurt, though, as if there was actual skin (not wart) underneath... so I took that off last night to let it heal.

Now I'm just not sure whether or not the wart is gone... can anyone tell me how to know?

Alright, gotta bring this thread back since no one answered my last post! :)

So I left my wart alone after the last post, didn't do anything for a few months. Then I got annoyed again and applied the Dr. Scholl's pads in force for the last month or more. I had the salicylic acid pads on there every day for many, many weeks. Every other day I would change the pads, and clip away (or use tweezers) the dead skin.

Now I am on my last pad, and I have noticed that I can only clip away so much. There is this very reddish skin (epidermis?) underneath the dead stuff that is very painful when I touch it... I assume this is not the wart itself, but the layer of skin that is not usually exposed. So where is the wart? I still have an interrupted foot pattern, so I think the wart is still there... I haven't had one of this "one day I pulled on it, and a whole plug came out" experiences.

I am going to try the doctor next, to see if they can freeze it off... I don't know what else to do. Does duct tape really work better than these Dr. Scholl's thingies? I'll try it, if so.

Thanks. :)

Warts on your feet are a little different as they are usually Planers warts. They are much harder to get rid of. I've had one on my foot for years...it just stays they, never going away but never doing more harm. And I've tried all orts of things short of going to a doctor for treatment.

Alright, sorry to gross everyone out again, but there is some progress on the plantar wart front and I wanted to check in.

So I've switched to duct tape, having exhausted my Dr. Scholl's supply of acidic pads. I didn't notice much difference for a while, until tonight. I started picking around the wart and noticed a ring around the edge... started pulling, and loosened up the whole thing for a good way into the skin. Weird as hell. So I started pulling harder to see if I could get the "yanking the plug out" effect... no deal, just lots of blood and pain. I numbed the thing with ice and went at it again... still attached at the bottom and not budging from there. Ouch.

So how do I get it to let go at the bottom? Do you just grit your teeth and tear the thing out, like a loose tooth, or do you keep applying the duct tape and it eventually dies at the bottom and falls out? I really want this little bitch out of my skin! :mad:

My aunt always gets them on her fingers and actually uses the ducktape method, it seems to work for her quite well. She usually leaves it on for about 2 or 3 days, if I remember correctly.

A slice of garlic can help remove warts. A friend of mine tried it on the numerous warts she had on her hands. She took a clove of garlic, sliced small slivers off that were about the size and shape of each of her warts. Then she taped them onto the warts with medical tape. She was only supposed to leave the garlic on for a couple hours but she left it on overnight. Her skin blistered under the warts where she'd left it on too long but within a week the warts had fallen off and the blisters healed.

I have also use the over the counter freezing kits. Depending on the size and location of the wart that stuff can take 2 or even 3 applications. It takes about a week for the wart to fall off or flake away.

I have a plantar wart now that's been there for a couple years. It's just now beginning to get larger and more irritating. I think the ducttape method sounds the cheapest even though it takes longer. I wonder how well it would work on a plantar wart which are the hardest to get rid of.

Hey Raeanna... that's what I'm doing with my plantar wart (which has also been around for a couple of years). It never hurt or anything, but it just annoyed me.

I do think the duct tape works better than the stuff you can buy (Dr. Scholl's), but it might be helpful if you buy the liquid salicylic acid (it's usually right next to all the other wart treatments) and put that on underneath the duct tape. I did that last night and had some good results with even more of my wart coming off, though I still don't think it's all gone. I have a huge hole in my foot now, and it hurts to walk on, but the wart is dying!! I hope.

Please let me know how your treatment goes. Seems like there is a shortage of plantar wart experiences on TFP! :)

Like I said at the start of the thread, my plantar wart ONLY went away after keeping it duct-taped. I tried freezing at the doctor's several times.

What I did: take a small piece of duct tape, cut to just larger than the wart. Place this over the wart. Then take a larger piece of tape and tape this over the area--this is the tape you will change more often. The tape directly over the wart you will leave in place as long as it lasts. Every few days, take the tape completely off (both the small and larger pieces), soak the area, and scrape it with a file (a foot file) to remove the dead skin. Apply a salicyclic acid product now if you feel like it, but you have to allow the area to dry completely before retaping.

It takes a few weeks, but it works better than anything else. Eventually, attempt to tweeze the wart out. Mine just kind of popped out. Kind of gross, actually.

Thanks for the details, Owl. :) So no bleeding for you, eh? I seem to have opened up a hole in my foot by my continual tweezing of the thing, which removes pieces of it but never quite the whole thing (as far as I can tell). I guess it's hard to know when it's gone... but right now it just hurts a lot, since it's basically an open sore and I've been putting acid in it. :p I just want to kill it... been working on it for months (Dr. Scholl's was useless). I should be more patient, I suppose.

When I was a kid my sister and I both got plantar warts, she got about 2 and I had 5. A pediatrist(foot doc) prescribed some cream that was still experimental at the time. Basically it was a white cream you put on and sealed up with a bandaid, it killed the skin where it was on-and therefor also the wart. It took a couple weeks, but it was completely painless. Just every day you had to peel off a layer of dead skin and re-apply.

So does anyone know why a doctor cant just cut them out?

I have tried the over the counter acid and found it gross, painfull, and never got rid of the wart. (only irritated it) I would keep it covered in duct tape or else let the doc remove it.

newtx, are you talking about the salicylic acid? I have been putting that on underneath my duct-tape, but am wondering if I should even be doing that (it hurts like hell). Suggestions? Does duct-tape work without accompanying acid?

abaya: I know you just want the thing gone but all that digging, making your skin raw is going to possibly make things worse.
In my previous post, I mentioned Dr. Scholl's corn pads, which, after a couple of months, got rid of the plantars wart-it came out like a cork and the hole left behind was not raw-just looked like a piercing and it too healed.
The trick is to cut the pad, tape, whatever you're using to as close to the size as you can, then secure it with a bandaid, if possible. The duct tape works because it's blocking air, essentially killing the wart. The problem is, you're killing healthy skin too.
Resist, abaya!!!! Resist the urge to dig and let the process you're using go to work. After a noticeable difference, then pull or cut.

I would leave off the salicylic acid and stay with the duct tape. The duct tape can't hurt but you've already discovered the salicylic acid can and does hurt.
ngdawg is right on the mark.

Wow, thankfully I have never gotten warts on my feet. Thankfully I have never had to go to the doctor for them either.

I use a salicyclic acid product called Wart Off once every two years or so on my hands. Probably linked to a highly stressful day, week, or meeting someone who has a new version of the wart going around. Beats me....

The salicyclic acid never hurts me at least. Just bubbles a tiny bit and smells weird for two seconds. My warts sometimes go away on their own in two weeks or so. But if they stay for a month, then I use the acid. The acid bottle says never for facial warts. Probably because of the smell or perhaps the skin is too different on the face.

No one has posted links yet for some reason.

http://www.healthsquare.com/mc/fgmc1208.htm

http://www.jyi.org/volumes/volume7/i...demichele.html

Jonathan

Oh, ngdawg, if you only knew how relevant your words were to not only my wart treatment, but the rest of my life. :) Going through this treatment is the most ghetto instruction on Buddhism I've ever experienced. :lol:

Deep thoughts aside: Okay, okay, I'll stop the acid. In fact, I stopped it today because I couldn't walk normally, it hurt so bad (24 hours after putting it on). As for the duct tape, though, I have only been putting large squares of it on my round wart. I guess I should be trimming the duct tape down to size, and then putting something else over it to make sure it won't go anywhere (as Owl has stated earlier).

On the second website posted by opus123 (thank you), it said to leave the fitted duct tape on for 6 days before replacing it... any response on that? I have been changing it every day, but that seems to be too often. When I was using Dr. Scholl's (which did almost nothing for me), I changed those every other day. Thoughts?

Btw, I really appreciate the feedback here, folks. :) Thank you!