Long term verruca starting to hurt , what can I try next? Can GPs do anything?

[NormalForNuneaton]

I've had a verruca for what must be about 10 years now on the bottom of my heel.

Over the years I've tried Salactol gel, duct tape (did this religiously for about 6 months with no luck!) and various Bazooka type freezing sprays but nothing has shifted it or even made much difference.

It doesn't normally bother me but now it hurts sometimes when walking , probably due to change of footwear now it's summer.

Do GP's even do anything about them these days? Or will I just be told to see a private chiropodist?

Will I end up with a massive hole in my foot if it's treated/removed?

I also think there is a degree of needing to take your time to get rid of them.

Cutting them out could just result in them coming back, as your body hasn't had a chance to build its own immunity.

Having patience and doing it slowly (maybe with a few pauses in treatment) gives your body an opportunity to react to the virus and fight it.

I found these methods worked for me with a ginormous one I had on the ball of my foot.

Step 1 - corn plasters. They have salicylic acid in them and soften the hard skin on them.

Step 2 - do not file, let the skin fall/wear off by itself.

Step 3 - nail varnish. When enough hard skin has gone, varnish over the verucca to cover the effected area. Keep painting it. Eventually it will shrink and go.

I have had lots on my feet over the years. As others have said they come back when I have been unwell/stressed etc. I try to check my feet every month for the tell tale signs of new ones and tackle them early with just nail varnish as they are easier and cheaper to handle at that stage and can go in a fortnight.

I had a bloody monster of one 20 plus years of it and nothing had worked.

I got rid of it with much persistence. The strongest salicylic acid cream I could find with like a corn ring plaster on top and then plaster on top of that. Every day I soaked my foot, used one of those battery roller sanders on it and dug out any thing I could and just kept on going until it went. Took a while and actually the first time I didn't carry on long enough and it grew back, but the second time I got it all and it's never grown back. I have a file of photos...

Sterilised Needle and thread. Go right under the verruca from east to west and snip off thread and then from north to south and snip thread.

Gather the four thread ends or preferably eight as you should double the thread and yank away from the centre to remove it.

It will bleed for a bit and there will be momentary pain but it will remove it.

Wear a suitable dressing until the wound is healed.

Dh has one and he had it needled and it still hasn’t gone away.

Cryotherapy can make them go. Laser treatment is also an option I've heard. Pure salicylic acid got rid of my daughter's , it's cheap and easy to buy online

Slight off topic ?, can you use a Footner type treatment when you have veruccas and do they help get rid of them?

My DH had a huge one the size of a 5p or more. He has it "microwaved" by a podiatrist. Hurt like hell but it went!

I had a huge (about the size of a ten pence piece) & painful one on the ball of my foot for about twelve years. It had affected my posture, stance, gait because I would avoid putting weight on the ball of my foot on that side. Tried everything over the counter, duct tape, banana skin, apple cider vinegar, cutting it out. GPs refused to do anything.

Only thing that worked was the microwave zapping! It took months of repeat visits even then, and luckily I had a podiatrist who saw it as a personal battle because he'd never had a failure with the zapper thingy and was determined I wasn't going to be the first. I paid for three months of treatment+ a follow up and I think ended up with 7 or 8 months of treatment instead but I didn't have to pay any more. Might have helped that most of it was over lockdowns and he was really bored!

I would massively recommend it. Find a local podiatrist who offers Swift microwave treatment.

I had one for about two years. I tried all the OTC remedies, banana peel, Bazooka, duct tape etc. Nothing worked.

What did work was getting it frozen by a podiatrist and then using a caustic pencil every couple of days and filing the verruca down when it turned black.

It took a couple of months for it to disappear but I've not had once since. And I've worn flip flops in the gym shower ever since!

I would just stop all the dithering about and uncertainty about whether the GP can or will do anything and book myself a private podiatry appt. It’ll probably cost about £55 and you’ll be in the hands of a foot expert, not a generalist Doctor or pharmacist.

I had an enormous cluster as a teenager. Tried it all until I visited a podiatrist. It was so embarrassing as I had "the worst case by far".

Anyway he literally cut the skin all the way back with a scalpel and put crystals on the verucca (like a metal? They stung like mental) and plastered over them. Took about 5 visits but it worked.

Annoyingly caught another one when pregnant, but at least it hasn't formed a cluster.

Thanks everyone.

I guess it could be a corn but I've always thought it was a verruca from googling.

Looks like I'm going to be contacting a podiatrist.

😮I think I'll give that a miss!

@Roystonv footpeet did nothing for my verruca

Nail varnish cured my DD's verruca that nothing else would touch.
Cheap and painless, worth a try? I just clipped the old varnish and dead skin away with cuticle nippers every night and reapplied the nail varnish. Soon dried up and went brown before disappearing after about 3 weeks.

Pick the sides till it comes away from the healthy skin and then pull it out

I had one for 15 years that refused to respond to anything. Tried digging it out and covering it with things but nothing shifted it. What did work (for me) was taking a zinc supplement. It never came back and the wart on my finger I’d had for the same amount of time disappeared as well.

Had one for 10+ years in the same place. Couple of electrolysis sessions - gone forever

I had 12 once, all on ball of my foot. Weekly trips to podiatrist sorted it

Does the duct tape pull them out?

I'm relieved to hear that other people have had them for as long as me (and longer). I was scared there would be loads of posts calling me a scuzzy minger 😆

Homeopathy is never your best bet, for anything. You may as well go and bury a toad under a rowan tree during a full moon. Or flush £50 down the loo.

I had three extremely persistent ones that I went to a podiatrist about. All treated with acid. Didn’t work. One treated with extra strong acid - disappeared, never returned. Other two dry needled - disappeared, but came back and are still here ten years later. I keep meaning to go back and ask for the acid treatment on those two, but am put off as it made the veins going up my foot red last time. That isn’t good apparently.

You and your photos will be welcomed with open arms in ‘Sporner Corner’ @CrotchetyQuaver 😃