Thursday, January 1, 2009

How I killed a very stubborn plantar wart

This blog is intended as a one-time-post detailing the process by which I successfully rid myself of a very stubborn and durable plantar wart. The purpose of this blog isn't to dole out medical advice, but rather to describe what did and didn't work in my particular scenario.

I discovered that the internet held a wealth of information with regards to treatments for plantar warts and ultimately I suppose that this blog is just another example of this. Regardless, if you've come here you either have a strange fascination with skin growths, or you're looking for advice on how to rid yourself of one of these pesky little critters. Here's my success story -- may it provide hope to you.


Your comments and tips are welcome - others may benefit from your advice.


--


Me: Male, 33, Canadian


Background:

I first discovered that I had a new foot friend midway through 2007. Having dealt with plantar warts in my childhood, I suspected immediately that I had another one. I wasn't surprised at having "caught" one since I spend an awful amount of time in public change rooms and showers and have never bothered to wear sandals. At first, I didn't think too much about the wart; I'd have to treat it like my parents did for me when I was a kid which meant nightly soaking sessions and parring away the skin. This process would last a few days, maybe a week, and then the wart would be gone. No problem I thought, I'd get around to treating it and it would be gone in no time. I procrastinated and didn't treat it immediately. A month probably passed before I started treatment.


Lessons learned: Wear sandals in public showers. Start treatment ASAP.


Treatment Attempt #1: Soak, Dig and Hack

A month passed and unbeknownst to me my little friend had rooted himself in nice and deep. From a visual perspective, my wart was about the size of the eraser head on a regular pencil. It was painless to me, but I would occasionally feel it while walking. I could feel that the skin was slightly elevated and hardened over the wart.

So I began the treatment process of digging and hacking. This consisted mostly of soaking my foot in warm water so that the skin would become soft. I would then cut away dead skin around the wart with nail clippers. It was always a personal challenge to see just how far I could dig without it becoming too uncomfortable. I figured a few days of this and I'd have the little bugger completely excavated. A couple of weeks passed and it finally donned on me that these things couldn't just be hacked out of your foot.

Lesson learned: Plantar warts are cellular based. Unless you dig out every single cell from the growth, there's not point in digging at all.

Treatment Attempt #2: Salicylic acid pads

So I headed out to the local drug store in search of an over-the-counter remedy to help me out. I found plantar wart treatment pads which looked nice and easy to use. These pads come with a medicated core that is mostly a salicylic acid based mix. The idea here is that the acid slowly kills the skin around the wart, and the wart itself. The medication causes your skin to turn white (which is dead skin), and you can then peel/cut some away before applying a fresh pad. It's a little messy, but would gradually lead the killing the wart... or so I thought.

I used these pads for about two months. Each night I'd peel off the used pad, clean the skin, and cut and file away as much dead skin as possible. It did look like I was getting closer to the root of the wart, but unfortunately there was a lot of collateral damage to the skin around the wart. My eraser head sized wart was being treated, but so was a quarter-sized area of skin around the wart. The pads slid around under my sock and would require re-centering during the day. You might have more success taping the pads down a little more to prevent movement, but ultimately for me the wart and surrounding skin became quite painful. Not a harsh pain, but more of a throbbing type of pain when I'd walk on it. Of more concern was that I couldn't tell if the wart was dying or not; the skin had become so messy around the wart. I continued to use this treatment for a couple of months, and eventually had had enough and stopped, not really knowing if the wart was dead or not. After a couple of weeks, my skin returned to normal color and it became clear to me that warty was still there.

Lesson learned: it is difficult, if not impossible, to tell if the wart is actually dead.

Treatment Attempt #3: Salicylic pastes

I turned to using Salicylic acid pastes next, after discovering that warty wasn't dead. Duoplant was the brand I bought. The two advantages the paste had over the pads were that it was cheaper, and it had a slightly higher concentration of acid, which I thought would be helpful. Over the course of another couple of months, I applied the cream, covered the wart, removed the bandage, soaked the foot, parred away skin and repeated the process daily. Ultimately, the effect of the pastes is the same as that of the pads. There was a lot of collateral damage, and my foot became painful. I endured this for another couple of months and actually felt that progress was being made. It was taking a lot longer than I thought, but on a daily basis I was able to hack out a good chunk of dead skin. I felt that if I kept this up I'd have this thing beat. Again, another problem with the paste is that the skin became so messy and raw around the wart that it became difficult to tell whether the thing was dead or not. After another month of this, I thought it was dead.

Lesson learned: to kill a wart, you've got to kill every single cell of the virus. If you can't tell whether you've accomplished this, then you're wasting your time.

Treatment attempt #3.5: A visit to the physiotherapist?

Ok ,I'll admit that this has little to do with the treatment of my plantar wart, but it's a funny aside that I'll mention. Over the course of the past few months I'd developed a sore hip/groin muscle. I couldn't figure out what was causing it, but thought it was probably the result of the biking I do, or the hockey I play. I ignored it, figuring it would go away as these things generally do. It didn't. I decided to go and see my physiotherapist who helped me treat it with a variety of stretches and exercises. This helped a little, but the nagging pain was still there.

Only months later did it occur to me that the pull was being caused by the stretched position I'd assume when treating my plantar wart. Sitting on the side of the bathtub, with my foot pulled up over my other leg's knee and my back hunched over was causing a strain on my hip/groin!

Lesson learned: stretch before you pull your body into uncomfortable positions. :-)

Treatment attempt #4: Duct tape

A few weeks passed during which time the skin on my foot healed and returned to a normal looking state, not the gnawed up white mess that was caused by the acid paste and my digging. And when things cleared up .... lo and behold, I still had a wart. I donned on me that I had probably under-estimated the durability of this thing and I started to wonder just how deep it was rooted. As luck would have it, I had a regular Dr. appointment scheduled. I asked my Dr about the wart, her response after examining it and parring away some dead skin was that "it looked quite small, and was almost gone. I mentioned to her the failed attempts with pads and paste. She suggested two things: 1) using liquid nitrogen to freeze the wart, and 2) using duct-tape to cover the wart.

The theory behind duct tape is referred to as occlusion therapy whereby you cover a wart for an extended period of time which triggers stimulation of the immune system to fight the wart. She mentioned I'd have to come back multiple times for the freezing therapy and suggested I give the duct tape a try. Before I left, she did apply liquid nitrogen to the wart and suggested that this "might just do it", but to use the duct tape in case it re-appeared. A week later, I examined my foot and was frustrated to see that the freezing hadn't worked. But hey, I had duct tape to look forward to, so I wasn't all that down on it. And so began my "experimental" treatment phase of my plantar wart. I mean hell, she's a Dr., and must know what she's talking about. This duct-tape has got to work, right?!

Lesson learned: Don't mess around with these things and experimental treatments... go to the Dr consistently until it is dead.

Duct tape... what could be easier... simply cut away a small piece of tape that covers the wart, tape it on, and wear it... all day. Change tape as needed. So simple... so easy.... so painless... so... so.... so.... useless. I wore freakin' duct tape for over three months and nothing ever happened. The wart did begin to look "agitated", but it never disappeared.

After three months I became impatient. I decided to start applying salicylic acid paste under the duct tape and resorting to a combination of tape and soaking/digging/hacking. My foot became a bloody mess, but I didn't care at this point, this was all out war. Another month of this and I gave up. My foot was constantly in pain from the collateral damage of the acid paste, my socks were all ruined from duct tape stickiness and I was really back to square 1. Again, it became difficult to tell if the wart was dead. I held a faint glimmer of hope that it might be, but after stopping tape/paste treatment the skin healed over and revealed that warty was still there.

Lesson learned: There are tonnes of people who swear by this treatment, or a variety of other ones. Google "duct tape wart" if you want proof. I'm sure people have had success with pads, paste and freezing too. However, what I was quickly learning was the not all treatments worked for everyone.

Treatment Attempt #5: Home Freezing Kits

Back to the drugstore I went, looking for another option. Having been to the Dr. who tried freezing, I decided to try the home freezing remedy kits. They are fairly easy to use, and I found them to be quite painless. By this time, however, my pain tolerance threshold for my foot had increased somewhat. Freezing kit instructions say to apply the freezing tip to the wart for roughly 20 seconds, and to repeat in a week or so. I kicked it up a notch - I applied multiple "freezes" to the wart and surrounding skin, and did so every other day. Between freezes I would cut/dig away skin. At first I though the results I was seeing were positive. I was able to hack out pieces of warty skin and thought I was getting to the root. It was cleaner than the creams, and more controlled in the application. I had hope...

After burning through a couple of freezing kits, I was left with a painful foot ... and a wart. It turns out I just couldn't get to the root of the thing without it being too uncomfortable.

Lesson learned: The roots on plantar warts can be quite deep.

For what its worth, OTC freezing kits are not nearly as powerful as the liquid nitrogen administered by a Dr. One treatment I never tried was the consistent application of liquid nitrogen.

The Spread:

I spent a good amount of time worrying about spreading my plantar wart to my wife. She warned me daily saying "If I get one of these on my feet...(insert random threat here)". I was careful enough not to walk around barefoot, and to ensure that I cleaned up my "surgery" area after treating the wart, but we did sleep in the same bed after all. Luckily we did not share a shower.

And then the spread happened. Not to my wife, but to my other foot. Yup, old warty had a new friend, in roughly the same place on my other foot.

Lesson learned: Plantar warts spread. I knew this already, but I'll reiterate it here because anyone dealing with these should know that they are contagious.

Treatment Attempt #6: The Chiropodist and Beetles

So here I was. Several month of treatment later and not only did I still have the wart, it had also managed to spread to my other foot. My original wart looked battle hardened. I knew now that it was deeply rooted and seemed to have some sort of magical power for healing itself. With everything I had tried, I just couldn't get to the bottom of it.

My new wart was much smaller and looked more manageable. Still, I wasn't about to try the same series of treatments on it. It was time to see an expert. I found a local chiropodist. I'm not sure these guys are actually experts in warts, but the one I saw definitely made a good business treating them. Over the course of the next 8 months I visited him roughly 14 times. Each visited lasted about 3 minutes, and cost $40. That's good business.

My chiropodist's recommendation was to use some sort of cantharidin based cocktail he had. Cantharidin is a blistering agent that is apparently secreted by some species of beetles. I thought, hey why not, I wore duct tape on my foot for 3 months, so why not give beetle juice a shot.

My chiropodist applied a very small amount of the beetle juice to the warts (both of them), cover it with medical tape, and send me home. About 3-4 hours later, things would become very uncomfortable. About 5-6 hours later, I couldn't walk on my feet and just sitting around was painful. The best thing to do was to go to bed. In the morning, I would remove the tape (which wasn't fun) and then lance the huge blister that had formed over the wart and surrounding skin. There was definitely a lot of collateral damage to using this method. After lancing the blister, it would drain, and thing would be more comfortable again. Over the course of the next couple of days, the blister would require more draining, and on the fourth day I was able to peel the blister. That's when things got interesting. Peeling the blister really allowed you to get a good view of the wart. Mine was lighter in colour, and really stood out set against the pink fleshyness of the surrounding skin. After peeling the blister, the foot would be uncomfortable again for a day or two, so really it may have been better not to peel the blister. But I couldn't help it - I had to see what was going on under there... and I was willing to put up with the discomfort.

After my first application of beetle-juice, my "new" wart was gone. My original wart definitely required another application. But hey! This worked! It had destroyed one of my warts! And so I returned two weeks later - filled with hope - for what I thought would be the final application to old warty - the killing blow, the coup de grace.

After peeling that blister, I knew it was a no-go. Warty would require another application.

Application #3 came and went. We needed another.

This went on for a total of 5 applications, spaced by two weeks. I deduced that old warty was just being giving too much opportunity to heal in between applications. I requested that we up the application to every 7 days. And so we did this, for 3 more consecutive weeks. Applying this stuff every 7 days was uncomfortable. Each time I'd return for an application, my skin was hardly healed from the previous week. Peeling the blister on day 4 became important, if not just to allow the skin to harden a little before the next beetle juice application.

After the third consecutive week application, my chiropodist concluded that we had killed the wart, except for a very tiny speck left to which he applied liquid nitrogen freezing. I said "Are you sure?", he said probably. I didn't feel good about it, but trusted his recommendation... somewhat. On the way out I bought a home freezing kit and drained the thing into the speck that was left, just for good measure.

I then had a glorious wart free life ... for 4 weeks.

I was carefully monitoring the wart spot, and sure enough the wart started to grow back and returned to it's good old self. I was fed up. To make matters worse, another bump had started to form about a quarter of an inch from the initial wart. I didn't think much of this at the time, but later came to realise that it was an entirely new root that had spawned. Regardless, I decided to take some time off treating it - it was summer and I was sick of spending all my time limping around. I didn't want to think about it for some time.

Lesson learned: "Specks" are dangerous. Treat the last little speck like you would a brand new wart.

Treatment Attempt #7: The Internet

Ah the Internet - a perfect source of medical information. My chiropodist visits had turned out to be fruitless, and I'd maxed out my work benefits for paying for the appointments. I turned to the internet for help.

And that's when things got funky... home remedies for plantar warts were everywhere. Two that stood out for me were Apple Cider Vinegar and banana peels.

Apple Cider Vinegar: oh how I hate thee

After doing a lot of "internet research", I decided to try the ACV approach. The approach was simple. Soak a cotton ball in ACV and tape it to your foot overnight. Some people complained of mild "burning" pain, others said they felt nothing. Being the seasoned plantar wart warrior that I was, I decided that I would continue hacking/digging in between ACV applications. I figured anything I could do to expose the root would be beneficial. The first night I applied ACV, I examined the wart the following morning, and IT HAD TURNED BROWNISH IN COLOR. Holy cow - this is exactly what the internet said would happen! I was definitely on my way to a cure! I continued to hack out bits of brown and to apply the ACV. I did this for about 1.5 months... at which point in time I gave up. The main reason I gave up was that ACV applied to my pulpy hacked up foot was BLOODY PAINFUL. I can recall waking up in the night and limping to the bathroom to tear the cotton ball off. It throbbed, it burned, and it was just plain and simple too uncomfortable for me, even after diluting the ACV with water. After enduring it for a month and a half I'd had enough.

Some may argue that had I stuck it out this treatment would have worked. I'm not sure I agree. 1.5 months seems like long enough to have tried. My personal opinion is that the ACV was good at killing the surface area of the wart, but that the underlying root remained unaffected.

On an unrelated side note, I used the ACV application in parallel on a wart I had on my finger... and it worked like a charm. The thing dried up and fell off. My plantar wart, on the other hand, just seemed to drink the stuff. Your mileage may vary.

Lesson learned: The internet can lie to you, especially when it comes to medical advice. Who knew!?

Banana peels... rock bottom

Next I tried taping banana peels to the wart, as suggested on many "credible" internet sites. I'm not going into details of this treatment, but let's just say I tried this only because I was freakin' desperate. I was a pesimistic trying the "treatment" and sure enough it had the results I expected; a gooey foot.

Lesson learned: Banana peels really aren't the slippery to walk on. :-)

I'd hit rock bottom. For the love of god, I'd just spend a week with banana peels taped to my sole! I could still try garlic as others suggested on the internet, or my personal favourite which consisted of rubing a potato on the wart and then burying it in your backyard. Yes, google it, it's really out there as a wart cure...

I gave up on internet "cures".

Treatment Attempt #8: Salicylic Gel

I was out of ideas. The only thing in the drugstore I hadn't tried was the salicylic acid that came in a gel form. I convinced myself that if I just stayed persistent with this stuff, the wart would be gone. This was a mistake really, and I'm not sure why I decided this. I'd tried salicylic acid cures for about half a year with no success, still, I naively managed to convince myself that the gel would be different. Over the course of two months I emptied a bunch of gel tubes into the wart, and continued with the dig and hack approach. All of this amounted to little more than another couple of months with an uncomfortable foot.

Lesson learned: Gels are not magical. Surprisingly, they behave much the same way as the pastes (granted, they are a little less messy).

Treatment Attempt #9: Return of the Beetle Juice (Cantharidin)

I reviewed my (non) progress thus far. I had been battling this plantar wart for about 1.5 years now, including the "timeOff" I took from treatments. The very thought of this made me want to both laugh and cry. I concluded that the limited success I'd had was with the use of cantharidin. I returned to the chiropodist. He laughed when I told him all the internet remedies I had tried. I swore at him for not finishing the job the first time. He told me that all a wart required to survive was a single skin cell. He then went on some rant about plantar warts being viruses, and that viruses would take over the world someday, and blah blah blah. Very reassuring, I told him.

With that in mind, I told him that I wanted consecutive weekly treatments of beetle juice. I knew what to expect, but was willing to put up with the discomfort. I knew that I would go at least 4 treatments, which is one more than I did initially.

And so that is what I did. After peeling the blister after treatment #1, I got a clear look at the wart. It looked bigger. Meaner. And more defiant. It also became clear to me that the secondary bump I had noticed earlier was in fact a new wart root. Luckily both warts were close enough to treat with a single cantharidin application. And so treatment continued.

After the second treatment the wart looked injured, but determined... the smaller wart looked almost gone.

After the third treatment, the wart was barely noticeable, and the smaller wart was gone. Having learned my lesson once already, I requested a fourth treatment.

At this point in time, the chiropodist suggested taking a week off. The treated portion of my foot had become quite raw, and a number of skin layers had been peeled off. Another treatment would be the 4th administered in a 22 day span. The recommended treatment period, he told me, was every 7-10 days. I knew better than to stop now - taking a week off would allow old warty to regroup and build up his defenses. I ordered the treatment.
When 4 days later I peeled the blister, I was fairly confident the war was over. There was nothing but pink skin, and everything felt correct to my touch. The wart root area that always felt different, now felt like other parts of my foot. I debated going for a 5th treatment, but decided against it. I suspect the chiropodist may not have administered it anyway, given the rawness of my foot.

Several weeks passed and the layers of skin regrew. I kept a close eye on the new skin, looking for signs of the wart, but none appeared. On a few occasions I was a little suspect because of skin coloration, but this proved to be only the incoming skin pigmentation.

Now, 3 months later, I remain wart free. Thankfully the battle is over. From time to time my foot feels a little tingle in the wart area (not painful, but like an old reminder), and I suspect this is related to any scarring that may have been caused by the beetle juice applications. I expect this sensation to disappear eventually.

And that concludes my plantar wart story and lessons learned. I hope that this blog helps you if you are trying to get rid of one of these buggers. May you learn from my mistakes.

Lesson learned: Be persistent and overtreat the wart if you think it's dead.

Summary:

Time spent treating wart: 1.5 years.

Money spent treating wart: chiro ~= $500, OTC treatments ~= $200

Professionals seen: 1 family Dr., 1 chiripodist

Most painful treatment: short term=Apple Cider Vinegar. Longer term = cantharidin.

Most destructive treatment: cantharidin.

Final recommended treatment: cantharidin. Doses= 4 total, 1/week, consecutive weeks.

372 comments:

  1. Thank you for the story and your tips - it is nice to see that others are struggling as much with these as me.

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  2. I just came across this and I totally laughed with some of your wit. I can relate tenfold.

    I am currently struggling with my first ever plantar's wart. I discovered my 'something' around January and have only Google'd and realized what it was a couple weeks ago. Let me say, it is in fact, the opposite of fun.

    I am going to try the apple cider vinegar method starting tonight. I truly believe, based on so many testimonials, that this will work. I also agree this probably would have worked for you - had you STOPPED trying to play doctor ;-) I'm convinced trying to hack makes it 100% worse. Let the ACV do the work 12 hours at a time and let the darn thing fall off on its own.

    I have 2 months until my wedding and what I hope to be a plantar free honeymoon on the beach. Cross your fingers for me ...

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  3. Well, I wish you all the best with the ACV -- many people swear by it. You're probably right about the hacking - it made the ACV painfully untolerable for me. Let me know how it goes.

    Best of luck - I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed for you.

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  4. Thank you for your blog on this! I am getting to my wits end and have just started the bettle juice treatment and it HAS to work - i had one plantar 2 years ago and it has spread to 4! ick. bane of my existence. Thanks for your very helpful postings; i'll let you know if i discover anything else that works!

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  5. Thanks for your blog...I have also read and tried Tea Tree oil to be successful. I must admit, it does hurt, but not for long. After soaking my foot in water, I scrape off the area and then apply the tea tree oil. Another tactic is to soak foot in water with a few drops of tea tree oil in it then continue to second step of scraping. I find it is working a bit as I have uncovered the callisus that have grown and can now see the blood vessels...Hopefully, not much longer now...

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  6. Where do you find a doctor to administer the beetle juice? Can any doctor do it?

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    1. I went to a dermatologist to get my beetle juice treatment. They told me that they remove all of that nasty skin to get down to the wart when it gets all crusty to effectively apply the beetle juice. Without removing the crust, it wouldn't soak in to the wart itself.

      Yesterday was my first beetle juice treatment. It hurts like hell and I am limping at times to walk. I will keep at it until it is done, I hope.

      They gave beetle juice as an option. I was all for that, after 1 year or so with this. It does spread, now to two little ones in the same area of the left foot.

      The freezing works on tiny ones, but just to knock it down. Not to knock it out.

      I have done the home treatment freezing and now the home treatment acid. I tried the dermatologist acid before that. The acid seems really useless. It just makes you think you are getting somewhere.

      My mistake was every stopping treatment to heal it. Like a boxer, when you see the opponent on the ropes you don't want for him to revive. You just keep punching at it until it is out for for good and then some.

      My medical doctor carved at my foot twice. It would keep coming back. I wasn't going to give him a third time with the scalpel. My bloody sock looked like a crime scene.

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    2. Your post made me laugh like crazy. I got this planters wart like 6 months ago and we began to treat it right away because me brother had one so we knew what it was. My doctor decided a supposedly less painful way. This includes putting a sticky medical tape over it which kills the skin. Then a week later I go back and he scrapes it. I have a "hole" in my foot. I wait a week. The skin pushes up the wart. And Within a few weeks it was supposed to be gone right? Not. It's been six months and I'm tired of it because it hurts to swim and do sports and I'm a highschool swimmer so I swim a lot. I can't afford to have my foot hurt everytime I walk or it touches wager. I think I'm going to try one of the methods you used because this method is just painful as hell.

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  7. The specialist I saw who administered the beetle juice was a chiropodist. Chiropodists are not actually doctors, just specialized feet people. There may be chiropodists or podiatrists in your area who use the treatment. Call and ask if they administer cantharidin and they should be able to tell you.

    Upate on me: roughly 6 months later, still wart free. Hooray!

    Good luck to all.

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  8. ok .. now a pain free way to get rid of them litte black boogers .. dont laff .. its been tested and it works!!! i have done it myself.. told my sons friend and he tried it .. now my son has been battling these boogers for years ... PEE on them!!! thats right URINate on them and i give you my personal gaurantee that will get rid of them ..

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  9. Umm, yes... well, haven't heard that one yet. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, although I have to admit that I'm highly skeptical of your solution.

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  10. fellowvcanadianwartwarriorJune 9, 2009 at 10:02 AM

    I laughed, I cried (from the pain in my foot, that is). Oh how I wished I would be reading an alternative method success story! I had 5 consecutive treatments by another beetlejuice administrator and was too busy to keep going! No, I thought, I will conquer this sucker myself. Here we are...5 years later!! I haven't had a professional pedicure in 5 years!!!

    Thanks for the laughs and nice to know someone else has suffered almost as much as I have! Back to the beetlejuice doc I go...

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    Replies
    1. I got mine FROM a professional pedicure!

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  11. thanks for sharing your story. i had one of these buggers too starting in april of 2007. i used the otc dr scholls freezing treatment. that worked to kill the pain and ultimately to just have the skin harden over that area. the area occassionally became sore to the touch and slightly painful but i didn't really bother with it much since it was basically pain free most of the time. recently, i decided that i wanted to get rid of these unsightly bastids on my foot (it has grown to become a cluster of 5) since they are ugly and spreadable (thus no pedicures). right above the balls of foot, below the toes (good for not having to walk on them, bad for attempting to treat them). about a week ago i began a regimen of ACV soaked cotton balls covered in duct tape. when possible i'd wear it during the day and change it before going to bed. so far, i will say that i've seen two of the smaller fellas blacken up and appear ready to leave my foot. in the other 3 ive seen them swell up, become mildly painful and just recently begun to see the black dot forming in the middle.

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  12. I have purchased beetle juice online from Canada to treat them. After you know how the Doc does it it is really easy to do yourself and much cheaper in the long run.

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  13. Trying the beetle juice. Big blister still there after 1 week. Are you supposed to lance it or leave it? Thanks for the tips! It seems the internet has 1 million versions of the same three sentences on beetle juice treatment.

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  14. In my particular case, the blister caused from the beetle juice treatment became so filled with liquid approximately 6 hours after treatment that it would be too painful to walk on. Draining the blister (lancing it, as recommended by chiropodist) was the only way to make it tolerable again. Good luck with your self-treatment.

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  15. I got rid of a really stubborn one using Salacytic acid until I was deep down, then used freezing to go the last mile. I started off using the goop, and soaking in epsom salts. Then peeling off the dead skin. Once i got down to red iritated skin, thats when I started freezing. I froze more frequently than the directions, and held it there much longer. It hurt(a lot), but it killed it.
    Ended up getting a big blister from the freezing that was also painfull, but it did get deep down enough to finally kill the wart.

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  16. I just had my third round of blister beetle treatment. It's working - I have a mosaic of warts on the ball of my foot, and it's/they are definitely shrinking (months of all sorts of over the counter treatments, duct tape, freezing at the doctor's office and burning w/needle at doctor's did nothing). The blistering is quite painful, but I am learning to drain the blister earlier in the process so that I can walk without too much difficulty.

    My podiatrist has told me that surgery is probably the worst option for plantar's warts, as he has patients who had that treatment performed (not by him) who have to see him a few times a year for removal of painful scar tissue on their feet.

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  17. Thanks so much for your story. It's so great to hear a story of victory. I've had my little friend for about 5 years now, and have digged, scraped, frozen, had injected, cut out and cautorized, all to no avail. I've duct taped, I've used vitamin E, salic acid pads, home freezing. EVERYTHING!
    I have to say, getting an injection in the bottom of my food in the raw senstitive area around the wart was one of the most painful experiences of my life, I honestly don't know if I could handle it if the beetlejuice is that strong. But if thats what it takes to be able to walk normally again with this thing off the bottom of my foot, I guess I should give it a try.

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  18. I have to say,I am so happy to have found this blog.I have tried everything except the beetlejuice.I am at the ACV phase.It is so painful but there is a pretty large patch of brownish,black under the skin.I hope that means its working.I guess I just keep up this routine until it falls off?? I am limping everywhere!! I am trying to leave it alone.I wonder if you had left it be and not done surgery,if that would have worked for you? I hate this!!!!! I will let you know if it works! Glad I am not alone!! :)

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  19. To second last commentor: Yuck, I can't imagine cutting/cautorizing. You do, after all, need to use your feet for walking!! I doubt you'd find the beetle juice that painful. And most of the pain is short lived until you drain the blister.
    Good luck!

    To last commentor: My experience with the ACV was that the wart turned brown and soft, but never died. Success stories I've read for ACV treatment said that the wart would eventually turn black, harden up, and eventually fall out. I never experienced this. After soaking in ACV for a fairly long time all I got was a brownish wart that wouldn't die. Your mileage may vary! Best of luck.

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  20. (last posted 7/29/2009) Today was blister beetle treatment #4. Definite improvment in the wart. I am not being as aggressive as you were, instead going every three - four weeks; but the skin generally heals a bit between treatments (and this last treatment, things seemed to still be working two + weeks after treatment). Doc says foot is looking good, with lots of shrinkage, though it may take another treatment or two.

    I also get the occasional acupuncture needle stuck in the blister to help heal. That's painful, but bearable!

    Thanks for you story, it's helped me...and reinforced the treatment my doctor was giving me! Helps me not give up, keep my positive attitude and certainty that this is the solution for me!

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  21. To last poster -- Glad to hear things are going well for you - hopefully a few more treatments and you'll be done! Keep at it!

    It's funny, I'm generally not phased by too much but having this wart and not being able to "cure" myself of it took a serious toll on my mental well-being. I don't think I've ever been depressed, but the closest I've come was in treating this wart and not being able to beat it for so long. Makes me hope I never get a serious illness. Keep up the positve attitude.

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  22. I’m currently in the process of getting rid of my foot “friends” and from what it looks like it seems that my podiatrist is using the beetle treatment (based on the descriptions provided). I just went for my 2nd treatment and hopefully I won’t have to go back more than a couple more times. I read what others have mentioned regarding the blisters, but noticed that everyone experienced SOME pain. In my case it’s VERY painful to the point that I cannot walk or even touch the foot :( I tried to drain the blister myself, but due to the severe pain I was not able to.
    Just curious if it was very painful for everyone that tried it or if I’m just very unlucky to have such a strong reaction to this treatment. My podiatrist said that the severe reaction means that the treatment is working well… guess that’s the only good thing so far considering the pain… Hope to be pain and wart free soon!
    Best of luck to everyone! :)

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  23. To Anon 8/25. Yes, often VERY painful. I generally have taken the day after the treatment off from work because I can't put weight on it (ball of my foot), nor can I put shoes on. I've had multiple treatments, usually on a Thursday, so I can be at home for a few days. Soaking my foot in cool water helps a bit, but this most recent treatment I kept getting woken up during the night by the pain from the blistering. But it's working, so...

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  24. Thanks for sharing your experiences! I understand fully the trials and tribulations of plantar wart removal. I saw a podiatrist probably four years ago for an ingrown toenail and he mentioned treating the eight plantar warts I had. "Nah. They don't bother me," was my ignorant response. They now COVER half of my foot and are starting up the side - probably fifty or more, so close together you can't even count them! I don't think I'm brave enough to handle the beetle juice for such a large area, so I guess I'm stuck. I'm apparently not one of those people who will have them spontaneously resolve, but I do promise to wear shoes in public areas to save other poor souls! I do worry that I'll pass the virus on to my toddler because we only have one working tub/shower (my husband must be immune after all this time, so he's on his own). I would feel horrible if she would end up with plantar warts!

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  25. I wrote all the way back in the being of August.. I am at my wits end! I have been putting ACV on EVERYNIGHT since. (Maybe a couple days I didn't. It hurt too bad..)About once a week I HAD to peel off the gross,black callus that had developed.It had to be working... I would be delighted at my beautiful, seemingly wart free foot.Then,just to make sure its really gone,I'd put it on again.The black specks,even sometimes blisters would come right back. Really??? How is this thing not gone??????????? I have been doing this since August!!!!!! I know you aren't a doctor but I had to vent somewhere.I don't have the money to go to doctors and get this thing burned over and over!! AAAHHHHHH!!!!!! What do I go from here? Do I keep doing this? I have been telling myself it took a long time to get this way..It will just take awhile to get rid of it.What do you think??

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  26. PS...Sorry for all the grammar errors.. :)

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  27. To Anonymous, Oct 20th: My experience with the ACV was similar. I tried it for a long time, and although it seemed to be doing some good, it never got the job done. Couple that with the pain of it all, and I gave it up. I'm not one to dole out medical advice, but I can only share with you my experience -- I gave up on it and moved on. 3 months seems like an awefully long time to be uncomfortable from the ACV. Best of luck to you.

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  28. My teenage daughter and I have identical big toe plantar warts. I feel like nothing will cure them. We have had 6 blister beetle treatments and we still have live warts. It is so unbelievable. I was looking at all the options out there but thinking after my research that we should just keep up with the blister treatment. It will probably just take longer than what we hoped. Unfortunately there is evidently no quick cure to this. I am afraid it will destroy her future in sports.

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  29. Am embarrassed to admit, I've had a bitch of a wart on the underside of my thumb - been there for SEVEN years! Have tried everything, including the (shudder) blistering treatments, injections, OTC crap, duct tape, painting it with nail polish - as the main theme here seems to be deprive it of air, and moisture. Okay. I did that. Repeatedly. Went to a dermatologist, who doesn't want to surgically remove it, as it's imbedded around a nerve ending (hmm...sheds some light on the INTOLERABLE pain when I dig at it!) - so, as above, I read and did everything I read about online - one you didn't mention? Crush up an aspirin, mix in ACV, plaster on, and hope to pass out before pain is too unbearable.

    No success.

    Read further online, (let me just mention, I was raised by doctors, so a little at home surgery really didn't seem out of the question) discovering a doctor in CA, who specializes in removal of nasty warts by using a blood flow blocking agent, essentially creating a moat around the exterior of the wart, and using a miniature melon baller, scoops the damn thing out. No blood flow blocking agent, but I had ice, a tumbler of scotch, a sterile razor, and some really sharp pedicure tools.

    I drank, while numbing; two cubes for scotch, seven for thumb, laid out a towel, and proceeded to get to work. I dug a moat. (blood blocking injection may help...became a bit messy, and hard to see originally) and finally hacked away until I had a crater the size of a dime in my thumb. According to CA dr? All wart tissue comes out looking like melon ball.

    Figured, success was mine!

    Proscribed myself some more medicinal scotch for the pain, bandaged it up, and called it night.

    The damn thing has returned. Less than a week later. More pissed off than before.

    So now what?!?!?!

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    Replies
    1. Ever tried using a whole piece of aspirin? It may sound dumb, but it worked for 2/3 warts that I had on my hand which didn't respond to traditional treatment.

      Basically, you take a piece of aspirin (do not crush it), wet it, put it on the wart, and wrap a band-aid around it. Make sure the area stays wet and the skin gets pruny. Leave the aspirin there for 2 to 3 days.

      I know it sounds like some more folklore, but it actually works (and hurts). I think the key is make sure it stays wet and that the skin absorbs the aspirin.

      Give it a shot. It only takes about 2 days.

      Delete
  30. And I thought I was all alone. I have (so far) a total of five spread out among my fingers. I've been working on one for the past year and left the others alone until I find something that works for this one. I obviously can't have all my fingers hacked up at the same time. Vinegar failed, OTC freezing them worked for a few days only to have it return full force, attempting to dig it out with fingernail clippers failed, nail polish failed, attempting to cover it with a bandaid constantly failed, duct tape failed. SO NOW I'm trying the OTC liquid blistering agent PLUS covering it with duct tape. It looks as if it's dying... if puffing up and skin flaking off in big clumps = dying...? Can't afford the doctor... don't have insurance. I guess I'm stuck wrapping band aids around it for all eternity if this doesn't work. The other four I leave uncovered for fear that they'll all become painful and I won't be able to function properly. So far they haven't spread to anyone but me. I'm very afraid that my five year old daughter might get them, but so far so good. I'm really surprised that science hasn't come up with a end all way to get rid of them... with all the technology out there. I realize some of these methods work for some people, but what of us that it doesn't work for and that aren't able to pay for repeated doctor visits? Ahhhhhh!!!! Frustration is an incredible understatement!

    Thanks for blogging about your experiences! Maybe in a few weeks I'll be able to come back on here and tell of my winning remedy.

    -me

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  31. I loved reading about your experiences. Reading this and the comments at least makes me feel like I'm part of a group of people I can empathize with. I have a banana peel strapped to my foot as I type this..

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  32. I've made a little headway... I know most of you are talking about plantar warts... and I just realized mine are probably common warts... but either way a huge black chunk of mine came off today! :D I've been putting the acid stuff that comes with wart removal kits on it and then covering it with duct tape. It seems to be working though my finger looks pretty rough. I think once it all dies it'll clean back up and HOPEFULLY stay away. I'll post some more progress soon.

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  33. PlatarWartWarrior, this blog is a Godsend!! I have had my stubborn plantar wart for about 1.5 years, with little success at subdueing it. I never knew this could be such a battle! I mean, silly ol' me, I thought all you have to is go to a doctor, problem solved, no worries. Now I have learned I need to stay on top of this myself as well!

    I am VERY interested by this cantharidin treatment- this is the first I have heard of it, and I am itching to try it. Compared to all the salicylic acid liquid, gel, and pad treatments (and garlic taped on my foot! OUCH!!), and digging, hacking and bleeding I have endured, this seems both bearable and effective. I will be commenting again to report any updates.

    Oh yeah, and I'm gonna PRAY!!

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  34. Is it possible that the more digging and hacking you do the more of an opening is left for any remaining cells to reinfect? Presumably if you have had them for a while then even if you clear the site they may be around in the local environment?

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  35. Brilliant detail! I was really hoping for the ultimate cure to cost less than $500 though!! argh!

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  36. over 30 years of there and gone and back again. this little bugger has been with me most of my life!!! so of course, I seriously decided to kill it recently. did the beetle juice 6 times, cauterizing and melon ball removal 3 times. I'm back to Dr. Scholls. at least it's keeping it from getting bigger! the doctor treatments have amounted to over $1000.00 and my husband freaked out. so I'll continue to do the dr. scholls stuff until modern medicine conquers the blasted virus!

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  37. That's a really depressing story, you must have been so frustrated! I used to have lots of little plantars on my feet and eventually (after some picking and digging) they just went away on their own. It took probably a year but they just slowly dissapeared. The two that I have now I'm pretty sure are gone due to Liquid Salicylic Acid which works really well if you're cool getting down and dirty with lots of peeling and digging. They're pretty much gone, HOORAY!

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  38. Quick update from me... June 2010 - still wart free. Good luck to all.

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  39. has anyone used dehorning cream? i knew a boy that use it on his warts on his arm. i was wondering if any one else has used it on planters warts and how it worked.

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  40. Wow! I had one of these in high school & my 13 year old daughter has one now- a horrible big one on the ball of her foot. I killed mine by putting on a regular wart treatment- I remember I painted it on. I had to wear sandals for a week because it hurt really bad, then one day it was a gross sac of pus(sorry) and I lanced it to drain. I picked all the skin and crud off and that was it-still have the little scar. I can't find the treatment I used, but we have tried the salicylic acid, the freezing and the banana. No luck yet! I'm going to look in some other stores for the regular wart liquid stuff. If I find it, I'll let you all know. Best of luck- I am going to destroy it!!!

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  41. Thank you for the tips. I'm going on six years with my plantar wart.

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  42. I have struggled with one plantar wart on my heel for over 9 years, and had tried everything! Every Dr. Scholl product out there, duct tape, at home freezing kits...etc Nothing worked!
    I am currently in treatment with a dermatologist. I go once a week, he uses liquid nitrogen on it, and I got a prescription for sacilyic acid. I cover the wart everynight with the acid and bandage and soak it once a day in Epsom salts. Its only been 3 weeks and I have seen a huge difference. When the acid burns the skin too much and it becomes painful, i leave it for a day or too..than soak it and file off the dead skin. So far all the little black specs are gone and the skin is beginning to become smooth again.

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  43. I have used dehorning paste and found it to work well. You have to be willing to endure a burning sensation while it eats down through the roots. But it sure beats paying the Dr $200 and then having to go back because he didn't get it all.

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    Replies
    1. what the heck is dehorning cream? I am Canadian so what is it an where do u get it?

      Delete
  44. I'm bookmarking this blog. My first visitor arrived during my first pregnancy in 2005. Saw a podiatrist a year later. Seemed like it disappeared but a new one grew on my other foot. Podiatrist 'fixed' this one too however both came back within a year in the same darn spots. They don't hurt and I ignored them until recently. I'm way too embarrassed to get pedicures so my vanity has spurred my determination. So after much diligent reading on the Internet (this being the most realistic and honest site) I've determined to fight it two-fold. I truely believe the immune system has much to do with it. I contracted both of mine with each pregnancy (apparently when many women get them). I have not been careful in the past and walk barefoot on our tile and wood floors not to mention the shower stall I share with my hubby. NO one in my house has contracted one in the last 5 years. So obviously my immune system is/was compromised. Long story short I am ACV soaking, duct taping asprin AND Dr Scholls wart salcy pads AND freezing each day as well has hacking and digging (I enjoy a fight first hand). BUT just as importantly I quit smoking, take vitamins especially Vit A & E, garlic suppliments and cod liver oil pills (I'm sure I smell great not to mention the ACV smell of my feet) seriously I can't believe I'm writing this. But what I wanted everyone to know was for immunity I also take ACIDOPHILUS. It's an over the counter supplement and my kids and I have not gotten a cold since we started taking it once a day (originally suggested to me by a well respected Chiropractor). Wish I'd known about this stuff years ago. Anyway by fighting it one the inside and out I'm hopping for success. I giggle at the banana treatment but I won't rule it out ha ha. Just started my war this week. Am down to black dots and an interesting hole in each foot which foes make walk/ limping difficult. Oo last piece of advice I thought was sound was to purchase insoles and cut out holes where the warts are. The idea being plantar warts grow inward because of pressure on the sole of the feet. The insoles with appropriate cutout might help it to not grow so deep. Ill update as time goes on.

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  45. My husband and son have both been enduring the beetle juice treatment over this past summer. My husband had to cancel a business trip due to not being able to put his foot in a shoe at one point but his plantar wart appears to be gone after 3 applications. My son just received treatment #4 and he is using crutches, not able to play soccer and he heel has a blister the size of a small apple.....it truly looks like a sunny side up egg (we have pictures to prove this!) so we are praying that this will get rid of the King of the Cluster.

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  46. Has anyone had red streaks and swelling (with mild numbness) on the foot after applying Cantharidin? I just applied it about 14 hours ago and noticed a red (pinkish) streak going from the wart area around the side of the foot and just a bit on the upper side of the foot. It's faint but visible. I am concerned about possible side effects called Lymphangitis and Lymphedema.

    The swelling is small and there is some on the top of the foot at the base of the toes.

    The treated area is very painful but from reading the blogs above I see that it's to be expected. The treated area is also a bit swollen and very sensitive but I have not observed any blistering yet. It's supposed to take up to 24 hours for it start blistering though.

    Have had plantar warts for over a year and a half now. About a year after the first one, I got the second one next to it. Tried all kinds of ways to get rid of it including couple of freezing applications by a dermatologist with no results... For the past several months I've been filing it and freezing it myself about once a week to make walking more comfortable and to keep it from spreading. With every freezing application I hope it will kill the warts, but it doesn't....

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  47. I've had a wart on the ball of my foot for about 3 years now. The first time I attempted to get rid of it I treated it with acid everyday and then hacked away at it each evening. After about 2 weeks I came down to a small black sack of what I thought was the wart core. I scrapped this way and then kept treating the area for acid for about a week after. Thinking it had gone I stopped the treatment only to notice it return about a month later. Flash forward 2 years and multiple different treatments later (all of which have failed), right now I'm sitting with my feet up to avoid walking on a painful beetle-juice-reated blister. This is my second treatment. I didn't feel anything whatsoever after the first treatment about 10 days ago - I think the skin was too thick for the beetle juice to penetrate. After 10 days of acid though, I suspected that the second application would be more effective. My doctor didn't tell me to lance it and so I'm leaving it for now. No dancing this New Years Eve for me.

    I'm really hoping that this beetle stuff works as what has inspired this latest effort is the arrival of 5 new little warty friends on BOTH feet, all within the span of about 3 weeks. These were also treated 10 days ago with beetle juice - also with no reaction, however with acid treatment Doc says that these are gone now...

    The saga continues...I'll let you know how it goes with no lancing of the blister.

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  48. I sat and read every word of this blog! I have surrered from plantar warts for 2 years.. I have 2 and the bend of my big toe. VERY ANNOYING. I have tried everything listed on here. Nothing has worked. I finally buckeled down and went tot he doctor! Yesterday actually. I am on my first burn treatment. He told me to keep it bandaged for 24 hours. I took the bandages off this morning for my routine shower. I was in shock. It is completly black. Its a little less painful than it was yesterday, But after 2 years of home medicating it this is the most result i have had in a 24 hour span. I have to go back in 2 weeks for another treatment. I will keep you updated! Thanks for all the wonderful posts

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  49. Great Blog. You could do stand up comedy on this subject alone. You are very funny even though I know this is not a funny thing to have. I have been trying to get rid of mine for years and finally found that the duct tape stuff works along with the gel. I put the gel on, let it dry and then put duct tape over it for 3 days. The trick was to not use the silver cheap duct tape but Gorilla Tape or the one from Scotch which is the same, both are black tapes. They seem to have way more heavy duty glue than regular tape and since the glue seems to be the catalyst maybe that is why it worked. It took 3 weeks and then I started to peel away the dead skin and the warts just came out too. They were the size of large pencil erasers with lots of "babies". So far so good. I am not holding my breath and keep putting more gel on just in case with the tape. I figure I will smother the last cell after reading about your plight. Thanks for the blog and your great sense of humor with this!

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  50. This blog is brilliant. Its a great feeling to know im not alone. I've had mine on my foot for a year and a half now. Been treating it for 10 months now. Started with acid pads, then the acid liquid, and duct tape therapy for a total of 4 months worth of treatment. Now I'm seeing a dermatologist, where I've been getting a combination of freezing with liquid nitrogen, and beetle juice applications (at no cost by the way thanks to my beautiful health care system in Canada), it seems like it's thinning out, and I'm being hopeful. Derm said blood is bad, because it may make it easier to spread, so i would recommend not to try the cutting and hacking method that some individuals are trying.

    Austin 3:16

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  51. What a great blog. I have had a plantar wart on my right foot for a few years. Deciding to get treatment I went through several attempts of getting it frozen off, no success. What I find most frustrating is the overall fague answers I feel like I always receive. I finally decided to stop going to the dermatologist who had applied the previous freezing treatments.

    Yesterday I went to a podiatrist and he applied the bettle juice treatment. The application process did not hurt at all, and as I walked to my car I had no idea what is in store for me within the next few hours. By the end of the night I was in tears due to the medicine blistering my wart. Today (Saturday) I have been hobbling around our home just trying to rest my foot. The thought of having to put my foot in a shoe right now makes me shudder. I am planning on not draining the wart, as advised by my podiatrist. I will keep everyone updated as my next appointment is on Feb 14th (Happy Valentines Day to me).

    Good luck everyone....I am certainly ready to feel back to normal.

    -K

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  52. Had anyone had any experience with this stuff?
    http://www.wartmolevanish.com/index.html
    Also, youtube mole and wart EX clear, I think it's the same stuff. It looks like it works like a dream!!! I'm going to buy some and try it and will let you know if it gets rid of my plantar wart. THX for all your comments and for putting this blog together!

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  53. CORRECTION: MOLE AND WART EZ CLEAR, NOT EX CLEAR.

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  54. Yea, this is the funniest blog I've ever read, and I really appreciate all of the info. After trying the duct tape with salicylic acid for a couple months, I just went to a podiatrist and he applied one beetle juice dose. You certainly can feel it working. Interestingly enough, one of the assistants told me before the doc came in that when she was a kid she put CLOROX on her warts on her hands. After all it does kill 99.99% percent of all germs. She said they never came back, but you know it hurt. Just saying it would be cheaper than having the podiatrist put cantharidin on them which is painful anyway, and it might work for plantars. Admittedly though I'm going to stick with the doctor. If anyone tries it please post about it.

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  55. I've posted before - had my last cantharidin treatment in early December 2009. Still wart free! Definitely the best solution for me after years of suffering.

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  56. My 10 year old daughter got one on her heel but we didn't know what it was and she didn't show it to me until it was the size of an eraser on a pencil. We went to a podiatrist who scraped it and treated it with acid. He recommended the cheapest OTC plantar wart stuff which we used daily. Two weeks later when we went back, she had a new one on the pad of her foot. Two weeks later, she had a few more. We hacked, dug, treated, "quarantined" her foot, etc to no avail. From Oct until mid Dec, we failed at getting her body to fight these stupid things. He recommended laser surgery which we did in late Jan. He lasered off between 25 and 30 warts on both of her feet and voila - they have never returned to haunt her. I now have my first one and have been battling it for 2.5 months. Grrrrrrrr. Thanks to the author of this entertaining post for all of your tips and for sharing your story!

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  57. I have had a plantar wart for a while now.. and the only thing I have tried is ***"Dr.Scholl's Clear Away Wart Remover Salicylic Acid; with Plantar FOR FEET"*** right on the box. Yes, the pads that everybody is hating on. The medicated disks didn't seem to be helping, but with the cushioning pads, it was worth a longer try. Later down the road.. maybe a month+, all of the blood vessels that the wart used to live with ended up leaving. In your blog you seemed to take everything off the same night you placed them on; which you are NOT suppose to do. You are suppose to leave them on for the least of 48hours. Which actually does work if you do that. Worked for me. I say Salicylic Acid works; if you leave it on for 48hours or longer. [And don't get it wet, since the wart lives in moist wet areas] Showering is fun, on one foot. haha

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  58. I posted on February 24th. So it's been about 6 weeks since I had ONE cantharidin treatment on each of the two plantar warts. I didn't want to post too soon celebrating my success because I think the author here had one week of life w/o his friend, then it came back. I had Really blistered with the treatment (walked on it as little as possible, didn't touch it all week, and slept!) and when I came back a week after the application, he popped the blister and literally pulled the two warts off my foot with pliers. It hurt A LOT, but 6 weeks later, after just ONE cantharidin, my 3 year old warts are GONE.

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  59. This is hilarious.

    I've had experience with planar warts in the past, one on my right ring finger, and a couple on the heel of my right foot (started with one, gained two friends). They honestly responded best to me digging 'em out, but I also got the big one on my foot frozen a few times.

    Recently, I thought I had gained a new freckle on the palm of my right hand. Upon closer inspection (I thought it was really strange that I got a freckle on my palm) it was those little root/seed things from warts! I just dug it out a couple of hours ago (owwwww), but I'm searching for remedies online just incase it comes back (I'm now a student, and can't really afford to go to the SHC).

    Good to know about the cell bit. Hilarious post. Thanks.

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  60. This is the story of my wart treatments too! Except you killed yours in 1.5 yrs. The one I had for 11 years spread to 7 warts in the last 2 years. 13 years of plantars and no avail. I will have the hunt down the blister beetle stuff. They just won't go away. :**(

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  61. ok After week of acid and removal of 2 bb sz chunks of wart I can still pull with tweezer another bb sz gross white ball of wart up out of a giant hole in my foot .It will not come out WHAT NOW

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  62. Why are people pulling them out of their feet? Mine is gone; never feel off, and never pulled anything out. Never had a hole either..

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  63. I am also battling a set of plantar warts on my arch and big toe. The 'beetlejuice' seems to be the only thing that works once you get beyond a certain stage (the wart can be weakened with the prescription strength acid) and unfortunately it is extremely painful for 5 days afterwards due to having to walk on it. The beetlejuice seems to have a lingering inflammatory effect and the pain it just crazy. Lancing doesn't seem to work that well; the best I can get is a slow dribble of fluid and not a full deflate. My guess is that there are a bunch of little blisters in there and lancing only deflates 1-2 of them. Doing this every week might be too much, and I am hoping that weekly applications of the acid will yield success. It would be nice to be able to do this myself, because I think one key to successful treatment is being persistent and getting the timing for the attacks down. For me, 2 weeks is giving the wart too much of a chance to grow back.

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  64. Awwh, I have two of those buggers right next to each other, and right on the balls of my foot. Im to scared to hack of dig because of the pain... :(

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  65. Hit to all who try Beetle Juice you are NOT supposed to lance the blister!!!!!! Leave it there it is the fluid that fills the blister that kills the virus. This is why Plantar Wart Warriors took so long to get rid of. I had my wart for ten years and the freezing never worked, two treatments of beetle juice and they are gone. I went to a dermatologist. Good luck all!

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  66. Hey Guys! Tried all the home remedies in the book. Today I went for my first beetlejuice treatment of my very resistant planter's wart. My podiatrist told me to take Tagament to help speed the treatment up. Apparently it helps to fool the immune system. Check out the Testimonials on this site. I'm going out to get some tonight!
    http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2005/10/18/tagamet-for-warts/

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  67. Another thing to take along with the Tagament is Zinc tablets. I'm going to do three a day.
    Check out this study!!!
    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2133.2002.04617.x/abstract;jsessionid=A041D211CE82F7706049B5FA328C3801.d03t03?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+disrupted+21+May+from+10-12+BST+for+monthly+maintenance

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  68. i dunno how long i've had mine for but i have 2..one on the inner side of my left big toe and one on the pad of my right ring(?) toe. I tried freezing which didn't work and the bandaids with the acid paste..also no results. I did the banana for about a week but it never stayed in the same spot no matter how much tape i put around it so i quit that.

    I'm trying duct tape and 17% salicyclic acid now...tape keeps falling off my toes.....but as i type i can feel a tiny stinging in my big toe area...i hope the means its working!..ahh nevermind it went away...

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  69. 1 beetle juice treatment, mixed with OTC tagament pills, 3 a day for 2 weeks finally took care of it. I can walk pain free now! Hope this helps somebody out there! No amount of home treatments could even touch it. Forget the banana & vinegar, and no amount of S. acid could touch it. The beetle juice burned that sucker right off. It was just really painful for the first evening.....but it took care of it so it was worth it.

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  70. Man, this is so hilarious and painful at the same time. I'm going for my second beetle juice dose this week. First one seemed to work but then after the dust settled the wart seems to have survived. Anyone else needing to take pain killer? I'm on ibuprofen all day.

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  71. I had warts underneath my toe nails on 2 toes and all on the bottom of my big toe. I went to a nitrogen freezing every 3 weeks for 2 years and let me tell you it is the most painful thing in the world. I tried all the treatments, soaking the warts in warm water, tea tree oil, certain vitamins, compound W, sacylic acid, ACV, cutting at it, and certain tea oils, all failing to help. I went to a dermatologist and got treated with the beetle juice treatment and 2 treatments later I was wart free. Now I have a HUGE wart on the palm of my hand and just got it treated with beetle juice and now I'm going to go pop the blistery thing for the second time! Wish me luck.

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  72. I went to a new Dermatologist and had the Beetle Juice applied to two-- three year old warts two days ago. I have been in EXCRUCIATING pain. The two areas are swollen and red and they burn and throb. I can hardly walk. The other Dermatologist I went to in the past used bleomycin injections, freezing and beetle juice that never caused pain or blister. I feel ripped off by the old doctor.
    After a few days I am to apply Aldara cream daily. Does anyone have experience with this cream and what was the outcome of the treatment with Aldara? It's supposed to boost immune system.

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  73. I just got my 3rd treatment of beetle juice today and it seems like it gets more painful each time. I have 2 good size warts on the bottom of my foot that get treated along with one on the palm of my hand. I've NEVER in my life felt such excruciating pain. I've been taking vicodin and advil but it doesnt seem to help at all. Any ideas on what to take for this pain? Also how long do you guys wait before draining the blister? I wouldnt wish this pain on anybody this sucks, i cant even walk.

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  74. bummed and blisteredJuly 19, 2011 at 12:28 PM

    Great posts. I was addicted to reading all of them. I have two clusters of warts on my big toe and 2nd toe. I just got my first beetle juice treatment after trying all of the above for 1 1/2 years. I have been using aldera cream for 8 months now which is supposed to help your immune system recognize the virus. My dermotogist has been injecting the areas as well with some kind of cancer medicine. The beetle juice hurts! The blister forms under the wart and supposed to raise the wart from underneath and it pops off.
    Im on vicodin and cant walk too good on day 2 . I don't believe you should pop the blister. Good luck everybody.. also Louise Haye says they are little expressions of hate so I have been using affirmations and moving into forgiveness for those of you that are more metaphysical. Thanks i will let you know of any success! It definetly takes a one two multiple treatments at once or combo therapy. No one thing by itself seems to be effective as with HIV drugs its the combo that kicks the virus ASS!

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  75. Ugh :( I have been at war with a quarter sized plantar wart on my heel... just did the blistering beetle juice thing 2 days ago... yeah.. THROBBING pain...barely any blistering was apparent (probbly did happen but deep).
    Could not walk for a day. Like you, I've been cutting hacking, scraping, burning, taping, freezing for the past year with little to no results... I just want the bloody thing to DIE!

    going back for another beetle juice treatment in 2 weeks. We shall see. Like you I am so fed up of hobbling around and being uncomfortable walking!
    Good luck everyone!

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  76. I have been battling 2 disgusting plantar warts on the balls of my feet for 1.5 years (every OTC treatment imaginable, as well as home remedies mentioned in this blog). I finally caved and went to the dermatologist yesterday. He applied a hearty dose of beetle juice to the areas, and mentioned in a nonchalant manner that the areas will blister and be a "bit" painful during walking. OMG what an understatement!!! The blistering began within an hour and the pain has steadily increased. I had trouble sleeping last night, and this morning I have to use crutches to hobble around. The area has a constant throbbing pain with occasionally sharp shooting pain. My foot is swollen, feels heavy, and is slightly numb. The blisters are absolutely MASSIVE, looks like an alien coming out of my foot! I am presuming this is normal, especially reading others experiences above...I am willing to put up with the pain to have these unwanted "friends" GONE! OH and do NOT pop the blisters (per my dermatologist)! Treatment is much more effective (and alas, painful) to leave the blisters alone. My derm said to see him again in 4 weeks, I am praying this is the only beetle juice treatment I'll have to endure. :( GOOD LUCK TO ALL! Will keep you updated.

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  77. A few treatments which have worked for me in the past:

    For people who want a systemic treatment, drinking lots of cabbage juice (or kale, or other cruciferous vegetables) seems to work for some types of warts but not others. I had one on my thumb, deep under the skin which wasn't bothering me. I was drinking cabbage juice for warts on the back of my hand, and the one on my thumb just spontaneously died - the ones on the back of my hand were unaffected, though.

    Dandelion sap contains salicylic acid and dries into a black coating which sticks quite well. Worked for my plantar warts when I was a kid. Just put the sap on and leave it to dry, maybe put a band-aid over it to keep it from rubbing off. Don't hack at them, if it's going to work then the wart should just turn black and fall out.

    I've found apple cider vinegar effective for small and shallow new warts, not so good for deeper ones. I've experienced a blistering effect like you describe with cantharidin, but with the deeper warts they seem to grow back. I've tried leaving them alone when they blister, I've also tried opening them after a few days and packing the crater with more vingear-soaked cotton (yes, this hurts). The deepest one has grown back after all of that.

    Currently trying an OTC salicylic acid preparation which actually seems to be working quite well for the final few persistent ones. I'm not getting my hopes up too high, though, I've already been at this for about a year with various methods.

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  78. My daughter is 7 and has a wart on the ball of her foot. We just noticed it 2 weeks ago and it's already doubled in size.. eww..
    I took her to the doctor and after a $30 co-pay and less than a second of looking at it she handed me a paper with the instructions for the Duct-tape Method. Huge waste of money!!
    I'd like to know if any of you have any experience with beetle juice and young children. I want the wart gone but don't want her to suffer either.. Any suggestions?

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    1. I would try tea tree oil. It does not hurt like apple cider vinegar does...the oil is kind of soothing. My step mother did this for her 4 year old son's plantar wart and it was gone within a couple of weeks she said. She treated one on his knee at the same time with the apple cider vinegar and she said it made no difference.

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  79. I have had several plantar warts on my foot for a few years. This past December, I was put to sleep and they were cut out and lasered. All was good until about May, and they came back in the EXACT same places. I've been using the Aldara cream for about a month with no success and now I'm supposed to go have the beetle juice applied tomorrow. I'm terrified after reading everyone's comments b/c I have NO pain tolerance! I don't know what to do to get rid of these things!

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  80. As a family, we have struggled with warts for nearly 2 decades. My husband brought the first one home on his hand. Then my 4 year daughter got 3 on her hands (she chewed them-- yuck! but it worked! without other treatment, they went away after ayear or o and never came back. She is 17 now). Then I got one on my foot and 3 on my fingers. The foot one hurt like the dickens. Tried home remedies for a while, then got it surgically removed. It came back after a month. I hacked at the little stub relentlessly and it finally stayed away (still gone after 11 years). One son got a few then they went away with irregular salicylic acid treatment. Another son got a bunch on his hands-- two treatments of beetle juice last summer and they are still gone. Beetlejuice reduced the two on my fingers, but they are still there. I am going to do home-treatment beetle-juice due to cost of going to dr. Husband has had a new one crop up on his sole, and so has the first son... On going battle at our house... with various successes. Patience does work in some cases... seems like we have tried everything at least once. Having confronted over 20 warts on 5 different people, the truth seems to be: be relentless, creative, and persistent. Early action is crucial. Nothing works every time. But usually SOMETHING will work eventually. I also echo the advice about boosting immune systems. Good luck, all!

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  81. When you used the ACV treatment, did the surrounding skin turn tough and yellow? Did it go away? I've had to use ACV for a long time. Every time I use it, the wart goes soft and brown/black and I can make headway at least (but it takes a long time for the wart to turn black). The side effect, however, is that no matter how much I apply Vaseline, the surrounding skin gets irritated and now I have a callous, and I'm wondering if it will go away or not.

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  82. I'm currently trying to get rid of a plantar wart I've had for 1.5 years. I've tried everything and am now using Cantharadin to get rid of it. The wart didn't raise out of my sole that much - is that normal? It definitely hurt a lot but it wasn't super elevated. Also, are you supposed to try to dig the wart out between applications or should I just apply again without digging? I'll be doing multiple treatments, it seems.
    BTW - you can buy Cantharidin online, from Canada, and administer it yourself! Here's where I got some: http://www.onlinecanadarx.com/ns/customer/product-3355-Cantharone-Plus-Cantharidin-Collodion-Wart-Remover.html
    It says only doctors can administer it but there is no need for a prescription or proof that you're a doctor. So I bought it and my husband helped me put it on my wart. A bottle of cantharidin plus costs $90, including shipping, which is cheapest for me because I don't have health insurance and can't afford to pay someone. Just thought I'd pass this along. It's scary to have something so toxic in the house but it's a lot cheaper than going to someone else to do it for me.

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  83. this IS one funny read. i am using food grade hydrogen peroxide on this invader on my right heel. i have used this is the past and it worked well and completely. 35% food grade H202. It burns as well. i feel like i've got an army of light behind me now. :)

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  84. I had two massive plantar warts on my right foot. They were removed by clinic nurses (with doctor's inspecting the damage each time) using two to three weekly applications of Upton's Paste. Each time, the nurse would lance the wart (to reach the root), cut a key-hole out of some strapping tape to apply to my skin(to protect the surrounding skin), then apply some of the Upton's past to the wart area. This took about seven weeks of treatment, but the little friends were eliminated. It was painful and I couldn't get the treated skin wet, but the persistence paid off. I'd recommend that those with plantar warts (especially people with circulatory issues or diabetes) get them removed by a podiatrist or general practitioner if possible.

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  85. Another quick update. Sept 27, 2011 and I continue to live a glorious wart free life over two years later.

    Long live perseverance and shower sandals. Good luck to all.

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  86. My 12 year old daughter has about 16 verrucas in all. Tried Bazuka to no avail. My friend who is a chiropodist suggested that I use something called Banish That Blotch. The website is here: http://www.footessentials.co.uk/banish-that-blotch.html
    It's a mix of essential oils that smell delicious. I pare the skin down twice a week and she rubs this stuff into her feet twice a day. No big deal because it's lovely. She's had this problem for at least three years and is very self concious about them, but there are too many to freeze. Finally, after a month, they seem to be giving up the ghost. I think it's a great deal to do with the immune system. Nobody else in the family gets them and as we all share the bathroom, you'd think we might. However the rest of us are allergic to things; our immune systems on overdrive. Whilst my verruca prone daughter has no allergies at all. this may be a coincidence, but it's an interesting thought.

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  87. Just curious, how did your skin grow back on your foot? is it callused or perfectly smooth? My doc claims he killed it, but a callus has formed.

    thxx!

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  88. GREAT INFORMATION! I had a painful and resistant planter wart as a kid..... This was probably in the late 1950's. Our family MD sent me to have radiation treatment. Honest. They pin-pointed the spot and you got a quick zap. Was supposed to have 3 treatments about two weeks apart but right before the third one rolled around I remember that the thing quit being painful and looked loose. I pulled it out with a big pair of tweezers. No more warts until a couple years ago. Then the battle really began again... Of course the radiation treatment is a thing of the past. You wait a year or so before you even report it to your doctor. These days they try to give you instruction and then have you "do it yourself. "The salicylate paste and tape worked O.K. but never truely got rid of it. Now, over a year later,"it" is "them". Yesterday I received the "beetle juice" treatment. Completely painless but today that foot is pretty tender and I am not weight-bearing over the spot. This blog has given me a lot of information to process. I am comforted that I am not the only person with this nasty little secret. In January of 2010 I was in the E.R. with an ankle injury and felt so embarrassed having strips of duct tape on that bared foot. The ankle healed fine but I am still having the wart pain!
    Thanks for sharing everyone, and hope each of us is victorious over these little devils! an old RN

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  89. This site is amazing. I've had one plantar wart, then two, for 1.5 years. So far have tried duck tape (won't stay on), salicylic acid, freezing every 2 weeks at the Drs, and all those things in combination. Just got a candida injection -- has anyone tried this? I'm supposed to go back in a month -- we'll see how it goes.

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    1. Don't use the silver duct tape. The foot sweats and it moves and lets air in. Use the black Gorilla tape or the Scotch brand black tape. Tape it up good and thick and leave it on 9 days. The wart will come out in chunks when it's removed. Worked twice for my young son.

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  90. This is such a relief knowing that someone else has had the same problem as me! I'm going on almost a year now and throbs and hurts just laying down! I haven't even done a whole lot to it...i just hacked at it really badly the other day but again thank you so much i have a podiatrist appointment monday and I'm going to ask him about the beetle juice!

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  91. Hi I have been reading this blog for several weeks since my 11 year old daughter acquired approx. 6 plantars warts. She previously had one wart between her toes and another on her thumb very close to her nail. A dermoltogist successfully removed both of those in June of this year via freezing (liquid nitrogen). She had had the one between her toes for several years. After treatment, it blistered, we were suspicious if it was really gone but it was, no scarring either. Coincidentally she became the recipient of these nasty plantars warts sometime this summer. Started treatment with the pediatrician who says they treat plantars warts but they don't, wasted 2 weeks there and $60. Doc advised to try the compound W. My husband played podiatrist for about a week, wasted $25 on compound W, her feet were worse than ever in my opinion. Finally, we get her to a real podiatrist who immediately treats her with cantharidin, I know I misspelled that (beetle juice). She went back 2 weeks later for a second treatment and back again after another two weeks and we were told they were all gone. Her feet still look a mess to me, dried crusty skin where the warts used to be. So beetle juice is the answer. We did keep her feet covered at all times,even when showering, went through countless bandaids. The doc says you need to suffocate warts. Hoping all will heal up soon. Supposedly no scarring should remain. My husband and I are both 47 and have never had a wart, our daughter will most likely be very susceptible to them from here on in. Doc says possibly immune system related. Keep flip flops or water shoes on when at water parks and public showers, try not to step in puddles. Keep socks on when around publicly used mats and floors. Take vitamins. Don't wait if you see something on the bottom of your feet, doc says the sooner you get the beetle juice the easier the warts are to treat. Good Luck and I hope your warts will be gone soon.

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  92. Oh woe is me! I got 2 of these suckers on my foot SEVEN years ago and convinced myself (denial) that they were corns. When a little piece popped out and I pulled it out and blood shot everywhere I (naturally) rushed to Wikipedia only to find that they were in fact Plantar freakin warts. So I immediately got them frozen and was told to come back in 3 weeks. I didn't. I started working 60 hours a week which doesn't allow for the luxury of going to get the bottom of my foot frozen off with liquid nitrogen. So I went back 2 weeks ago to another doctor who froze it THREE TIMES in a ROW for really long periods of time. "This is going to hurt a lot," she said. "I should probably freeze my own skin so I know what it's like for you patients." Yes lady, you should. She was super sweet, but I don't think she knows what kind of pain that would lead to.

    So for the past 2 weeks I have been working 13 hour days with two 30 minute sit down breaks, but otherwise standing/walking on my blisters all day. They were white, then lavender and peeling, then the top one blistered and turned purple and the bottom one turned black. As of this moment they are still as big as ever, one sort of a burnt sienna, one black with even darker black specks and 3 new little white/normal baby ones on the side.

    My doctor recommended taking Tagamet (an antacid.....) found in the aisle next to the Tums (I haven't made it to the drugstore yet, but I guess it's worth a try!) 2. scraping at it with a wet pumice stone, 3. applying ACV and 4. coming back as soon as it quit burning.

    I feel sorry for each and every one of us. I'm going to try one more treatment of LN and then I'm going on the hunt for this beetle juice miracle!!! Thanks for the blog! At least I can get a kick out of something while looking for ways to dig this thing out of my foot!

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  93. I got my first treatment of beetle juice today and I had to take 2 Percocet just to make the pain subside. This was the last resort after trying Salicylic acid for months. I also tried banana peels, garlic peels, and Dr. Scholls wart remover. None of this stuff worked. At this point I know the wart is pretty deeply rooted because I'm a distance runner (10 miles at a time) and it's been on my foot for almost 4 years.

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  94. Wicked site, thanks for sharing and thanks everyone above for their experiences. I have a wart im finally getting treated after a couple years and i think i got that Cantharidin/Beetlejuice treatment on Friday. Initial application was easy peasy but my day at work was hellish and i couldn't believe how much pain could come from a big toe! Anyways, im on my 2nd application now so we'll see how it goes.
    Previous home remedies / OTC salicylic acid /freezing was no help for me.

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  95. Finally got my second treatment of beetle juice today and it's like waiting for a car wreck to happen as I sit at work knowing what lies in the future for pain. I'm ready this time with my pain killers. This wart on the bottom of my foot must go away and I've declared war against it.

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  96. you sir are a hero. i have had my wart for a while and this gives me hope i can finally kill the little bastard.

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  97. Got my third treatment of beetle juice today. I thought the wart was gone after treatment #2 because the top actually turned black and fell off. At that point I could actually could see the root sticking out (rubbery substance). I hit the root with Salicylic acid for a few days until the spot got really raw. At that point I ceased with the acid and allowed the skin to heal so I could walk without a limp. I covered the wart for few days and once I uncovered it the dang thing spread out into another full bloom. I have to go out of town for my job for 4 months so I will not have access to a doctor with Beetle Juice so I ordered the medicine from a Canadian pharmacy and will apply it on my own every 10 days. I think with 2-3 more treatments the wart will officially be gone.

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  98. [Seattle Wart Warrior] Thanks for writing all my experiences down! Seriously, I think I've done everything you have done for 3 years now... went to the Dr. 7 times where he first used the beetle juice twice, then I had him cut it out, then beetle juice again when it came back... anyway, multiple times with no luck. I think there was a little piece left, and actually I mentioned it to him and I should have gone it right away.

    Anyway, My last visit, the dr mentioned the medication option, Tagamet. I did some research and realized that warts/virus live in the stomach so by killing the virus there, helps kill it in the location on the foot or wherever. This is also true if you have a high level of candida. Same place is where it resides.

    So... instead of Tagamet I have been taking a LOT of Oil Of Oregano. It immediately made the wart on my foot turn into little black spots. I began to cut away at it... I think actually I should not have done that, but we all get impatient. I am going to up my dosage of Oregano and do that for a month. Gaia Herbs, liquid capsules is what I am using. I took 8 one day and had major results the very next day, but was nervous about the dosage so went down to 5... which I think didn't help. After reading all this information and the Tagamet treatment (http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2005/10/18/tagamet-for-warts/ ), I am going to keep with a high dosage, cover with duct-tape for protection only and see what happens. I vow to write back.

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  99. You have all been through way too much pain for too long. My son and I both had big plantars warts on our feet. 15 minutes in the doctors office and they were cured. He froze it to numb it,(kind of like going to the dentist and they now use orajel to numb before using novocaine), injected it with a needle to numb it further, then used an electric needle to burn it, cut it out, root and all. It has been 3+ years, and no more plantar warts. Hand warts, best to use a q-tip end, soak it in ACV, and apply a band-aid over it which puts pressure on it. Takes about 3 to 4 evenings, with the 3rd and 4th day a little painful (Aleeve works well). Repeat for about 3 more days after wart falls off/out. Never cut away at the wart, your just looking for more trouble. Good luck to all.

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  100. Oh plantar warts.. I have struggled with these for about 15 years now off and on. In my teen years I had about 15 warts on each FOOT!! Over time all of these warts went away on there own over the years, except 1 which was 1 for a few years but now has turned into 3 (as it has spread). I haven't really treated it seriously until the last month or so. I am trying the Dr. shool acid pads, and with in the last few weeks has really 'attacked' them, (I also file and dig). I hope to get rid of these things.. until recently I didn't really care because really they are not painful. But I have been thinking how many people am I giving these bastards to but having them?

    ****FIGHT THE PLANTAR WART WAR!!**********

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  101. [Seattle Wart Warrior] it has only been 5 days since my entry, but holy shmokes it's almost ALL GONE!!!

    I did what I said I would except the duct tape. I took 8 Gaia Oil of Oregano pills in the morning and then took 4 in the evening for three days. IMMEDIATELY I saw the dark black little dots appear. I was skeptical but continued to take 8 capsules in the morning. Today is day 5 and I can say that I only have two little dots left that I know is the virus roots. I have been cutting the black away with the refill blades of a corn/callus shaver. They are easy to use on the corners and easy to get a thin cut of skin away, besides all the white dead skin from previous generic Walgreens liquid wart remover.

    After cutting the stuff away, I have added the wart remover salicylic acid on it then tape it over so it doesn't move. Today I cut the last few remaining pieces and can't believe that it's 98% GONE! Thanks to previous entries about Tagament, e Oil of Oregano capsules do the same thing but with natural herbs.

    I took a photo today of my foot, I now wish I had taken one before so you could seen the black dots but I truly didn't think I'd get such super fast results. I will continue at it since I can hardly believe how much money I spent (without insurance) to get this thing gone and a bottle of oil of oregano capsules does the trick. Crazy.

    I will continue to update.

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  102. Hey fellow wart warriors! Has anyone heard or tried a candida injection? Candida is a fungus that is used in a TB test to test the body's immune response. According to a study I read from a hospital in Pennsylvania, (here is the link:http://www.altoonafp.org/candida.htm) this seems to be the best option. The wart is injected and within a few days dies and falls off. If I was still living in Pittsburgh, I would make the drive to Altoona to have this done, but I now live on the other side of the world. If anyone can attest to this please let me know. Meanwhile I will try to seek it out here in Sweden.

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  103. I hope I am not speaking too soon, but it appears after 6 Cantharidin treatments I may have won the battle against my stubborn plantars wart. I will update this blog with my status monthly hoping I have nothing to report. As a precaution I have sprayed all my shoes with Lysol disinfectant. It feels good to be exercising again without the pain of the stubborn plantars wart. I was really feeling hopeless for a while so the Cantharidin was God sent. I went through my final treatment last week and as of now I cannot see anymore red dots. I will be vigilantly standing by with my Cantharidin if anymore red dots should surface.

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  104. I, too, have been using the Cantharidin placed by my podiatrist, however, now on my 5th treatment, the area appears to have a red streak coming from it. Afraid I have an infection now??

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    1. Don't mean to scare you, but a red streak might mean blood poisoning. Check it out. Better safe than sorry. Otherwise, go online Doug Kaufman's site on Facebook, knowthecause.com and do a search on warts. Doug is a fungus expert. You might find something there about the candida treatment. Good luck.

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  105. Just got my first Cantharidin treatment this afternoon. It's 9 hours later, and I can't sleep because of throbbing pain. Like the others, it goes from throbbing to stabbing. So distracting and uncomfortable, even when elevating my foot - and having a glass of wine too.

    I'm a little distressed at the thought of doing this treatment even one more time.

    Has anyone had their wart(s) removed successfully after one cantharidin treatment? It seems like everyone on on this blog is talking about multiple treatments. I guess if I have no other choice, I'll deal with one more - but can't possibly imagine doing this more than one more time because of the pain. And I've always thought I had a decent pain tolerance.

    My podiatrist also recommended surgery. If this doesn't work after two treatments, I am cutting the sucker out. It reeeeally hurts right now, so I hope this is the first and last treatment.

    Oh, I should mention I've had this wart(s) for about 10 years. Every few years, I'd get them frozen off or treated with acid. I've also done the duofilm and Dr scholls freezing at home treatments. No luck. They always come back. It's finally at the point where I just can't stand living with them, so I have to do something drastic. Cue the canthadarin.

    Here's hoping that when it's really painful it means the treatment is really working!

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  106. Hi! Your blog was too funny! I've been struggling with this despicable affliction since I was a teen and I'm in my mid 30s now. I have had the beetlejuice, but she froze it before she put the beetlejuice on. I would be happy to just get the beetlejuice. I said beetlejuice three times. Did you get frozen before the doc put that on?

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  107. Happy to report still wart free at this point. Still keeping my fingers crossed that the stubborn wart doesn't grow back. My doctor told me that the warts have a tendency to grow back in the same spot if they cut them out. Hope that helps.

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  108. This is Feb 24, 2012 Anonymous reporting back with an update...
    It's been almost 2 weeks since my Cantharidin treatment. It was a very slow recovery. I am still wearing a boot-like cast given to me by my doc because the blister makes it too painful and swollen to walk in regular shoes for any long period of time. I can finally, as of 2 days ago, put pressure on my blister when I'm walking on carpeted floors.

    Today my gigantic blister (about the size of a quarter, maybe a pinch bigger) started itching. I have a scraper, and I just felt like I needed to slough off the dead skin. My doc told me not to touch the blister, but I couldn't help myself. I sloughed off a little bit, and all of a sudden, there was a hole in my foot where the wart used to be (well, I hope it USED to be there, and it's not just hiding at the bottom of the hole). It started oozing. Incredibly gross!!!

    It's still itchy after my sloughing. Itchy in the way my wart always felt a little itchy on my foot... which leads me to believe the fight aint over yet. I also feel a throbbing in my foot where the wart was... the same sort of throbbing I used to feel from my wart from time to time...also not a good sign. I keep trying to reassure myself that it's just because the blister hurt my foot deep down, but I suspect it's because the wart is trying to fight for life in the aftermath of the Cantharidin treatment.

    I'm not set up to see my podiatrist until next week, but I am going to call him tomorrow to set up an asap appointment. If I can zap this bastard while he's struggling to live, instead of giving him a week to regrow, I wanna get him. If my doc says the wart is gone... even better. Either way, I want closure on this bastard as soon as possible.

    To answer Anonymous from March 1, 2012, no I didn't get it frozen right before my Cantharidin treatment. The doc used a scalpel to scrape as much dead skin as he could. It hurt like heck and I know I was gushing blood before he put the Cantharidin on the spot. Hopefully that helped. I do think that the pain of freezing is NOTHING in comparison to the pain I experienced hours after the Cantharidin was applied. I would gladly undergo another 10 freezing treatments if I didn't already know (from experience) that it wouldn't kill this bugger. At least I could limp after the freezing and walk a few days later without problems. After Cantharidin, I literally put off going to the bathroom for fear of moving my body which would hurt my foot.

    Quinn - when I was a kid, I had about 7 warts cut out of my foot, from different spots. I didn't have any come back for 6 years (until I got this evil one) and this wart didn't come back in a spot where I had any cut out before. I'm suspicious that your doc is just hedging his bets because he's scared he might not have removed the whole thing. For your sake, I do hope you stay wart free and I'm glad your treatment worked. Good luck!

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  109. I'm sure I will have nightmares after reading through this page. I recently noticed that my foot was sore and my footprint was off to the point where it felt kind of like I was walking on a nail. Adjusting my laces and shifting my gait would help but I knew something was wrong. Looking at the bottom of my foot just behind the little piggy I could not see anything but felt a hardened area that was sensitive when pressure was applied. I made the diagnosis myself but could be wrong. (WART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) You see on the bottom of the foot it seems like it lies just under the skin and does not look like the wart you imagine on the nose of the wicked witch.

    I purchased the Dr. Scholls "Clear Away" and began treatment about a week ago. I applied the small dot like thingy and then covered it with the larger bandaid that I suppose makes it waterproof and holds the medication right on the spot. I change it every 48 hours as the directions indicate. It also indicates that it could take up to 12 weeks to cure. I never saw any black spots so was weary as to whether or not this was actually a wart but what the hell.

    I am well in to week 2 and noticed immediate results. It is shrinking and now does not bother me while walking anymore. I peel the larger bandaid off and clean it with soap and water. After it dries I put a pad on and forget about it for 48 hours. There is no pain and no dis-comfort. I can feel a slight needle like sensation right on the spot, but suppose that is the medication doing its duty.

    I guess only time will tell to see if this works. I really think that digging until you bleed is what causes the spreading and delays the actual healing and removal of the wart. This would just be a guess on my part but patience might pay off. I am going to leave it alone and let the medication take the twelve weeks to work. I will buff the dead skin away (yuch) but will not cut or dig. I only have one small one but really think after reading this that I have to take it seriously.

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    1. Ok today I changed the pad again as 48 hours had passed. To my surprise a knarly little bit of flesh stuck to the bandaid and came off with it. You see the little medicated pad is held in place by a round very sticky larger pad. I looked at the treated area and it looks white and tender. The pain is now gone and the nodule is no longer there. Could it be that I am already cured? I put a new one on just in case but imagine the acid burning it's way into my foot now that I believe the wart is gone. So my question to all of you wart veterans is; How do you know when it's really gone and can stop treatment? Should I keep going with the pads. If I had not read this I would have called it cured today. Could it be that I was lucky. Well now at least I can walk without looking like a drunken old man. I will update if anything changes. Please advise if there is anyone who can tell if it's gone for sure or not.

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    2. To absolutely know when a wart is gone go to a Dr. To self diagnose yourself the best advice my Dr. gave me was when you think the wart is gone give it a week without treatment. Once you begin to see your normal foot pattern (like finger print) begin your normal cells have started to grow. If you still see an irregular pattern marked by a circular pattern from wart the virus most likely exists.If it is hard to see since the skin is dry and peeling-put vaseline on it. Hope this helps.

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    3. I wanted to follow up since my post on March 8 to help everyone else. That was the end of it. I followed the directions on the Dr. Scholls box and that is it. There is a tiny round pad that contains the medicine. A larger pad goes on top of that to hold it in place. I left it on constantly and changed it every 48 hours. The box said it could take up to 12 weeks but for me it only took a few weeks. The wart died and came off with the band-aid. I waited this long to re-post to be sure it would not come back again and it is all healed and my foot is back to normal. I think because I caught it early perhaps I was lucky. I think patience is important and never try to cut it out that would only make it spread (my own opinion). Remember to leave the pad in place constantly and only remove it after 48 hours just long enough to clean the area and put a fresh one on. The pad softens the skin and kills the wart. Eventually it comes out leaving a small crater. This will heal up nicely once you stop using the pads. I can see where it could take up to 12 weeks perhaps depending on how severe your wart is. The wart cannot survive the medicine when applied this way. Well that was hopefully the last time I will have to deal with something that awful. Good luck to everyone else.

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    4. I really want to just use the pads like you did because I can't afford to go to the podiatrist several times. How did you keep the pad on for 48 hours? When I tried it a few days a while back, the pad kept slipping off. Did you shower with it on? Are you supposed to keep the SAME pad on for 48 hrs at a time? Thanks for any extra info. :)

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    5. Sorry I am so slow as this is history for me. I am happy to report that following up on my mar 8 note the wart never came back. To answer the question above I wore the pad constantly for 48 hours and only took it off long enough to wash the area and put a new one on. I did shower and continued all my normal activity. The larger round band-aid that covers the smaller (medicated) pad will withstand the shower no problem. The key is to keep it on constantly until it pulls off with the dead wart (gross).

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  110. Hello, great blog/ story. I'm a runner and thought I had just developed a callus on my heel of my foot...but several months passed and it was very painful...throbbing like you say so I headed to the good ol' foot Dr. Mind you I had never had a plantars wart so I had no idea what it was. I just assumed a corn or something. The doc looked at my foot and literally said, "holy hell that is the biggest wart i HAVE EVER seen." 2 inches in diameter, 1 inch wide this sucker covers my left heel. so began the treatments in September 2011....7 months later the wart is 60% less its size but i still have 40% more to go. PEOPLE; DO NOT TRY ANYTHING BUT GOING TO A FOOT DR. I HAD TRIED ALL THE REMEDIES. A DR. IS THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL GET RID OF A NASTY PLANTARS WART. OTHER warts may be different. these treatments suck. no way around it. painful, expensive, and time consuming. but gotta do it. elevate your foot as much as you can.

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  111. Update from my anonymous post from March 6. I went in on March 16 for surgery. My doc confirmed that the Cantharidin treatment left 4 bad guys still living, so it was a good thing. He scared me into believing I might be in more pain post-knife than Cantharidin. I was terrified, based on how painful the Cantharidin was for me.

    I'm happy to report that post-surgery was SO much less painful.

    He told me he cut the last remaining warts out. For that I'm grateful.

    I have to admit, part of me, after 10+ years is still skeptical he got everything. These warts were a nightmare, and they want to live. I feel a teeny throbbing in my foot, which I'm hoping is just my foot "hurting" and not the warts, which tended to throb from time to time. I will post an update after my foot heals up more. I think I probably have 1.5 weeks until I'm decently healed.

    If this did the trick, I wholeheartedly recommend people with stubborn ones just go under the knife.

    Good luck to everyone.

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    1. Update from my March 19 post -
      My foot is still healing and I think I have another week and a half until fully recovered. I still feel that throbbing, though the foot is healing, which is making me worried the wart is still there.

      More concerning/depressing is the fact that I now have a NEW plantar's wart about 1 inch below the site of my old wart. In over 10 years, my wart didn't spread. Now that I have been treating it aggressively, it spreads. I think it happened when the canthardin ooze leaked from the blister area, since not all the warts were killed with that treatment (which is why I had to go under the knife). I'm so sad and frustrated because I haven't been able to walk normal for almost 6 weeks! And now I've got to go through all this treatment torture AGAIN for the newbie wart.

      I see my foot doc in a week. I do NOT want to do the canthardin treatment again because of how painful it was. I am trying salylic acid and shaving/excavating on my own. It hurts less than the other treatments so far. Maybe I can get this guy on my own with some persistence over the next week or so. If not, I'm going to try freezing. This time, I will not allow the wart to get bigger in size. I'll do the surgery again before that happens.

      Here we go again....

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    2. Any luck so far?

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  112. I got a plantar wart after getting a pedicure about 2 years ago, it's spread to about 4 at this point. I'm using ACV cotton balls, held on by duct tape 24 hours every day. The first couple days they all turned white, which I peeled off, and now finally the big one is turning black, and the smaller ones have brown spots in the center. I did experience a LOT of pain, but it passes if you power through it. I'm not sure if this will work, but I'm going to try the beetle juice next if it doesn't

    My boyfriend had one on his finger that he'd had for over 3 years, and using ACV it turned black and fell off within a week, It seems plantar warts are more persistent.

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    1. additionally: freezing is what caused mine to multiply, and salicylic acid pad and liquid aren't nearly as strong or fast acting as the ACV has been.

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    2. The ACV has killed 4 out of 5 of my plantar warts so far, it took about 2 weeks of constant use, and a lot of pain- and it definitely looked worse before it looed better, but I think the last one is on it's way to being gone too :) What a relief!!!

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  113. I have had a plantar wart in the middle of my right great toe for 2 years. I have used the pads and the freezing and cutting off the top. About 2 months ago I noticed there were 2 places instead of 1 so I went to a podiatrist. He injucted candida into my toe. said it would form a blister under and push it out. Well, after 5 visits with cutting, bleeding,over the past 2 months of using compound w and soaking with epsome salt, it is still there still hurts and is still there. My toe looks like it is rotten. The last few days I have been cutting off the skin, soaking it every day putting compound w on it and covering with a band-aid and duct tape. Ive already paid out 250.00 to the podiatrist and cant afford more. I just dont know what to do next, I guess Ill just keep digging on it and cutting till my whole toe is open. Has anyone heard of or used gorilla glue on a plantar wart?

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    1. I used super glue on top of the 'paint on'salicylic acid from the drug store. It seemed to act more as a bandaid than anything. Has you wart turned black from the compound W? It should turn black as a sign you're killing the root, plantar warts can be very deep, so hang in there.

      I'm about 8 days into using AVC, applying fresh ACV on cotton balls 3x a day and attaching with duct tape has turned all of my plantar warts black in about 2 days. I think the smaller ones are dead now, but the biggest (original) one is deeper, so it's going to take longer.

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    2. update from April 18.. my toe is still so painful. I cant step on it at all. I just did the treatment with the compound w after I scrapped it and soaked it in the Epsom salt warm water.the surrounding skin is white and in the middle is a small hole with brown in the middle I cant stand to touch the brown center and when I put the acid on it the pain was terrible. I just hope it is doing something to it to kill it.

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  114. Thanks for the informative and well written blog.

    - a wart warrior from Toronto, Ontario.

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  115. followup from post as anonymous of April 18 and 23.Today I went to a dermatologist. He cut out the wart, cauterized the wound, This is after 2 years of fighting this monster with acid. soaking, cutting. injections, visits to a podiatrist at 40 bucks a copay with each visit . I had 6 trips there.I am hoping and praying that this is the end of that devil.

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  116. Thanks for sharing, great blog! Unbeknown to me I had a plantar wart on the ball of my foot. (thought it was a corn) Once I got the same thing on my big toe, I figured it wasn't a corn on the ball of my foot.

    Went to the podiatrist and IT'S A WART! Never had one in my life and now I have two!

    1st time there she treated me with the beetle juice....UGH...the pain was horrible for days. Went back and told her so we froze it. Went back again, froze it. While doing this every week I also put on a liquid wart treatment she gave me (like compound w) and kept it covered every day and put this stuff on 2x a day.

    Went back today....and decided on the beetle juice again. As I sit and type this the pain is horrible but I think this stuff is the only thing that will work. I have been going to the podiatrist for 8 weeks and will continue to go until it is completely gone. I do not EVER want to get this again. I will NEVER walk barefoot again either.

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  117. Plantar warts were killing me! The pain was awful until I started to use "onion"... my warts are
    still there, but the pain is gone. Now I can walk.
    Next week, I'll try nitrogen. I want them out of my life!
    Regards from Chile

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  118. [Seattle Wart Warrior]
    UPDATE-UPDATE-UPDATE-UPDATE

    Forget everything I said earlier, Oil of Oregano did work for a short amount of time but it came back and in droves. Using a razor helped get the dead skin off, but I'd be very cautious with it.

    Here's what killed the virus & gave me my beautiful foot back in 5-weeks!!! I've been battling this over 6-years... $2k in Doctors (who F'en just spread it more), Compound-W, Freezing, everything!!!

    I ended up going homepathic with (this isn't the one that did it) Force of Nature's Wart remover, it helped but nothing like what I found BY ACCIDENT!!! When I ran out of the Force of Nature sooner than I expected I had to go to our local vitamin store (Super Supplements - they are online too). They had "Wart Wonder by Wellinhand". I used it reluctantly because I "thought" the FoN was working okay.

    HA! In two weeks of WellinHand Wart Wonder my wart was 90% GONE!!! I was skeptical because I have been at this spot before, but I continued to change my bandage twice a day and three if I remembered.

    It's been 5-weeks and it is GONE!! And I had a super DEEP root because of all the freezing I had done. But it's all GONE!!! I am not s#!ting you. I can't believe it myself. I'm going to be able to get a pedicure here soon and feel GOOD about my foot again. No embarrassment! I would have rather given my $2k to this woman who came up with this virus killing wart liquid.

    If you are at least going to spend a little money on your wart, TRY THIS. I only needed one bottle.

    http://www.wellinhand.com/pages/wart-wonder-reviews

    ***********************************************
    * *
    * Bottom-line: Try WellinHand Wart Wonder *
    * *
    ***********************************************

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    1. Did you do the regular strength or the super potent?

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  119. Duct tape worked for one of my warts. However I have another wart that won't go away. Sick and tired of this stupid thing. What happened to medical science? This is the 21st century....

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  120. Great blog! I've been battling a planters wart for 2+ years and the combination of your blog post, as well as finding out that little warty spawned a buddy, convinced me to see a podiatrist. Had cantharidin treatment #2 eight days ago and after cutting back the dried shell, I still see two spots where the warts were/are. I'm not sure if these are just little holes where the warts once were or if they're still alive and kicking. Every visit to the podiatrist and cantharidin treatment costs $345 so I can't afford to go in just to see. The last time I was in the dr said that I should only need one more treatment. Any thoughts??

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    1. Yeah, buy the stuff on the internet and do it yourself! A bottle is only like 50 bucks.

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  121. I am wondering how long the beetle juice will burn for. I am in agonizing pain after having my first beetle juice treatment yesterday on a stubborn planters wart on my heel. I was awake most of the night last night, it feels like there is a hot coal on my foot. When will this subside? I wonder if there is any chance the first treatment will work. I was told I could pop the blister but to keep it covered with a bandaid and not to remove the blister or the bandaid...only to apply a fresh one daily. I wonder if dipping my foot in Clorox would of killed the wart. It kills most anything else and ruins clothes.

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  122. Hilarious story!

    I am a plantar wart warrior too!

    My battle has been going on for "blush" 7 years.

    I am bound & determined to rid myself of it by the end of summer.

    My current method of treatment is salicylic acid & duct tape. I am going to get the recommended gorilla tape. I also will star taking garlic capsules.

    I recently bought an artist scalpel for more precise hacking.

    Based on what I've read here I'm very skeptical of the acv remedy.

    Anyway, I'll keep you updated. If need be I'll go to the good old beetle juice.

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  123. I currently have 10 warts on my foot and will definitely go to my doctor to ask about treatment! I hoe these things die quick!

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  124. I've had major success with ACV on my right foot. Left foot is more challenging but I will NOT give up. I'm soaking in ACV as I type!

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  125. that shit made me laugh so hard...thanks for the info.

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  126. Hi guys, I've had plantar warts for about 13 years. I have one mosaic planter on my left heel that is 5cm by 3cm another large one which is about 2cm by 1cm in the arch of the same foot and I also have 6 small planters on the ball of the same foot. That's just the left foot!!! On the right foot I have another 2 cm by 1cm planter and 2 small ones. I started using apple cider vinegar 7 days ago. After day 2 I cut off the top of the large wart which didn't hurt at all and thought I'd let the acv really soak in. Day 4 I was in excruciating pain... Down on my hands and knees making weird animal noises kind of pain! I persisted and it is day 7 now. I've been limping for a week and think I might have to get some crutches soon. But the acv seems to be powerful! All the small planters are starting to reveal the black specks after losing their tops. The big bastard, is thirsty though and he's swollen up like nothing else...freaky wired almost like some kind of scallop, yuck! My foot throbs when I put it down and it's terrible because I am a mother of 2 small kids who need me all the time but I have come this far I just want to keep going. It's great to read everyone else's stories.

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    1. Did the ACV ever cure your plantars warts?

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  127. Wow, lots of stories, here's mine. I have two warts on my hands. One on my cuticle, right hand middle finger dime sized, and one plantar type wart centered on my right index finger. I have used OTC freeze, wart stick, and many, many, band aid wart pad things. Nothing but lots of pain... I finally went to Duke hospital and had the doc laser treat them. They looked dead, but came back. The plantar one looks much smaller, the cuticle one is bigger... I went again 2 weeks ago. Well, can't tell yet, but feels like the plantar MIGHT be dead, but the cuticle one didn't even get agitated. Going back the 29th for another treatment, then am being referred to get the beetle juice. I have spent sooo much money, have a $2500 insurance deductible that is almost met, and no progress so far. What an adventure.

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  128. Update is that I'm going to look into laser treatment. I'm from melbourne, does anyone know how much laser can cost? I got my feet shaved by a podiatrist today and she was impressed with what the acv had been doing to the outer callous of the warts and there was a lot of pink skin which was a great sign. My large mosaic wart might need to get zapped I think!

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  129. Same story as everyone else. I had my two plantarts warts on the ball of my foot frozen (kinda)which didn't do anythign. I've had one for about 4 years and the other is about a year. Then I was perscriped a 30%saliclic acid with 5% something compound. I'm on my 5th week applying the acid and covering with duct tape. I've lost a lot of skin and a lot of the wart. My question is, how do you know when you got it all? I don't want to quit and have it grow back? I've pulled off half dollar size chunks of my foot that were upwards of 3-5mm thick. I just don't want to keep going if I go it all. is there a tell tell sign? I'm almost out of skin as I drew a little blood when I was putting on fresh tape this morning.

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    1. I was told by the specialist that once the black dots r gone in the middle of the wart then it's gone

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  130. I have a plantar wart (mosaic type) on my right foot, close to the big toe. Had this thing for two years and got it lasered (Er:YAG) by a dermatologist. That was painful and the wart came back soon, slightly larger than before. I left the wart alone for five years, but then it spread and had six little buddies nearby.

    This time I got serious. I've searched the internet for treatments and found monochloroacetic acid (MCA) and salicylic acid / lactic acid (16.7%/16.7%, Duofilm, Clabin Plus) to be cheap over-the-counter remedies. However, none of them has worked well for me when used alone. But in combination, the effects seem to multiply. I'm using the following modality for the treatment:

    Day 1: MCA, one to three applications over the day.
    Day 2 - 3: SA/LA, three times daily.
    Day 3: Debridement with a pumice stone. This removes large chunks of dead skin.
    Day 4 - 5: Leave alone to heal, covered with simple plasters.
    Repeat until cure.

    The MCA can be quite painful, particularly when used in large amounts. Blistering occurs. However, I have killed the small warts within three to four weeks. The old wart is harder to treat. I'm increasing the dosage of MCA now with every treatment cycle.

    Eventually I'll have to go for 5-Fluorouracil, a cytostatic drug available on prescription. I wonder, why nobody has mentioned this drug here yet. It seems to work really well as a cream or in combination with SA:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16703777
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16281635

    Good luck!

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    1. Update: In October I switched to a Salicylic Acid / Fluorouracil (SA/FU) solution, which I've been applying twice daily (together with weekly MCA). After taking a week off in November to heal and check the progress, I found that almost all warts were gone. Two new warts appeared, which I could kill within one week. I'll continue to fight the remaining two. The "old" one is much smaller by now. The SA/FU combination together with the MCA does not work wonders, but it works if you apply it persistently. It is also not that painful. And it is cheap-about 20EUR in total.

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  131. Well it's been 2 weeks since I had Long pulsed:YAG laser treatment and they have all turned black. It's incredible. Ive been told to wait up to 8 weeks to see complete results but at the moment all the blood vessels have absorbed the heat during laser so much they have burst and have stopped the blood supply hence turning them black. I am seeing a podiatrist in Brighton who has a passion for these bastards and who is pioneering this treatment with 90% plus success rates, with only one treatment. I'll keep posting as the weeks go by. I have taken photos since I began treating my feet with acv and then laser. Don't know if I can get photos on here or not? I am now going to invest in NEW socks and shoes and I will take care of my feet so they don't get sweaty. I will continue to bathe my feet in acv at night just to keep them clean as! My mum has just been prescribed that cream for her suspect skin cancers, very powerful stuff.

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    1. Shell, I'm interested in your update on the laser treatment. Did you find the treatment painful. How many times did you go, is your wart gone?

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  132. Hi All, nice read...
    Just want to point out that in addition to topical treatments consider dietary changes aswell. The cultures in yogurt have helped my son greatly. From the inside out!!
    Goodluck

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  133. This is pretty damn accurate to my wart problem. the "Beatlejuice" is very effective against old large warts, although it takes many many treatments (7ish, 2 weeks in between treatment)and I still haven't gotten rid of the wart 100% yet, but it's looking way better than it did when I started. I would not suggest popping and draining blisters when there is almost no skin left, they get extremely painful!

    I have also experienced lazer treatments, and those are super-effective against smaller new warts.

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  134. Well, I got here when I googled "how do you know it's dead", and I'm glad I did. I read your story and decided to continue my treatments until I am 100% sure the thing is dead, and then continue for another week. I've had it for years, maybe 10, because I thought it was just a bump. I've now been treating it for a year with OTC stuff, but kind of half-assed. The last two months though I got serious. I WILL win.

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  135. My 11yo daughter had four large PWs on her left heel. We did what you did....tried OTC pads, then freezing, then duct tape before finally going to a podiatrist and having the beetle juice applied. Unfortunately, she has had an awful time with that. Maybe he applied too much? Not sure, but nearly two weeks later her left heel is still swolen with enormous blisters and she can't walk or even put on a shoe. STILL! Her follow up appointment is this Thursday. I don't see myself allowing him to do this to her again. Poor kid wants to go trick or treating on Halloween in nine days, and I'm not sure she'll be able to if something doesn't heal quickly. Is that normal?

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    1. Pain: Normal
      Blisters: Lance after a day or two.
      DO NOT cause bleeding, wart will just spread.

      If you're talented with a razor blade, trim away all the dead skin you dare. This will reveal very raw, red flesh. If you still see the wart on the raw/red flesh, you need to go back (no longer than 2 weeks wait) and hit it before it covers over in skin again.

      Repeated, persistent treatment is the only thing that worked on my son... and yes, we had to prioritize this over sports, some school, etc. Every time we made an excuse or delayed treatment, the wart came back bigger and broader.

      Delete
  136. [Wisconsin Wart Warrior] My first plantar wart showed up shortly after my son was born (he will be 13 before the end of the year). I have tried most of the treatments listed here. Freezing, burning, lazering, banana peels, duct tape. About 3 years ago, I did the beetle juice treatment. SO PAINFUL! However, it did work after maybe 5 treatments. For me, a wart was gone when I could see the fingerprint pattern in the skin. I've had several over the 13 years, in various places on the same foot. Because it's a virus, I got another back and I have done my best to ignore it and have been treating it with OTC methods to keep it manageable (mine would be painful when they got too large). I have recently had very good luck with using a Curad Mediplast, which a pharmacist suggested to me. It was about $2 and was behind the counter, used for warts, calluses. It has 40% Salicylic Acid and is a 2" x 3" pad that you can cut up and use for many treatments. After about a month of these, the wart is separated from the skin around it, looks like a mini scallop. Pulling results in bleeding and pain. I am continuing Mediplast in hopes of loosening more. I will go back for a beetle juice treatment if this doesn't pan out. For those that can barely handle the beetle juice pain - consider asking your doctor for a WEAKER treatment. Mine doc had given me options and so if I needed to be able to walk each day, went weak and the blister was not so bad. Stronger meant more progress but massive pain and I sat around for 2 days trying not to move. Also, my doctor explained that the beetle juice worked because it caused blistering - some of the blister would be UNDER the wart and so would basically pull it out slowly as the fluid filled the blister. I, would lance my blister to reduce pain and if I have to go this route might consider asking my doc for a mild pain medicine.

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  137. Thanks for posting this blog.......It is very helpful for us.
    It gives lots of information.

    Wart Removal

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  138. I've had one plantar's wart on the ball of my foot for 12 years. It appeared during a stressful time when my S.O. was in ICU for 3 months. I took a temp job working on my feet for 8 hours. Anyway, I've been to 3 doctors all applied acids and nothing worked. I shave it down to flush with my foot bi-weekly. I am a DOG WALKER so any solution jeopardizing my business is OUT for now. Thanks for the great info. I will try the benign things like the oil of oregano AND improving my immune system.

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  139. I forgot to mention, the ONLY shoe I can wear is Crocs (Beach model).

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  140. Update from me: Still living wart free and loving it.

    I've enjoyed reading all the comments and hope that others can benefit from the experiences posted here. Best of luck to all.

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  141. LOL -- I laughed hard reading your blog. well written, and very entertaining. I can so relate to everything you've gone through. I tried just about every home remedy, and after torturing myself with ACV, I gave up and went to a podiatrist. He painted on the beetlejuice just a few hours away, and I'm sitting here full of anxiety just waiting for the pain to begin. I can only hope it works on the two smaller PWs he treated today. The KINGPIN wart on my other foot, well, he didn't want to touch today. He said I did such a number on it, that the skin needed to heal some, and from the looks of the wart itself, I may have killed it. (It's black and hardened from the ACV). So we will wait and see! Maybe that son of a gun will just fall out. Keeping my fingers crossed.

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  142. Well, since this blog is still active, I have to contribute...

    My older son had two plantar warts a few years ago. Two cantharadin treatments ended it for him. So when my younger son developed them, I thought... this is easy.

    Pride goeth before a fall.. and spending a boatlod of money! Long story short, Cantharidin ultimately wiped out massive numbers of warts, including one on each heel that grew the size of a quarter, with satellites around them.

    He had to skip school for a day after each treatment, because the blistering agent was applied to at least 6 locations spread across two feet.

    What ultimately worked? Be DILIGENT and go at least every two weeks, if not more frequently. You cannot allow full callouses to grow over the wart and let it "regroup" as you say. :-) Persist until gone. Go one more treatment than you or the doctor thinks necessary. If you cannot see "finger prints" in the skin, the wart is still there.

    So, in the midst of this, I contracted them... first time in 46 years. And I can't get the little buggers to go away. I intend to buy some cantharadin. The cost and scheduling of returning to the podiatrist is driving me nuts. And after all, all she does is apply the product directly to the warts and cover with surgical tape. I can do that.

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  143. Hi,
    Nice to see all those feed backs.Any one know regarding where to get this cantharis(beetel juice). Is this the same medicine used by Homeopaths. how did your doctor apply it on your foot, was it topical?

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    1. I have yet to dig in too deeply, but the same stuff (Cantharidin 0.7%) is sold in Canadian pharmacies over the internet. Search "Canthacur"

      The application goes as follows.
      1. Shave away all callous and as much of the wart as possible with a razor/scalpel. Don't cause bleeding.

      2. Apply a "corn" pad with the hole surrounding the wart. On much larger clusters, the doctor would cut a piece of "moleskin" to fit the desired surface area. This is basically a "containment" to keep the following medicines from spreading to too large an area.

      3. Apply cantharidin directly to all skin where you desire treatment. (On small localized warts, this means the wart only. On my son's large, clusters, she would apply to an area of about 2" in diameter on his heel.) To apply, a wooden skewer tipped with cotton was used. The wood was round, with a blunt end, so after the medicine was absorbed into the cotton, the doctor would "poke" the wart with the blunt end of the stick, pushing the medicine firmly against the skin.

      (Always wear rubber gloves. Do not allow cantharidin to come in contact with anything OTHER than the treatment area.

      4. using a wooden blade (kind of like a popsicle stick) the doc would smear a coat of salicylic acid cream over the treatment area, filling the hole in the corn pad.

      5. Apply surgical tape over the top of this, preventing leakage, and securing the pad to the foot.

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  144. I had a plantar wart 20 years ago. It grew for a few weeks until it was the size of half of a golf ball protruding from the ball of my foot. I could barely get my shoe on. It was very painful. I tried wart remover from the drugstore and that would decrease the size of it somewhat. When I finally went to a podiatrist, he just froze it and cut it out. Case closed. Most people seem to go through lots of treatments and lost time, but I recommend just freezing it and cutting it out - even if it's not that big. Why go back to the doctor so many times?

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    1. I had mine cut out. It took forever (6 weeks+ )to heal because of it's location (center of the ball of my foot) and when it was all healed up it was obvious it was back. At week 8 it was twice the size it had been before. If they miss ONE wart cell it will return.

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  145. Am currently dealing with the most annoying plantar wart ever but for now I have only had it for a couple months. It is like a blister you can't get rid of and its diameter is about a quarter of one cm. Currently using a wart remover pad from Wartner so the wart doesn't get any bigger (I hope) and until I can freeze it to death with some good ol' liquid nitrogen (not by myself though)

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  146. I had a similar situation where I developed a plantar wart shortly after starting at a new gym. I tried OTC salicylic acid for a month and it just grew bigger. I scheduled an appointment with a podiatrist and we tried freezing the wart but it did nothing. I rescheduled to see him and by the time he could see me it had spread into 3. I opted for getting them cut out cause I was scared of the spread. The soonest he could take me was 2 weeks later, by which time it had spread to 9. After having them scooped out(it was kinda neat but the next month really really SUCKED) they had all grown back within 2 weeks. The podiatrist said he had never seen anything so aggressive but had heard of an experimental effective cure using a mixture of salicylic acid and 2% 5-FU(fluorouracil). Yeah, a skin cancer treatment to kill rapidly dividing cells. After the first application, the warts turned black and died. I continued treating daily for a few weeks just in case but nothing grew back. I wish he had suggested it before I'd had them cut out, that summer could have been better spent. The 5-FU treatment was relatively painless, so it might be worth considering with particularly aggressive plantar warts.

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  147. ok,so here is how I got rid of two stubborn plantars in two weeks!!Thing you will need are--dr.sholls mole skin or mole foam and liquid wart compound...I basically made my own medicated patches ..very easy just put a small amount of wart compound on wart be carefull to only put on wart are,,let dry then cut a big enough piece of mole skin to cover!!I put my sock on and shoe to help hold down while the adhesive set..after it does that sucker (mole skin) will not come off .. I skiped a day of shower so I showered every other day..before shower I took off and my foot with soap and up to you i used salicylic acid oxy pads (use to clean face but has same ingredient as wart compound!to clean area....let dry then start the process over again,,compound, mole skin, sock, shoe.. The skin will die along with wart and I used a small razor knife to trim away or just use your fingers to pull off!!! Even after it looked like the skin was dieing i continued for about a week ...GOOD LUCK MINE ARE GONE AND DUCT TAP,BANNANA PEELS, ECT DIDNT WORK FOR ME!

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  148. Dear wart warriors, what a great place to share our battles. Mr Warty who has his own personality has resided on the ball of my right foot for the last 39 years. He is on a war pension now. I picked him up at public swimming baths aged 12 and did not realise what he was until I was in my early 20's. I am a nurse so how dumb was I. So for the last 3 decades plus some we have been in a very abusive relationship. I can't even tell what it wart and what is scar tissue anymore. He won't leave, I can't make him leave. I spent two decades hacking and cutting, small sharp scissors with pointy blades were my favorite and still are. About 12 years ago I started LN every week for 6 whole months. As soon as the pain in my foot stopped I was back having another treatment. It was so painful I was given caudal blocks in my foot prior to treatment. In between freezings I used the SA gel pads that would move around eating random holes in my foot. He is in there deep, one day I took off the gel pad and I could see him still about 1/2cm into my foot ... staring defiantly back at me, what I needed was the LN treatment right then to get him but it was in the evening so going to the doctors was not an option, by morning he had sunk back into the abyss of my foot, that was the only time we ever actually stared each other down. So from time to time I would apply wart treatments, hack and cut and grind, use styptic pencils and generally put up with it. I met my dear friend about 6 years ago who had a massive wart on her foot also. We traded war stories, gave our warts names, hers was Mr Bastard and off she duly went researching after having hers cut out , frozen and all the other usual self mutilations and came up with the ACV and duct tape solution. Bless her she did this for months and has been wart free for two years, she would call me crying in pain and swearing a lot. I tried the same about 2 years ago, Mr Warty never went black, his lair entrance puffed up so I removed that with my trusty scissors. We assumed as there was no discolouration that he had in fact expired and that was that. 12 months later ... not so, for the last 2 months I have gone back to hacking,scraping and bitching loudly. Earlier this week I have recommenced the ACV treatment, why as I type thisI have a pad soaked in that stinky stuff stuck to my foot. Tomorrow I will up the ante and do the duct tape thing as well. The callus has all gone because I gleefully cut it off but I am battle weary and as I have aged my sight is not what it was and I cannot see if there is even a wart there but the sensation is the same as it has been for years now so I figure he is hiding in there somewhere. The doctor years ago said it was hard to distiguish wart from scar tissue back then so the war has been a violent one. I will persist with this for now because I don't think we have the beetle acid option in Australia ... good luck to everyone on the battlefront. I wish the ACV pad would hurt more, then I might feel like its doing something. A site with pictures of warts in their death throes might give some of us a bit of hope ...

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    1. Don't despair fellow wart warrior, Donna! I didn't think the Beetle Juice sounded like something that would be done in Australia - but it does exist here!!! I had it applied yesterday by a dermatologist. I am in Western Sydney, NSW. I am sure there would be other dermatologists that use it, hopefully one close to you. Let me know if you would like more info.

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  149. I had one a little bigger than the size of a pencil eraser cut out last May, 8 weeks later came back twice as big. Starting received Blister Beetle treatments after that at 2 week intervals for 5 times...it would get smaller but never by much. We started "Cool Touch Laser" (which has no pain at all because it shoots out a burst of cold air right after the laser) along with Blister Beetle Venom applied directly afterwards. 3 treatments later the podiatrist gave up, saying, "this is the most potent treatment I can give and it's not working." He then recommended we cut it out again, going deeper/broader with a skin graft from another part of my foot...that's when I switched Doctors!

    So now I'm seeing a dermatologist. They tried the Squaric Acid route...made me 'allergic' to it then applied. Guess what! I'm in the 3% that doesn't react to sqauric acid...who knew!?!? Then for 10 weeks I applied a "Triple Wart Gel" that is compounded locally at the Rx. Doc said to use once a day under occlusion...well that did NOTHING! I started using 3 times a day and scrapping dead skin off daily so that it reached the warty tissue not just on top of the callous. It kept the wart from growing bigger and sometimes seemed to get 'thinner' and on occasion I would see soft red tissue among the callous. But it never got smaller than it is now (12mm x 18mm...roughly the size of a penny).

    Yesterday we started pulse dye laser treatment. My wart is EXTREMELY PAINFUL and sensitive all around the area so 10 pulses sent me through the roof and crying in pain...more so than giving birth (which I've done 5 times). I believe it has grown to be more sensitive over the year, like it's a central for nerves or something because I am NO wimp but this was awful. Two hours after treatment the sharp, sharp burning pains stopped. My doc has me coming back in 4 weeks for another treatment but honestly, after reading all of this I'm wondering if I should be going back sooner. It's blackened today but not all over it...I'm wondering if she didn't get to it all because I was in so much pain.

    Any advise on this laser treatment (how many, how often, success, etc.) would be most appreciated.

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    1. OH! I forgot to mention...My wart NEVER EVER EVER got a blister on it. Not after freezing, not after Blister Beetle...and I've had at least 10 applications over the last year. :( It was always painful and burned after about 5 hours for about a day or 2 but NEVER a blister. Wonder if that's why none of this has ever worked.

      I just want a treatment that WORKS. I used to run 10 miles a day, now I can hardly walk. :'(

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    2. Hi Stacey. I had pulse dye laser treatment last year 5 times, each session two weeks apart. My doctor had been applying acid and scraping for 6 months before we went to laser. The last two months of scraping he kept telling me, "maybe one more treatment." beyond frustrating. (This was a podiatrist.) The first laser treatment hurt, but not too bad. He pulsed the wart (which was the size of a pencil eraser) about 15 times. The second time was another story. (He told me this was because the first time had to get through all of the callused tissue.. although not sure this makes sense since the point of the laser is to destroy the blood vessels, that's why it will turn black.) I gave birth to a 10 pound baby and the pain of treatments 2-5 was right up there with the pain of childbirth. No kidding. After the fifth, he told me we could just follow up with a couple more acid treatments. Well, a couple turned into 4. I was done. I gave up. Stupid, I know, but it was summer, and like the author of this one-time blog.. wonder if he ever thought it would last YEARS?! LOL) anyway, I was tired of hobbling around, not able to go for walks and enjoy the too short summer of Michigan! I still had the darn thing. I ignored it for a few months, it didn't seem to change, but it was still there. Finally, I bought the Dr. Scholls plantar wart acid stick-ons. I used them for 5 or 6 weeks. Took off many layers of skin. Stopped again. All that is left of the wart is a little white spot. Put a Dr. Scholl pad on it yesterday. I use the round disk with them along with a bandaid over top of it to hold it in place. I work out every day, so take a daily shower. I don't know how people are getting them to stay on during a shower. I take mine off to shower and then put the same one on as soon as I come out of the shower and dry off. I will change it every two days. TOday, after using it for one day, when I took it off to shower, there was a piece of skin on the acid sticker, and a little tiny hole in my foot where the wart had been! Could that be it? Well honey, I have only one pad left, but I'm buying another box of them because I want to MAKE SURE it is gone. Good luck. In the end, the laser did a number on the wart, but did not kill it all. And holy hell it hurt. Every time I had a treatment, I was hobbling on my foot for a week to 10 days afterward. Just when it was okay to walk, it was time for another treatment. My podiatrist told me he has treated kids with the laser and they've been fine, could tolerate with no issues, and he's told me he has adults who could not handle it at all and had to seek alternative therapies. When he pulsed my foot, he got one hit with the laser, then had to let me shake it off for 5 seconds before he went in for the next "hit". I couldn't take it one after another. Again, good luck.

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  150. I read your blog a few months ago and felt pretty discouraged after having fought my wart for over a year already. But i finally listened to my mother and successfully rid myself of my stubborn (painful!!) wart on my heal in only 2 weeks and with a total cost of $30! It wasn't painful at all and it has been gone now for 2 months...with no sign of return. I'm so happy, i wanted to share with others struggling. So, all you need to do is go to a health food store and buy liquid form of Pau D'Arco and Black Walnut. Liberally apply one of the herbs onto a cotton ball and tape it (i used a large bandaid) onto your foot and keep it on day and night. Alternate the two herbs. do one one day and the other the next. The pain for me was gone within a couple of days. I was able to see the "head" of two of my warts...so i pulled them out and then kept up the regimine of herbs. My foot was stained from the black walnut for a while, but the painful wart is GONE!! I <3 my smart momma!! :)

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  151. Hello,

    Nice to see so many people supporting each other in their "Wart effort"! Haha, horrible pun, but I have a wart too, and must keep my sense of humor about it alive!

    I've gotten rid of a few on my feet in the past with probably close to ten different purchases of bottles of salicylic acid. Thought I would be wart free after all that, but a couple years later, in the last few months I discovered one growing on the palm side of my right index finger, conveniently nestled in where my finger bends.

    I had white vinegar on hand, and not much money to buy more salicylic acid, so I have been waging war with the same tactic most ACV users have been on, but only with white vinegar. It has the same effects mentioned, seemingly. Now after going to war with it for about a week or more I have basically a hole left in my finger where the wart used to be, and most of the black root like material seems to have come off too. The vinegar just kept taking off layer upon layer of skin until it dug out this hole in my finger. I really hope the wart isn't much deeper than this because I'm sure it will get bloody! Due to reading about all the recurring warts on this site, I'm going to keep up the vinegar treatment even though it appears to be gone, and I will be applying it to a very raw spot (its gonna sting!) So far the vinegar has been painful at times, it throbs and feels hot, but I got the sense from that that it must be working. It seems that pain does equal gain when it comes to this damn things. At least in my experience.

    One thing I have read that I wanted to bring to peoples attention was Potassium. There has been mention of potassium deficiency leading to a compromised immune system, one susceptible to the wart virus (HPV). I have heard many people say that taking this, among other vitamins, herbs etc, anything that is going to boost ones immune system, leads to good results. Warts viruses have been responsive to this nutritional way. So eating more bananas, tomatoes, and othe high potassium foods may be a great help as well in this battle. Apparently applying coloidial silver, and oregano oil to warts have also worked for people. I am glad to know there are methods such as the vinegar for people like me who are short of cash!

    Good luck all...thanks for your wart support =)

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  152. Oh my goodness! This blog was both hilarious and saddening. I'm so glad you posted your ordeal. I just found my first wart on the ball of my left foot, after having a mysterious pain for 2 months (despite which I continued to exercise/run several times a time). I went straight to a podiatrist that I trust, before even googling these things. He did the beetle juice treatment right away...first he debrided it down to a crater, then applied the juice. That was on Monday. Now it's Friday, and I still have this darn intact blister with a callous on top of it. It hurts like a MOTHER. But I'm trying to keep it intact and deal with it. I'm hoping and praying that this one treatment takes care of it, since he dug it pretty deep before applying the treatment. I caught this thing pretty early, so I think the odds may be better in my favor. But only time will tell. I will report back in a few weeks after I have my follow up with the doc!

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  153. After reading all these harrowing tales I guess I will give a little of mine. i got my first plantar wart about 5 years ago. My sister got one and it spread like wildfire. My other sister got one, my mother got one and so did I.

    My first sister (now a marriage and two kids later) still has hers but it doesn't bother her and has not spread. My other sister finally kicked hers by taping aloe vera to the bottom of her foot. My mother and I have had a harder time with ours.

    My mom's grew right under a nerve which was extremely tender. She finally had the beetle juice treatment a couple of months ago. It was very painful. She had two treatments and is now wart free. However, it seems she still has a little tumor from where the wart left so much pressure for so many years.

    I have tried many things. Of course the hacking and chopping has been a favorite but because of the back pain it caused I was never extremely consistent.

    I've tried duck-tape as well as aloe vera. WARNING: when I did this it caused bleeding which turned my 3 warts into 11!!!

    I am now on day five of treatment #1 of the beetle juice. I cannot walk on my foot so I'm stuck at home using my grandma's walker to get around. The doctor said that if i can leave the bandage on for two weeks I might not need the second treatment. My fingers are CROSSED!!

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  154. Wanted to followup on earlier posts about Cantharadin, and its effectiveness when pursued rigorously. My sons feet are both clear now, and he had massive clusters on a variety of surfaces.

    My two small ones appear to be gone (skin is growing back with the appropriate ridges in place, instead of the disruptive wart tissue breaking up their normal pattern).

    I asked my podiatrist to give me a prescription for cantharadin solution, and procured it online via a Canadian pharmacy for $38 for 7.5ml.
    I applied it to both warts as the doctor would do, and after 1-2 days punctured the blisters and very, very carefully cut away all blistered skin. This leaves a very raw area exposed. The first application I could see that something "abnormal" still rested in the raw skin, and withing 1 week I was able to closely examine the healing wart and see that yet again the tell-tale black dots were showing up at skin level.

    The beauty of having the cantharadin on hand is that I was able to do a second dose after only 1 week (rather than letting the little bastard re-establish a foothold!! pun intended)

    The blister on the second application produced a lot more weeping, and when I pulled the blistered skin off, it also pulled where the skinn appeared to still be attached. This resulted in the same raw area and one small, craterlike area that was lightly bleeding. I can't say for sure, but I think that this was the sign that I finally got the actual wart out. As new skin covered the area, it hurt and felt like maybe something was re-growing, but each time I inspected under magnification I saw no new wart tissue, AND the first return of my "foot prints" in over a year. I am fairly certain I killed the little bugger, but I am even more certain that if needed, I have the tools on hand to fight back.

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  155. MOLE SKIN,MOLE SKIN,MOLE SKIN!!IT WORKS,,,YOU HAVE TO APPLY THEM FOR TWO MONTHS,,THE WARTS CANT BREATH,,THEY DIE!!YOU HAVE TO PEEL DEAD SKIN OFF APPLY MOLE SKIN,EVERY OTHER DAY PEEL OFF DEAD SKIN,,,TWO MONTHS LATER THEY ARE GONE AND I HAD SOME SUBBURN ONES AND TRIED EVERYTHING!!!MOLE SKIN OR MOLE FOAM AT ANY DRUG STORE OR MALWART!!! I MEAN WALMART LOL

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  156. HAHAHAHHA I AM IN THE SAME EXACT FREAKEN BOAT.

    I laughed and cried through this whole blog.

    My plantar wart is on my big toe right on the crease where the toe curls. Hurts like crazy.

    I've tried EVERYTHING when I stumbled upon a clear non-labeled little bottle in my medicine box. It was some Russian kind of medicine. It looked like some sort of liquid nitrogen so I just took the sucker and put it on my wart. First, day, good. Second day, good. Third day, mother of pearls that douche gave me hell. Let's say GIVING actually. This is the third day and it feels like it's penetrating through even my healthy skin. What the crap is this stuff? Well whatever it is I think (more like hoping) that it's working... I've used it on warts on my hands and it worked wonders so I'm hoping that this plantar wart will go away too! And soon! Because it's not freaken welcome to live on me like it pays rent!

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  157. Just following up...It's been almost 4 weeks since my beetlejuice treatment. I never popped the blister and just continued to limp around for a few weeks. When the dried skin started to crack on the surface, I wore a bandaid and applied neosporin every day.
    I finally followed up yesterday and the podiatrist trimmed the dead skin off and reported that it "looks like it's gone!". The pain is gone, the lump in my foot is gone, and the new skin looks really pink and homogenous (no visible wart)...so I am hoping and praying hard that it's gone for good. Time will tell as the new skin grows out to meet the rest of my foot, but for now I'm just happy to not be in pain!

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  158. Why go through the long treatments? Would having the infected tissue removed surgically not be a better, quicker treatment. I had a huge palmers wart in my thumb when I was in my teens and early twenties that eventually I got tired of and just bit the entire thing out one day. I had bit the surface off of it several times yearly but it would always come back. When I finally bit it out i made sure I got all of it out. It was very painful as it was deep in my thumb, but it worked! I do believed you must remove all the infected cells or the virus will just keep on spreading into surrounding good cell tissue.

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  159. how would you know if its dying??

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  160. Did you pop and peel the blister or wait and let it pop on its own?

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  162. I have one wart on my left foot that the beetle juice is doing just fine on. And I have a mosaic group of warts on the ball of my right foot, that is killing me! Four weeks later, this is my THIRD treatment, with the blister finally peeled away, I still have problems with burning pain and walking. The warts are still there, and my body's reaction to it have been horrible. I don't think I can manage another treatment. I've been taking ibuprofen and applying lidocane at night. It is so debilitating, and it's been over 4 months, I am at my wits end. I am tempted to have them surgically removed and take the chance of regrowth, but take action sooner next time. This, no doubt, works if you have less warts than I do, including such a vulnerable location. I am very tolerant of pain, but this has been a nightmare. I had seen a podiatrist before my dermatologist and he had recommended a treatment using a chemotherapy type of liquid application. I took a pass on that...I just pray these side effects are just temporary. Has anyone else experience this type of pain for so long?

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  163. I looked up plantar wart on Wikapedia, Mayo Clinic with minimal results. Then, thank God, I clicked on this blog: Plantar Wart Warrior. It offers better advice than even the Mayo Clinic site. It's all here: Organic, OTC, doctor folk lore etc. People helping people. The rest of the world should take note. God Bless everybody!

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  164. I've had Plantar Warts on my left heel for going on 15 years now. Once the pain started a few years ago I began the same treatment path as you, with no success. Well....I've now done 3 of the 5 consecutive treatments and wow...great progress has been made but that son of a @&$)( is still hanging on. The treatments don't hurt. The blisters do hurt more and more with each treatment. My heel is tender, raw, and painful but I'm determined this guy and his many close friends will die! Treatment #4 is Tuesday afternoon and I have a business dinner that evening. Perhaps a cocktail will help me make it through till I can get home, pop the blister, and get off my foot. Hoping this is the last treatment needed but mentally prepared if it takes one more. Wish me luck all and much luck and success to each of you in your battles and triumph!

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  165. Wow! I read the whole story and you had an adventure, sir! My brother had a plantar wart and treated it with the home freezing kit. My sister got it from him and treated hers the same way. Unfortunately, I share a room with her and I got it too. It was painful so I used the freezing stuff and it went away. It's been gone for a year now but I start using public showers at my school for a week and now there's a little feeling in that same spot. Not painful. But when I look at it there's a white little spot in the middle of it. Should I apply the freezing kit to it now or should I go to my doctor? I really want to stop it before it starts so what should I do?

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  166. Well glad to know I am not the only one suffering with this plantars wart but I would not wish it on anyone! I have been treating my huge dime sized wart on the ball of my foot with ACV for the past 6 weeks. Yesterday was the most painful..brought me to tears several times...and I am 28. I had to stop using duct tape to cover it because it killed so much of the skin around the wart and became too tender. I also had to stop doing ACV at night because the pain was too strong for me to sleep..even with ibuprofen. So I have been wearing the ACV soaked cotton ball during the day (which makes it so I can't walk or do anything productive) and using tea tree oil (which actually seems to soothe it and take the pain away) at night. Right now I my foot looks like this: raw new skin where the duct tape killed the old skin, with a white ring of hard tender skin, inside that white ring is where the wart is and that area is all brownish-black colored. I originally started with using walmart brand ACV but then switched to raw organic ACV since it is more potent, and when I did so the wart area turned from light brown to darker brown (because the raw organic stuff is darker brown colored). When I started also applying tea tree oil at night the dark brown started showing a little black. Right now it is dark rust colored! I am afraid to cut away the white ring of skin or anything because of the pain and I've heard it is better to leave it alone and let the ACV do the job. I'm hoping and praying it will die and fall off soon...it's been 6 weeks...I really don't want to have to go to the doctor if at all possible because the bug juice and other methods sound horribly painful. I'm gonna stick with the ACV for now and try to boost my immune system with vitamins and natural herbs and eating food high in potassium. Thanks all for the insight! I will keep you posted!
    -Ozark, MO Girl

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  167. Hi, I have had one plantar wart for over 2 years. It is not bothersome to me at all, I simply want it gone from my body. I have been trying home remedies for 1year.
    I started with black slave, duct/duck tape, then minced garlic with olive oil, oregano oil, tea tree oil, banana peel, salilic acid pads, salilic acid gel, and suffocate it with super glue. All of these attempts have failed.
    Now I'm using a torch to make the tip of a nail that I have flattened the point on to be glowing hot.
    It stings a little but not too much. I keep using a light touch/tap to burn away the flesh. Once it has been burned it does not sting as much.
    I did see a photo shot of a plantar which had been surgically removed. It was a 7mm wart.
    I imagine mine is still a little deeper than I've been so far.
    I'm going slow since Im not a surgeon, I keep following the distortions in my skins ridges that I know to be caused by the virus. Soon enough I will find the main body of the wart, and it will get popped!!!
    I have done this twice now. A little farther and more accurate the second time. I was using neosporin to keep the hole from infection. But now I'm using Sea Minerals cream (www.seaminerals.com) which has papaya in it and Papaya has a lot of potassium, which is harmful to the virus and good for the skin, maybe I won't have a scar. But if I do...it will be a plesant reminder of my self determination. (scars are cooler than tatoos anyway)
    Now that I'm a few layers closer to the underlying body of the virus I wonder if it was my skin thickness that kept the garlic and other oils from getting to the virus.

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  168. 30 April 2013 was my last post, I'm following through with the glowing hot nail technique.
    I forgot to mention in the first post that I got the first wart which I didn't know what it was or anything about it. Then about a year later a second one appeared. That's when I decided it was time to do some combat against the warts.
    I have great results from the first 'burning' of the oldest wart and today 18 May 2013 have had round 2 with wart #2.
    The oldest wart, (or where the wart used to be) has regrown really well. The skin seems slightly thicker there but I'm hoping it smooths out soon. Also when I press in on where the wart was there is no more lump under the skin. When I peeled away some of the char from the first 'burning' I noticed a volcano like crater there. I cleaned out the top and down the hole really well but did not notice any unusual skin patterns or anything that looks like a wart.
    Today I had round 2 with the second wart.
    I flatten the end of whatever bolt, nail or screw is handy with my file and use a torch to make its end glow.
    At first there will be no extracellular fluid as the skin gets burned, just start on the center of the wart. There seems to be little circles in between the dermal ridges and as I burned deeper with each tap there will be a point where the little circle will leak a watery looking fluid. This fluid will take the glow away from the nail real quick. So I hold a piece of tissue paper or cotton ball on the hole till I bring the nail back. When the fluid was gone I went as far as I thought it would take, which was not much farther. Then I spackel on the sea minerals and a cotton ball and use duct tape to hold it all in place.
    I used a larger diameter piece of metal at first then I changed to a smaller diameter which was easier to heat and would go deeper faster without putting a huge hole on my foot.
    Did I say flatten the end of whatever hardware is to be used? I did? Good!
    Thanks, I will ONLY repost if by request (if I happen to ever read the requesting post) OR if I find this to be a waste of time and my little 'buddy' comes back.
    But I don't care, a glowing hot piece of metal has got to be the most dependable method for killing the plantar virus. Im pretty sure that it won't come back....
    Thanks again.

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