Has anyone else here struggled with a persistent verruca?

I've had one for the best part of a decade. At various times I've tried to treat it, mostly with over-the-counter gels such as bazuka.

In Feb–March I had several sessions with a podiatrist, including 2 x debridlement and one quick session with a 'verruca pen' which seemed to be some sort of laser device. It was shrinking and looked like we'd conquered it, but it came back.

Apparently immune conditions can make getting rid of verrucas harder, which is sort of obvious. It's the immune system that does all the work in getting rid of the verruca.

So, anyone had the same issue? What should I try next?!

 

I sympathise. 30 yrs ago i had a large one it was 1cm in diameter (i think actually it was a cluster of them rather than one). And it HURT. Had another smaller one on other foot. I had them for many yrs.

Had them burned out, frozen out, all sorts by GP/podiatrists, & tried all manner of gels & creams from chemist and from drs podiatrists etc. But nothing worked, it always just came straight back. It was really deep so i imagine it was hard to get it all.

Anyway i gave up and it just let it be. The treatments all made it hurt more & I'd had it so long I just kind of accepted it by that time.

Anyway I then moved to a hot country and was walking on the beach & in the sea every day. And within about 6wks they both just disappeared. Another girl who was living/working with me said she'd had the same experience when she arrived (long term verrucas that disappeared within a few wks of being there)

The sand and salt may have had nothing at all to do with it, it may have been pure coincidence. And i dont think mood can have affected it immune wise as i wasnt particularly any happier in that idyllic sounding scenario!

So while its Purely anecdotal & not very scientific for S4, & it likely doesnt help you as you'll not be able to go walking on a beach and swimming in the sea everyday, But i did think at the time that if i ever got one again i'd try sanding it down and soaking in salt water every day.

good luck with it they really are a pain

 

I have recently seen a video of a doctor/foot surgeon in the US removing plantar warts/veruccas. She was using something that produced a hole like a hole punch for paper. The holes were deep, and I wouldn't have called what she was doing "debridement", instead it was more like complete excision, and the man's warts hadn't come back by the end of the video. He had had 207 of them in total over both feet, which is probably why his case was used as the basis of a video. Perhaps the people you've seen and been treated by have been a bit timid in their removal techniques?

Spoiler: Plantar wart video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLyNeH9af68

I should point out that anyone with trypophobia (fear of holes) should not watch this!

 

I think they got rid of verruca treatment as standard in the NHS. Might vary by trust, but it's definitely not like it used to be. I had a wart frozen when I was at school.

 

The approach in swimming now seems to be that exposure is probably the best way to deal with the virus, since avoiding it doesn't work and most kids exposed to it eventually develop immunity. I imagine the NHS has taken a similar view, and verrucas are only treated if they're really problematic and won't go away on their own. Even then, I don't think it always works.

All I can do is sympathise that you're having to put up with it, @InitialConditions. I had a whole rash of the ruddy things on one of my feet for several years, and they're painful! Mine went when a long-lasting ME crash abated a bit, and I was able to walk more, grub around in the garden in bare feet or flip flops, etc. I don't think it was the necessarily the illness that kept them going, more that my feet weren't getting any wear and tear because I had to rest so much. That might be why verrucas often tend to be short lived in young kids—they spend a lot less time wearing shoes than adults.

 

OMG @Arnie Pye that video is amazing i love to watch anything like that. warts, cyst removal etc. I even watch videos of jigger removal. If you dont know what that is look on youtube but not if you're squeamish lol

 

I'd never heard of jiggers before, which I'm quite glad about!

 

I'd never had one until after my 2017 relapse, not sure exactly when it appeared but started trying to treat it in 2019. At first I thought it was a corn, but after using corn plasters for a bit realised it looked more like finger warts I'd had in my teens.

I saw a foot care practitioner once who confirmed it was a verucca and used something a bit like a mini disc sander on it.
I tried gel, scraping it with foot file and something from the chemist that was supposed to freeze it off, none of which made any difference.

Most recently I've used a verucca removal system by Scholl, and it finally seems to have gone. It consists of different sized medicated discs of salicyclic acid and padded plasters to keep the disc on for the required 48 hours, which is easier than the contortions to put gel in the right place and keep it there.
I scraped any loosened layers off before reapplying the next plaster. I had to use it for the the maximum 12 weeks recommended, then had a break and did about five more. I've been clear since April.
Of course it could just be that my body became able to get rid of it, but I could see the layers going and it getting smaller with the treatment, until I was back to the normal skin lines.

Good luck.

 

Thanks, may try this. Some people say just covering the verruca (e.g., with duct tape) can help, so maybe the combination of a plaster with salicyclic acid might work.

 

Yes.
Had the vanishing after a good summer of sand and saltwater thing, was gone for a longish time but all back.
It’s just one more thing to get around to mentioning again to do other (but too many things higher on the list)

hope yours just goes, as they’re really supposed to.

and sympathies if this is another one of those things we just don’t get ‘supposed to’ for.

 

The duct tape worked very well for me.

 

Since verrucas are caused by viruses, one wonders by what mechanism covering it with duct tape can work? Not saying it doesnt, just wondering.

 

Old wives tales are topical applications. Don't know if you've tried any of these.

Banana skin ( many swear by this it has a compound which is said to break down verucas).
Vinegar
Tea tree oil ( diluted) - contains Terpinen -4, an anti microbial which is said to be effective - used for one of my kids when in primary school and seemed to help

The Scholl system works well - eldest child used this in early teens

 

I was thinking maybe the sticky duct tape might stop a little spread of virus to slide around on adjacent skin, such that the broken skin is reinfected as fast as the body can clear it, so if a body can throw it off under the duct tape that maybe how it works, but its the opposite of effectively exposing it to the air. Or maybe its the glue works to hold and de-activate a shedding virus

I once found that going grubby barefoot for weeks in the summer vanished one otherwise untreatabke verruca, and nowhere near a beach, so I put it down to thorough airing with no sweat, micro-friction and micro-squeeze on surfaces inside socks and shoes

Its not returned but if needed again (as i'd not be walking barefoot even in the summer), I'd like to try out the garlic oil I read about as useful to put on some kind of warts, or the Thuja said to be particularly effective on warts - if it might work in a tincture then thats obtainable (or maybe try applying the thujone in absinthe)

Thuja has interested me since I read it was used for vaccinia.

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I followed the advice of Dr Michael Greger (of NutritionFacts.org fame), who looked at RCTs on removing warts with duct tape, and managed to completely get rid of a small wart that had been on my arm for ages, over the course of 3-4 weeks. The key thing about the duct tape, he reckons, is that the glue on the tape should be rubber-based. The idea, IIRC, is that the rubber-based glue irritates the skin, bringing that bit to the notice of the immune system, which suddenly realises that there's a wart there that it should be attacking, and it goes for it, with the wart just gradually and painlessly fading over time and leaving no damaged skin.

A verruca is a wart so I'd hope this would work. Dr Greger is uncomplimentary in his video about warts about burning/freezing, given how painful that is and the relative efficacy.

Good luck! Rubber-glue-backed duct tape would be my port of call if I got a verruca now.

[Edited to add] BTW, I followed the protocol in the trial he cites - soak and gently debride the wart, stick just enough duct tape on to cover it, leave it on six days, remove the tape, soak and debride the wart, leave it a day, stick some more duct tape on and keep that up for some maximum time that I think was maybe two months, but you'd have to check.

 

Thanks, I didn't know it makes the skin soft, that could have various uses, and I forgot it could be bought in a topical prep

That is clever, there must be many ways to prompt an immune system this way and that, if one has it worked out and trialled too, and one is sure it won't just wobble back the other way eventually

This once off little rubber challenge sounds like it lets the system settle down after. I had thought maybe the glue was directly active on the virus. Now I wonder why rubber ? as I find most glues irritating, but that may be the solvents, certainly the fumes, and I am not sensitive to rubber, but burning rubber fumes are poisonous and just swamp my defences. Maybe it IS rubber in the glues that irritate.

I do find it hard to imagine the immune system as party to all this. A verruca does look like its cunningly embedded on the skin to not be noticed from the inside, or can an immune system just get lazy and stop looking ?

 

I've had one for two years now. I seem to be able to maintain it as much smaller but not cure it.

Two years ago I was treating it and I was a couple treatments away from being rid of it but ran out of the treatment and can't find that one anywhere. I am convinced that one would cure it if I found it.