Verrucas - advice needed

[Mamatotwoboys]

I've had three verrucas for about 8 years now. I paid £350 for an expensive 'Swift' treatment (microwave energy) and it didn't work, apparently it was the most likely treatment to work...

I am now trying at home apple cider vinegar and tape and am on my third night. Would love to hear about any one else's experience of this - what changes did you notice, did it sting (mine is really stinging on night 3 but hoping that means it's working), did the verruca look different, how long did it take to work, etc.

If my verrucas were dormant, will it still work?

I'm really ready to be done with them now...

Thanks!

DD had one recently. We used Bazuka extra strength and filed it down most evenings.

It worked on both my kids and it looked like that - let it dry then scrub with a pomice stone - Repeat vinegar ACV and tape at night ( stings). It sort of rises to teh surface and then one day the root will come out as well - We used natural ACV vinegar it took about 3 weeks in total as it was a bit sore at times. We tried pretty much everything as well

I gave up sugar 2 years ago and one of the weird benefits was my long term varrucas disappeared within 5 weeks. I just noticed one day they were gone. My feet look so much better than they did for years.

@Rosa good to know that your children’s looked similar. That’s one of the problems I’ve had with this process is that I haven’t been able to find progress pictures of other peoples treatments, so hard to know what’s ‘normal’ when treating / whether they are the right signs of progress that it’s on its way out.

which is why I’m sharing these as I go. This is where I’m at now. Completely different appearance to when I started. I hope it’s a good thing?! Any thoughts appreciated!

Salactol and scraping, cover with a verruca plaster then more salactol and scraping.

Beach holiday worked really well for me too - think it's the saltwater, and exfoliation of the sand.

I'd use an emery board to take off the top layer. Then salactol. DS had a monster sized verruca and it took about 5 months of daily sanding and painting with salactol to get rid of it.

The scholl verruca pen with the blue liquid is amazing. Be really careful not to get it on healthy skin only the verruca. It hurts like hell. Got rid of mine in a week.

https://www.boots.com/scholl-wart-veruca-treatment-pen-2ml-g-10264464

This morning…. Quite terrifying! I had a little pick at it yesterday as had read so many people say they picked at them with tweezers. Wish I hadn’t as now very sore again and also just a massive crater!!

Before I tried the duct tape I did that too OP and just ended up making mine really sore.

Definitely worth trying the tape, it could take a few months but it's fairly low maintenance, just need to check it hasn't fallen off then once a week remove/clean/leave for 24 hours then pop on again. I had a heavy duty pedicure a few weeks ago and my foot health lady says it's the method she recommends

It's rotten though OP I get your frustration. I felt really down about mine for ages and am now obsessive about checking my feet for early signs of new ones now

I've had one and I couldn't even tell you how long it's been there
I didn't even think it was one for years
Word of warning though, after I started picking at it it has now spread to my thumb !

Who did your swift treatment? How many sessions did you have?

I had a horrible one on the ball of my foot for ten years and swift was the only thing that shifted it - but it didn't work within the standard number of sessions. Luckily the chiropodist took that failure rather personally and developed a grudge match with the verruca, so we just kept going with the swift treatment, I think I had 8 or 9 sessions in total instead of the 3? 4? that I paid for. I was the only person it had never not worked for and he was not going to have a failure!

Could you get anywhere by talking to whoever did your swift treatment? If it didn't work and you paid all that money for it I would think you would be in a good position to argue for something else from them!

The ACV is working OP, you need to get a surgical scalpel blade (can buy on Amazon) and carefully and slowly keep removing the dead thickened skin and any of the black roots you can see and then apply the acv again overnight with the duct tape.

You might find you need to take a night off if it gets too tender. But keep repeating the above until there's no more black dots when you take the duct tape off in the morning.
I have got rid of the most awful one using this method and also a wart on my thumb and one on my daughters knee. Removing the dead skin on the top is key though as it prevents the acv from killing the root of it.

I agree the treatment is working. It may not feel like it, but a crater isn't a bad sign if it means the verucca which was there has now gone. If you don't fancy using a scalpel you can also use an emery board to remove the dead skin, although that will probably take longer.

Thank you to everyone who has engaged with my posts and for all the brilliant tips. I’m definitely going to continue filing with a nail file (I bought a pack of them) and going to try to resist picking it because that’s what caused the crater last night, which made me feel a bit weird looking at it (plus it really hurt)!

Part of the reason I’m posting regularly is to share photos of the process, because I’ve found it hard to find pictures of other peoples journeys so it’s hard to know what progress looks like.

Looking back at photos of where it started, there has most definitely been lots of change in the last week. It’s gone from being just a few white and inoffensive looking circles (like as thought my skin was peeling) to black. Now I’m feeling confident that this could be positive change and the verrucas could be on their way out.

More tape and ACV tonight…! Here’s what it looked like this morning when I took the tape off (the one with the softened white skin and the obvious hole), and then one of what it’s looking like this evening. Both rather horrid, can’t wait to say goodbye to this gross journey!

Ds had his for about 10 years and had about 20 on both feet. Tried gaffer tape, over the counter stuff, nothing worked. Went to a podiatrist who did needling and it worked- second time round. This involves local anaesthetic and then a needle is pushed into a couple of the veruccas which stimulates the body into noticing the virus and then fighting it. Within 2 months of the second round of needling they were all gone!

I had a really persistent verruca a few years ago. I tried all the usual suggestions and nothing got rid of it. I ended up having needling treatment, which was quite painful, but it got rid of it immediately.

After trying many of the things mentioned here, my 20 yr old verruca was conquered by the scholl blue pen

I've had one for about 20 years and its still here! I lost 2 out of 3 at Glastonbury (very wet wellies!) so maybe try a festival with torrential rain!!!

I've tried every over the counter treatment going and nothing has got rid of it. I might try nail varnish next. @KnittedCardi was it black nail varnish or any colour?

Hi. I just used what I had, which was a pearly white, so opaque, but not hugely so. Just very persistent in putting it on each and every night 😁

@KnittedCardi will give it a go, I have nothing to lose!

I used bazooka in my sons and it went away in three weeks. I was astonished to read some people have had them for years! Yikes!

Thuja as a herbal remedy may have some merit as it contains antiviral compounds. You can buy thuja gel containing the herb as a traditional treatment for verrucas and warts, although I've no personal experience of its efficacy.

Homeopathic treatments however contain no active ingredients as they are so diluted. Scientific research has repeatedly shown that homeopathic medicines have no evidence for their use.

I used ones like these https://www.amazon.co.uk/Remover-Removal-Plasters-Plaster-Protector/dp/B07PX4PT41/ref=asc_df_B07PX4PT41/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309924639348&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7702973487032008354&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045629&hvtargid=pla-909231607672&psc=1

Put one on the verruca after a shower and put a regular plaster over the top to hold it in place. Leave the plaster on for at least 24hrs, but if you can go for longer then do. I kept the first one on for 48hrs, then took it off, soaked my foot for 10 mins then used a blade (callus knife for example) to cut off the top layer of skin that had gone white (if it hasnt gone white then skip this part). Then I put another plaster on for 48hrs and repeated the soaking and cutting away the old white skin. Final plaster went on for 24hrs, then soaked my foot for 10 mins again and this time I was able to cut away the whole verruca. There was no bleeding and minimal pain. Some of my skin was dyed red where the plaster had been but I used a foot file to smooth it away. The first time I tried it it didn't work because I didn't soak my foot for long enough and I wasn't cutting away the white skin properly.

I had 2 small warts on my hand that had spread from the verruca, which I treated in the same way. I broke the red disc in the plaster into smaller pieces, put a piece the size of the wart on top of it and held in place with a normal plaster. I was able to peel the wart off after 24hrs.

I'm very enthusiastic about this method because it's the only thing that ever worked for me and it was so fast! Good luck 🙂