I had plantars warts on my feet when I was in high school. It started with one and then slowly become a huge mass of them on the ball of my foot with random ones all over the rest of that foot and the other foot. I never tried getting them frozen or lasered but I did use all the over the counter stuff under the sun to no avail.

So how did I get rid of them? Time. Eventually they all just went away. I had them for at least 3 or 4 years, and one day I noticed they were gone. I don't know if it was all the sudden as I wasn't monitoring them very closely by that point.

I know this isn't really a help to you but it may (or may not) be a comfort. I thought I would never get rid of them and gave up. Only then did they disappear on their own. I still don't understand it. Weird, to say that least.

kelly

i know that this is going to sound very bad, but i have had the same problem with planters warts. the weird thing was that they always showed up next to dead skin, so one day , after trying everything to get rid of them, i used my trusty toenail clippers. if your warts are near dead skin or in a spot were you can clip them off without causing any bleeding or pain i would try to clip them off. i did this maybe 2 or 3 times and i havent had any since. by the way, if you dont want to use the nail clipper method an emery board or some fine to medium sandpaper does the trick as well. ( just to make things go a little smother, try to use newer clippers as they will be sharper and will do a better job. just dont try to go to deep.)

Can't say I've ever heard of this stuff being used on the bottom of anyone's feet, but 3M Pharmaceuticals makes a topical cream called Aldara that was developed for genetal warts. The stuff seems to be effective for and is now being prescibed quite often 'off label' for common warts and even for early stages of skin cancer (not the dangerous melanoma).

I don't know if this will help but...

about 5 years ago I had this huge wart on the palm of my hand. Very disgusting. It's was the king of all warts. I most likely got it from just being around the pool constantly. After countless of procedures of lazers and being frozen off, nothing helped. I then heard of a superstition that if you rub two pennies on the wart and throw one over each shoulder, it will go away. I tried it, and less than 4 days later, it was gone.

ive heard duct tape works. just wrap it like a band-aid.

You may have to refreeze several times to get it to go away. My doc was unwilling to go that deep at one shot. I ended up going to my friends lab and doing it myself. Couldn't walk painfree for four days but was wart free.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

thanks guys....i'm willing to try anything

I've used the over the counter acid based pads with success a few times. Treatment takes several weeks. Basically, what it does is burn the skin off your foot where the pad is and when you take the pad off it takes the skin off with it - it sounds painful, but by that time the skin is dead and you don't feel anything. You keep doing this until you can't really feel the wart or see it anymore. Then I have always done it for a few more times "just to be sure". It's worked ok for me.

Good luck. Plantars warts are annoying.

Two rounds of freezing took care of the wart I got on my hand, but I've used the over the counter stuff too.

With the duct-tape - I've read that if you put lemon juice (acidic) on the wart and then cover with duct tape it does the same thing as the other topical stuff you can get from over the counter. Sort of like leaving a band-aid on your finger for so long, it just starts to kill the skin - then you can cut/clip/take off the dead skin and the wart too.

Good luck.

Josh

I use an over the counter product called Mediplast. It's basically salicylic acid on a moleskin type of plaster. You cut the pad to the size of the wart and stick it on like a bandaid. Eventually, the wart separates from the healthy skin underneath and peels off. It's actually painless.

Freezing, acid pads, scraping, I tried them all. The only thing that finally worked was dropping out of my PhD program. Once I made my decision to leave, the warts cleared up in a week or two. It's amazing the effect stress levels can have on your body's ability to take care of itself. Not to mention having advisors who tell you to choose between your bicycle and your research.

My (uniformed) belief about how all of the wart-removal products work is they attack the surrounding area of skin around the wart and stimulate your body's immune system to come in and fix things... taking care of the wart in the process. If your immune system is already struggling, then no luck with the wart removal.

So, not knowing anything about your situation, my advice would be to get more sleep and don't worry about things so much (which is good advice in general). Failing that, drop out of school/quit your job and ride your bicycle more. It worked for me.

J

Thats interesting. I too have had both a plantar wart and a dickhead advisor that has tried to manipulate my off-hour triathlon lifestyle. The wart manifested itself about 2 months ago and its finally going away with the aid of sialycylic acid moleskin patches and periodic freezing. Of course, the greatest improvement has come in the last week, in which I finally had a serious confrontation with my advisor. He is overly critical, rude, obnoxious and worst of all, jealous that I can, without much difficulty, satisfy the requirements for a PhD in Engineering. Last week I told him that what I do in my personal time is none of his business and that if it was a problem I would gladly leave his lab ASAP. Fortunately, I have enough seniority in the lab that he backed off and apologized. Something about these academic types that breeds this arrogance and a belief that they can control the lives of their students. Anyways, I think the wart is on the mend and I agree that these things seemed to coincide with times of higher stress. I hope your former advisor didn't derail a dream you had....its a good thing you left if your heart wasn't really in it but we can never let others control our goals.

CEG

Bob and others,
My son had a bad case of plantars warts on the bottom of his feet and on his fingers a few years back.

An important thing to know is that the cause of these is a virus, which is contagious to others that say "walk on the pool deck" with plantars warts on the bottoms of their feet.

The foot doctor told him to dig out the plantars warts and apply the acid as many of you have mentioned, along with taking Tagamet (over the counter). It seemed to work and he was cleared up in a matter of months.

The skin doctor who handled his fingers repeatedly froze them off and they would regrow. He was given aldara as someone else mentioned and he was told to wrap his fingers with duct tape at night. It did'nt seem to help until one week he stopped doing it and the next week they just disappeard....

I think most of them will go away with time, but it's quite a hassle.
Spencer

Field expedient wart removal technique: Supplies needed: 2 large kitchen (or waterproof "lifeboat" matches) matches, sharp pocket knife or M1 bayonet, 1 sock.

Step 1. Break the head off one of the kitchen matches, cleanly.
Step 2. Put the sock in your mouth and bite down. Hard.
Step 3. Cut the offending mass out using your knife or bayonet (sadly, U.S. troops do not commonly carry bayonets anymore).
Step 4. Insert the match head into the orifice left by carving out the mass.
Step 5. Use the remaining match to ignite the match head in the wound. Grasp the joint area nearest the affected limb and squeeze it hard. Bite down on the sock more.
Step 6. Using knife or baynet, remove the remainder of the spent match head and clean the wound.
Step 7. Bandage as usual.

I've done it on my hand and it works fine. Disclaimers: This is for demonstration purposes only, do not attempt at home. Always consult a physician before lighting yourself on fire. This operation should be performed by trained personnel only, away from explosives and flammables. While not required, it is best to use the cleanest sock available.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

haha thanks tom..... of all solutions i think i like yours best..... thanks everyone...

bob

This may not help if you have a bunch of them, but for only a few Vitamine E worked for me. Take a liquid capsule, cut it open, spread the fluid on the wart, and cover with a band aid every nite before bed. Took about 8 weeks, but was painless, cheap and effective.

This should serve as a reminder to all. Don't go barefooted in the shower room!

I'm in the process of removing warts from all over. I have some on the cuticle of my ring finger. To say the least, when they get frozen, it is PAINFUL.

Someone above alluded to this - the wart is a virus. When the body can't fight it, the wart stays there. Just like with any other virus in the body (cold, etc.), once the body builds up the antibodies (if they are called that), then the virus goes away.

That is why many of you are saying - "I had a wart, and it just went away." That means that the body has come up with whatever it is to get rid of them on their own.

I wish my body would come up with it.