I just got back from a visit to my dermatologist. I was having him look at a weird rash (he didn't know what it was exactly, but it's pretty minor, so he's treating it instead of biopsying for now) and while I was there, I asked him to freeze a few warts on my left hand. One was very close to my nail bed, and he recommended the treatment above rather than cryotherapy.
I'm wishing now that I just wrapped my whole hand in duct tape, cuz that liquid nitrogen cr*p hurts.
Anyway, when I got back to the office I googled duct tape + warts and it looks pretty official to me. I think I have some at home, so I'll wrap up my pinkie finger tonight and see how it goes.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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The dermatologist I used to work for recommended duct tape only after patients freaked after hearing how much cryotherapy was. He knew it worked, but he couldn't make any money off of that treatment.
Posts: 2064 | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Valentine014: The dermatologist I used to work for recommended duct tape only after patients freaked after hearing how much cryotherapy was. He knew it worked, but he couldn't make any money off of that treatment.
So how much did your boss charge? I didn't have to pay anything but the office visit charge.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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This place where I got a bug bite 10 years ago that never healed and turned into a bump that keeps growing, I think I will try duct tape on it as well. I asked a dermatologist about it once and he said it wasn't anything. I take a clean sharp knife or razor blade and cut it off flush every so often, because it annoys me. It heals but it keeps growing back. How long does it take for duct tape to fix things like that? Do you have to reapply after every shower? Is there such thing as skintone duct tape so it won't show so much? How big a piece do you put on there? Should you go outside the margins of the thing at all? Or just enough to cover it? I need to try this.
I also have a bump on the back of my neck that is like a freckle that is raised up. Does it work to get rid of stuff like that too? Wouldn't it be awesome if you could duct tape your whole body little by little and regrow perfect skin? Duct tape could be the fountain of youth! If Ponce de Leon only knew!
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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The physician I saw this morning said to completely cover the wart with duct tape. He suggested using two pieces - one up and over the tip of my finger and then one around it. He said to leave it on for 6 days - not to take it off for chores, swimming, cleaning, bathing etc. Then on the 7th day, you take it off, soak the wart and scrape/file it with a pumice stone or emery board. Then replace the tape for another 6 days. He said if it doesn't take care of it in 4 weeks to call him back.
He also said any kind of tape will work, but duct tape stays on better. White adhesive tape tends to get pretty gnarly after a week on.
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I used duct tape, changed daily, on a plantars wart on the ball of my foot a few years back. It took a couple of months, but it did the trick.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I've never heard of this! Cool! Of course, I've never had warts, either, but might as well keep it in mind in case it ever comes up. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Did you wrap your whole foot, or just put it over the bottom of your foot? My daughter has a persistent plantar wart but I'm not sure how to duct tape it. A pinkie finger seems easier to deal with.
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My dad had access to liquid nitrogen when we were growing up-- so we always had a readily available wart cure.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Does anyone know a cure (other than Lamisil, which isn't covered by most insurance and costs a fortune out of pocket) for fungal nail infection? My husband picked it up in a gym and now we're terrified the kids will get it, so we all wear socks or flip-flops at all times and clean our floors and shower obsessively. It doesn't hurt or anything, but it is repulsive-looking.
Posts: 354 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Maui babe, I just stuck a patch of it on the bottom of my foot. As long as I changed it daily I didn't have trouble with it coming off.
[Edit--well, much trouble, anyway. If I worked out while wearing it the increase in sweat would sometimes loosen the thing.]
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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DeathofBees, I don't, but I can tell you that my mom has had a nail infection since I can remember on her toenails (don't know where it came from), she's been to all kinds of dermatologists and podiatrists and stuff, and has been told since it's bi-polar it's pretty much uncurable. But living with her for 18 years, I never picked it up and neither did my sibs, and we shared the same shower and stole her slippers and walked around barefoot all the time. So I don't know, maybe some kinds are more contagious than others, but maybe it's just that after a while they're not really contagious?
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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The best thing for me was an over-the-counter medication for stomach upset. I think it started with an M. I'd had quite a few warts (ten or so in all) on my fingers that would not go away no matter what I tried, and taking one pill a day cured me in about a month. Painless, side-effect-free, easy. I'm so glad the lady burning them off with liquid nitrogen mentioned it as a backup option.
Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Crazy! There's some interesting methods (other than Duct Tape) here.
When I was young, it was either those silly wart-bandaids that you can pick up at any grocery store, or wait for it to go away, or freeze it off. (Or, just sort of tear at it over and over and over with nail clippers).
Actually, the last wart I had was on my foot, and it lasted for a few years. I think what finally killed it was when I was working manual labor for a summer, and it was suffocated in my heavy workboots for 12-hour a day shifts.
Posts: 39 | Registered: Apr 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Brinestone: The best thing for me was an over-the-counter medication for stomach upset. I think it started with an M. I'd had quite a few warts (ten or so in all) on my fingers that would not go away no matter what I tried, and taking one pill a day cured me in about a month. Painless, side-effect-free, easy. I'm so glad the lady burning them off with liquid nitrogen mentioned it as a backup option.
Wow, really? If you think of the name of the drug, definitely post it. I'm very curious about this.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Samprimary, I don't think so-- what the cryo does is cause the wart, which has a slightly different temperature from the rest of the skin, to separate, causing it to die and fall off. I don't think compressed air can do that.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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The propellant in Compressed Air canisters tends to evaporate very quickly, causing objects it touches to lose heat (cool) quickly. You can freeze things by holding the can upside down and blasting away. I used to do it all the time back when I worked for a computer company.
Seriously doubt it would be as effective as liquid nitrogen.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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PC, if ice doesn't work (and it doesn't), I doubt compressed air would. I do believe that the temperature has to be significantly below freezing for it to work.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I'm not sure I ever understood that, but it's caused by a bi-polar fungus. Whatever that is. A fungus with extreme mood swings that cause irrational and destructive behavior?
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Okay, after an extensive search turned up (eventually) a link to the Wikipedia article on Basidiomycota, it may have something to do with their mating system? I really still don't know what that has to do with treatability, but she's been told that that's why it's untreatable.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I used to get warts on my feet quite a bit when I was a kid. I also got one on the palm of my hand when I was about nine year old, and was afraid to let the doctor freeze it off. He gave me the longer-term treatment instead, and the thing swelled up to the size of a large grape. It was incredibly tender, and It felt like I'd been shot through the hand when I decided to play Two-Square, anyway.
**Don't read the rest if you're one of those squeamish types**
My most awesome and grotesque wart experience ever was when I was 19 years old. I had like three or four warts on the bottom of one of my feet, near my toes, and I was putting salicylic acid on them. They started sort of blossoming, and I was too impatient to leave them alone. I look tweezers and started pulling the newly divided little stalks out one by one, and pulling up the seeds. I now had four grotesque bloody pits in my feet.
The coolest guy I ever knew (that I definitely should have married) insisted I take off my shoes (outside a walk-up ice cream stand) so we could sit there and inspect my feet, marveling at how gross and brutal they looked. *sigh* He was dreamy.
Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
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porce, I can totally understand the appeal of a guy who thinks inspected your cool boo-boos is a bonding moment. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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As long as we're starting to get on the whole "really gross wart" stories segement of this thread...
I knew a girl in high school who developed a few warts on the ball of one of her feet. Years later, in my early 20s, we started dating, and I discovered that she'd never done anything about them, and they'd...multiplied. And multiplied. And multiplied some more. Basically the entire ball of her foot and underside of all of her toes on that foot was a giant warty mass. Surprisingly, it didn't actually hurt to walk on it.
At my urging she went to a dermatologist, who said that he'd never seen anything like it. There were hundreds of warts in the mass, apparently. It took quite a while to get rid of them all, but she finally did (after we'd broken up, I think). I wonder if her foot is scarred? I'll have to ask her next time we talk.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: PC, if ice doesn't work (and it doesn't), I doubt compressed air would. I do believe that the temperature has to be significantly below freezing for it to work.
Turning the can upside-down and firing it produces a significantly cryogenic blast.
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Trust me, the stuff is definitely below zero. Even a second of exposure of a can at full blast onto bare skin can frostburn you badly.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Well, find something that measures the temperature, and I'll tell you if I think it would be cold enough.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Noemon: At my urging she went to a dermatologist, who said that he'd never seen anything like it. There were hundreds of warts in the mass, apparently. It took quite a while to get rid of them all, but she finally did (after we'd broken up, I think). I wonder if her foot is scarred? I'll have to ask her next time we talk.
I REALLY want to have a conversation like that!
Them: "Hello?" Me: "Hey it's me, Porce!" Them: "Who? OH! Hey, what's up? How is everything?" Me: "Fabulous. Hey, so, remember when you had like a bazillion warts on your feet?" Them:"...Yes." Me: "Do you have any scarring from when the doctor removed them, or are you, like, totally clear now?" Them: "Uh, well, the texture is just a little wonky, but there aren't individually articulated scars." Me: "Awesome, thanks!" Them: "Why are yo-- " *click*
Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
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this reminds me of the "tree man" story from last month about the guy who's arms (and really whole body) turned into tree like growths because of a rare gene mixed with warts.
Posts: 104 | Registered: Apr 2005
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