any chiropodists around ?

[frumpet]

I appear to have more verrucca than foot (ewww!)

GPs often offer a service of freezing them off. Phone your practice to see if they do it. Resist the urge to pick at them and make sure you use a separate foot towel from the one you dry your body or the rest of your family with.

My chirpodist uses occlusion therapy. Whcih is basically duct tape.
You tape over the area and change it every few days.

I'm a chiropodist (degree qualifed).

The gp can freeze them but don't go overboard with it or it can cause scar tissue which will form a corn every 2-4 weeks. Corns hurt, they can't often be cured so it's palliative care for them. Flat lace up shoes insoles etc.

If the vp looks like a mosaic tile effect it can be more difficult to treat than a single vp or a big bp with little satelite vps growing off it.

From what I've seen over the last 12 years you may as well leave them alone, they are very difficult to get rid of, often you get them down in size but then thy just stop responding to treatment.

I don't mean to be negative but I've seen patients throwing £30 a week away on cryo with little success and I don't like to see patients ripped off.

I've known people to have really bad vp that have vanished overnight when their divorce has come through.

If you see your gp agree how many treatments you are prepared to have and the risks, I've seen bloodblisters the size of Maltesers on cryo sites.

Excessive verruca can also be sign of an underlying auto immune problem though this is very rare but might be worth getting a blood test with your gp just in case.
In my 11 years exp it is virtually impossible to get rid with most treatments and 90% just bugger off of their own accord eventually. They are relatively harmless but highly infectious.
Cryo (freezing) is also agony which it is why I never offer it to my clients.

I think op asked for a chiropodist, not a FHP not allowed on the Health Professions Council register.

Naughty boy Kuna.

Op, if you had a autoimmune disorder I really can't see a verruca being the presenting complaint.

excessive verruca can be an indication of another porblem. A normal healthy immune system should be able to keep verruca down to a reasonable number in most cases but occasionally can run wild if immune system is compromised but then I thought you would have known that Fluffy being a HPC registered Chiropodist.
BTW I was on the HPC register as a chiropodist for a number of years until three years ago when I decided to de register for numerous reasons.
I now run a very successful foothealth Clinic and have done for 11 years.

Apologies fr hijacking this thread Frumpet, but Fluffycloudland - can you tell me any tips for fungal nail infection? I've been painting stuff on my toe nails for 3 or 4 years. This year I've decided to stick to the regime and done it twice a day for the year. All it seems to do is make the problem less bad. The infection is still clearly there. Is there anything else you recommend I can do alongside this? Thanks

First of all see the NHS chiropodist for confirmation that it is fungal if you havent already, yes their may be a waiting list but they have no interest in selling you any products.

Then your options are tablets (IF you are suitable, the gp will decide) or in extreme cases toe nail removal (which is permenant if done properly) but I have never had a patient take that option as for most people it doesnt really bother them that much.

However now, due to gel nails, there is a third option. You can have the nail clipped back and a false one put on. Not ideal as it will cost money but for cosmetic reasons during the summer etc it suits some patients well.

I'm not a big fan of the laquers as I havent had that many patients have a good result with them. Some have persevered and had success though.

Dont try using tea tree oil, in a petri dish of fungal growth pure tea tree will kill the fungus but in a toe nail it doesnt, it penetrates the nail but the active edge of infection is right at the base of the nail, under the nail and it just doesnt seem to work at all. I think the keratin of the nail is too tough for the turpinols in the oil to work effectively.

If you paint your nails to cover the infection give them two days a week with no polish. A warm moist enviroment is perfect for fungus to grow and the plastic covering of nail varnish keeps the moisture in. You need a bit of air to the nail to let it dry out.

If I remember correctly, from a thread of yours kuna that I asked to be deleted due to the fact you are not a podiatrist or chiropodist by virtue of the fact you hold no university backed degree or diploma you started off as a chiropodist but then became a foot health professional in 2003. Isnt that when the HPC decided a lot of you were not suitable to be chiropodists and finally protected the title? though not function which is how you are still able to "practice".

And I think a lot of people on here would rather go to someone with a degree in the subject rather than a 6 week course, as I saw one "college" advertising.

I have worked with two people of your qualification, both treated patients as walking cash cows. One had done a degree so he could work in the NHS, he was sacked for gross mis conduct towards a patient.

I cannot see why anyone would not want to be registered with the Health Professions Council, which is after all a government backed register for many degree qualified professions eg Physiotherapists.

Maybe the high standard of personal conduct put you off, such as the thread I read where you admitted to standing on the face of a man who was having an affair with your now ex wife. Unfortunate as this was for you, if you had been on the HPC register now and did that, and the gentleman made a police complaint, you would have been reported to the HPC for it and most likely struck off for conduct that is likely to bring your profession into disrepute. This is what professions do, they jealously gaurd their standards and try to improve them. Undesirable people do manage to train and qualify but when their true personality shows itself they are dealt with accordingly.

However, as you are not on the register you can behave as you like. You are not classed as a professional so have no standards to uphold.

The other thing that concerns me is that if the op goes to her gp with a vp and said "a Chiropodist (which you are not) told me I might have an autoimmune disorder which is allowing the vp to live in my foot" the Gp will think it is someone from my profession and think we scaremongering.

I have had patients who are immune suppressed due to massive steroid doses, diabetics and RhA patients. They cope just as well with a vp as children who have vp. I also see patients with autoimmune diseases, they cope well to, it is not a conditon that wants to spread throughout the body. It is quite happy to live in a few skin cells. Perhaps you have not seen as many high risk patients.

I notice you do not name this auto immune disorder and I have racked my brains as to which one would present first with a vp infection, and I cant think of one. So obviously your 6 week course packed a lot in that my 3 year 9am-4.30, early sept to mid june degree did.

Apart from being vague about auto immune disorders your post added nothing new to the op's question.

I think most patients confronted with a health professional who has a degree, and a person with a short training course (such as many commercial colleges offer) would pick the one with the degree. My practice nurse doesnt need to have a degree to give me my Hep B vaccinations but I like the fact she knows how they work, what side effects they have and how to screen patients before she gives the injection, in short, she has the medical knowledge to back up what she does.