Wart story

by Jeff

I had a wart on my wrist since 2005 and didn't even realize it was one. I then saw one on my ring finger in 2007, but still didn't know what it was. I just wasn't familiar with these raised spots.  It wasn't terribly big. But I pointed it out to my girlfriend who said it might be a wart.

Eventually I went to the doctor and asked him if that was what it was. He said it was, and in typical allopathic fashion, he took me straight to another room where he froze both of them off.

One was a success. It never came back and it left a minimal scar. The other, however, never really went away and returned to full wart status within a month or two. Worse still, other similarly sized warts appeared on my ring finger, thumb and wrist.

Then soon after some much smaller warts appeared on my wrist, and would periodically appear on my hand or wrist. I eventually theorized that these events happened:

1. The wart virus was "shocked" by having its two strongholds attacked. Not having been defeated in the body, but only in its outward manifestations, it was able to continue its nefarious work, and thus released a barrage of more similar warts.


2. My immune system had caught wind of the wart virus, either because of the freezing or the subsequent outbreak, and realized it was a threat, and began to fight it.


3. The virus continued to resist complete defeat and would occasionally produce a small and negligible but still bothersome wart - for reasons that I didn't like there was something my vigorous immune system wasn't fully eradicating.

I tried a series of wart home treatments.

1. I combined salicylic acid gel and duct tape. The gel irritated the skin and blistered it and the duct tape ripped it off. It left scars. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE idea. Never ever combine the two, and moreover, do not use the gel. Just stick to salicylic liquid if you must use this solution.


2. I put turmeric paste of olive oil and turmeric on the warts. It did nothing except make a horrible mess everywhere.


3. I made a paste of curcumin (from opening up a pill), crushed papaya extract pills, olive and vitamin E oil. I applied it to the warts. Nothing. More mess.


4. I bought some sewing needles, rubbed a cottonball soaked with goldenseal alcoholic extract (stimulates local immune activity) on the wart, then injected some of the paste from #3. 
   AH! Now we were getting somewhere. I did it only on two little ones because I wanted to practice for the bigger ones. One seemed to be diminished and one seemed to be completely destroyed, after a scab healed.
   I did it eventually on another and got similarly satisfactory results, but one on the back of my hand eventually came back.
   This method was too much hassle for too little results, and I frankly still don't know what mechanism worked. The antiviral turmeric or the physical disruption of the wart itself?

Thoroughly frustrated, I began to think I might go to the doctor and ask for Aldara. I was leery of the drug, but I felt that as my immune system seemed to be winning the fight, the Aldara would eliminate the external strongholds to assist the immune system in attacking the internal virus and ending the madness.
Well the doc did no such thing. She told me all she could do at the office was freeze them. I only had her freeze the biggest ones and though it was uncomfortable and they left nasty scabs, they did fall off, seemingly gone. The one on my wrist was a little rougher where it should have been smooth, though, making me a bit dubious.

So here we are today, I found this site, and others, extolling the virtues of ACV. I was dubious, but because it promised quick and visible results, I figured the experiment would be easy enough.
And just as sure as people have said time and again, I soaked a cotton ball in it, then taped it to my skin. It was an annoying procedure getting it to stick on, and then pulling it off along with hairs.


My recommendation for application is to buy self-adhesive gauze, which is not cheap but a bargain compared to a doctor visit, and if the warts are on the hand or wrist, soak the cotton ball until it's just enough to start soaking through to the opposite side but not enough to drip all over when pressed against the skin, and apply it to the wart, then pull the gauze over the cotton ball, careful to not let it shift, hold the cotton ball and gauze against a wall to stabilize it while you pull the gauze tight (enough so it overlaps considerably), and seal it with simple scotch tape to make sure it doesn't come off.


Anyhow, the first night I made do with just some waterproof medical tape I'd used for the turmeric blunder. As soon as I got home from purchasing the ACV, I put it on and left it for two hours, and then took it off, impatient for results.
Indeed the wart had turned white. Encouraged I put a fresh cotton ball on and slept on it. True to my expectations (more like desperate hopes), the wart was dark brown, not quite black. I was quite happy but still apprehensive. I repeated it with another small wart. Similarly, it turned dark brown.

WHERE IT GOT DISTURBING

By 3 days after the initial application, I noticed several more white, and eventually brown dots near the first wart I was treating in this fashion. This implies I had more warts than I thought, though they were so insignificant as to be invisible prior to this treatment. There are as many as 8 tiny warts in one area.
No matter though. Their small size will just make them quicker to treat. Of course, they may not be warts, as they took longer despite being smaller to turn brown. They could be inflamed uprooted hair follicles, but to be safe, I'm not messing with them any more than the verified wart.


It's been 5 days now, and the warts are still dark brown. The biggest of these small ones had a little scab in the center I was able to pick off. It's now browner in a much wider area, indicating I'm finally accessing a deeper portion of it, ostensibly.



1) If I rub off a scab and it looks a little reddish in the middle, am I in severe jeopardy of spreading it? Or does it not spread so easily, and anyway the ACV in the skin is neutralizing it?


2) Should I remove any scab at all or should I let the process continue of its own accord until it simply falls out? Stymying this is the fact that wet scabs tend to be frail and not hold up well to even slight rubbing including that of the cotton.


3) I applied the stuff to a wart and it's turned brown, but because it's hard to access without directly taping, and because I want to focus on another wart, can I just leave it alone and it will be permanently diminished? Or will all that work be undone? Basically is that wart already dying now from the initial soakings?




I've not cured anything just yet, but I wanted to save someone a lot of trouble by giving them advice on implementation, and also dire warnings about other methods that range from costly compared to effect to completely worthless.
This stuff is definitely having an effect. After I have definitive results, I'll post again.

When we are handed obstacles in life and we're assisted in overcoming them, it is our duty to repay others by assisting them.

ADDENDUM #1

The pain began in earnest just tonight. It's somewhat uncomfortable and stinging on the area covered by the vinegar. That's encouraging more than it is discouraging. As the warts are small and shallow, so too is the pain.

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