AIBU to wonder if freezing with liquid nitrogen is the only way to get rid of a wart?

[Sopranos24]

I have had a wart on the knuckle of my middle finger for maybe 2 years now. Apart from looking unsightly, it hurts when I catch it on things. I can't knock a door without it hurting for example! I am female aged 59, if that is relevant.

The Doctor has treated it with liquid nitrogen 7 times but it is showing no signs of disappearing. The Doctor is just suggesting zapping it with liquid nitrogen every month to try and get it to go. However, I am beginning to think that this treatment will never work. Does anyone know of any other treatments I can try?

Google the Wartabater. I bought one in desperation 10 years or so ago as dd2 had terrible verrucas from swimming that wouldn't go and were causing her to limp. It works brilliantly. I'm not scientific enough to know why but it's an electronic device and you wet the wart/verruca and hold the pen thing on it for 3 mins. If it's bigger than 5mm diameter you treat it in sections for 3 mins at a time. It came from America and cost about £80 at the time. Worked so well I ended up treating friends' kids loads of times! It still works and is bloody brilliant.

I poked around with a clean needle, saw the roots and made it bleed. I chickened out of trying to pull it out due to the pain but my immune system suddenly realised I had a wart and finally attacked it. No more warts for me😄

Thank you for this thread. My DS is struggling with this right now and it's so frustrating. The Wartabater sound hilarious. I will ask if he is willing to try one.

I have something similar for cold sores and it is absolutely magic.

And throw in some banana skin.

Was the only think that worked for me and I had tried EVERY other option first

File it with a nail file to take the top off it. Dab with salicylic acid. You can buy a small bottle from the pharmacy. Repeat every other day. It will go away. Works for verrucas too.

Back in the 80s both my brother and I who were at primary school had some smelly stuff from the GP that we smothered our warts with and covered in plasters. It burned them off! But the fun part was seeing the roots (Once a sporner...). They all dropped off in a couple of months. My brother & I were disgusting children who always had our hands in our mouths for something, sucking a thumb, chewing a nail, that kind of thing so it wasn't surprising they spread. I can't tell you want the burning stuff was though. I still bite my nails and I'm knocking 50.

I had a verruca for over a decade. It eventually disappeared on its own having tried everything!!

Some recon that if you damage/aggravate the area it can help the body to recognise the virus and fight it. I think this is true....disgusting though it may be, I had a wart pop up not far from the verruca, I picked at it and made it bleed, then it cleared up along with the verruca.

It sounds like the treatment helped your immune system to recognise the virus.

Nearly 40 yrs ago, where I grew up abroad, I saw a dermatologist who used a laser to burn them off my fingers! When you walked into the clinic, it had a rank, smell of burnt, human flesh! His laser had a tiny, red light, and it zapped at the wart and caused a blackened, tiny, burnt dot on the wart. I think I went for 2 session in total and they have never returned!

I recently had a cluster of about 20'veruccas removed by the podiatrist. They had a new Microwave gadget called 'Swift'. It cost £340, took 3 sessions and a lot of pain while it was being done (but not in between sessions) but it was a total success.

I heard about triggering an immune response so I scratched at a few of mine for a while then they got irritated and the whole lot vanished

I second the swift, multiple verrucas for 25+ years gone. Expensive but so worth it

I had really big ones on my knuckles for about 5 years. I had the liquid nitrogen freezing treatment with the GP many times during that period, but they always grew back. I also tried banana skins, garlic, tea tree oil. Eventually someone recommended castor oil (used in Morocco to treat warts) and they disappeared within a week and never grew back.

Thanks! Will try this.

Many, many years ago my mother saw a "wart charmer" to got rid of the warts on her hands. Within days they were gone. She thought the idea was a load of rubbish as do I, but weirdly it worked (or it was a huge co-incidence 😁).

Omg! This sounds promising!

This sounds interesting. I am a bit of a wimp with pain though.

This sounds like a good idea. Will try.

Thanks for this advice. I will go off and Google!

I hope so. The wart is so big that it's hard to imagine it ever disappearing at the moment!

Sorry to hi Jack but what is the device for cold sores if you don’t mind sharing??

I had a wart on my finger years ago and smothered it in verruca gel, it was gone in a couple days and no reoccurrence

I had laser treatment a few years ago on a wart cluster and it was amazing
they have never returned

I’ve never had a wart but a friend who had a few cured them by picking dandelions and squeezing the sap from the stalks and applying it. She had tried everything else but this worked like magic apparently. Free and worth a try!

I had one on my middle finger right at the middle knuckle. I ended up putting an apple cider vinegar tablet on it and then taping over it with a plaster.

Took a few (painful) weeks but it finally dropped off. Freezing it didn't work but the ACV did.