The War is Over

...On my foot.
I was originally going to title this post "Mission Accomplished" but then it occurred to me readers might think I was unsuccessful in my endeavor...

Consider this a Public Service Announcement.  If I had known what was happening to my foot very early on, when I first noticed it, I could have taken care of it within a week.  Instead I fought this thing day in and day out for roughly 9 months.

I am referring to the Plantar Wart that took up residence on the ball of my left foot last February.  When I first noticed it I thought it was a callous.  It wasn't at all painful and just felt like a small, hard piece of skin.  A blister had been in the same spot just a month or two prior, so that just helped me rationalize the idea of a callous.  The ironic thing is that it was more than likely the blister that allowed the papilloma virus to enter my foot.

Young Plantar Warts

If you see something on your foot that resembles the picture above don't wait around to see what happens.  The easiest clue to figuring out if it is a Plantar Wart is if the fingerprint is altered in any way around it.  I would suggest hitting it right away with Compound W and duct tape.  For those that don't know, Plantar Warts are very similar to normal warts except that they grown inward because of the constant pressure on the foot.  Leave them alone and they can grow an awful long way.

By the time I got around to doing something about mine it was causing me pain after I would get done running.  I could flex my toes and feel it immediately.  Our resident Dr. froze it a few times and I continued with the freezing kit at home.  Eventually when it looked like it was going to surrender I started digging at it with an x-acto type blade.  I was able to dig in several millimeters with no pain and no bleeding.  Then I would fill the hole with Compound W and cover it with duct tape.  I did this everyday for 3 months straight.  At this point when I would run it felt like I had a hot coal on the ball of my foot.  The pain would come and go so it was difficult to figure out if I was beating it or not but if I let up on the assault it would gather itself up and keep burrowing into my foot.

PW (that was it's public name, privately I referred to it as something else) finally surrendered about two weeks ago and I shaved off the last of it.  I wanted to post something sooner but I feared it might not be gone all the way and I would just be pissing it off by writing about it.  

A few closing notes and words of advice, I most likely picked this bugger up when I was going to the gym.  I now shower with flip flops on.  I know a few people that have gotten rid of these in a matter of  a week or so because they attacked it right away.  Compound W and duct tape will kill the skin and cells around the area, don't be alarmed, just shave away the dead stuff and re-apply, it really works.