Ergh! Invincible thumb wart!

[Capt Caveman]

Duct tape supposedly irritates the skin in hopes of causing the body to react to the virus(wart) and fight it.

 

[HumblePie]

Duct tape supposedly irritates the skin in hopes of causing the body to react to the virus(wart) and fight it.

I just said that in the post above.

Also, the silver duct tape seems to work better than the clear duct tape from what studies have been done with them.

 

[EMPshockwave82]

I had a pretty ugly thumb wart one time that wouldn't go away and I had to have the doctor burn it off with what looked like a soldering iron. Went so deep my thumb nail grew awkwardly for about 2 years. Looks normal now. No more wart.

 

[Gardener]

Magnifying glass, a good one with a small focal point. In full sun, zap it 2-3 times, just the wart, shield adjoining skin with several layers of tape, keep the beam on it until it for a few seconds. You'll need some good sunglasses to monitor. The wart itself has no feeling.

It will soon turn white, several days later gently peel it out. Now examine the depression for any regrowth/remnants, if needed zap it again. A couple of very quick treatments this time, you won't have to cook very deep...and it will smart.

I disassembled an old junk telescope years ago, the big lense that is flat on one side and curved on the other gives a pinpoint focal point. Removed 3 warts, the big one left a small scar on my thumb, probably got too aggressive with my technique, but I hated that bastard.

Acids are a joke, they irritate the adjoining skin no matter how accurately you apply them.

 

[Lean L]

I had a pretty ugly thumb wart one time that wouldn't go away and I had to have the doctor burn it off with what looked like a soldering iron. Went so deep my thumb nail grew awkwardly for about 2 years. Looks normal now. No more wart.

People actually go to these extremes to get rid of a wart? Maybe it's a cultural thing but my family would not invest much time with superficial imperfections.

I thought I did a lot by spending $20 on compound w some time back to get rid of my warts on my hand and feet. Compared to some of you guys I do the bare minimum lol.

 

[datwater]

I had one that was really persistent. What worked for me in the end was using compressed air cans - dust blower things - hold it upside down with the end of the straw on the base of the wart - controlled slow spray around the base of the wart for as long as you can stand it ... repeat throughout the day. The wart on my hand, that I had for years, fell out after about 5 days of this treatment ... and the odd thing is, a plantars wart on my foot fell out the same day - and I never treated it at all.

 

[biostud]

I had one on my foot, it disappeared after an infection. Bacteria > Virus

 

[gaidensensei]

I've had this wart on my thumb for about a year now. I've had the doctor freeze it 4 times and acid burn it once. Each time I'd get a nice blood blister and eventually the skin would fall off. However, underneath the blister a fresh new wart will already have grown and the second I rip off the old skin a new wart is waiting for me.

Now I've been treating it with salicylic acid at home for about 3 weeks and the same thing--each time the skin falls off, a new wart is underneath.

How the f do I get rid of this thing?

Can't really do much to completely rid it immediately except amputate yourself or something extreme . Warts fall under viruses, and you can't really treat viruses successfully. The viruses themselves are inanimate, do not have life in them.

a 'reasonable' treatment is to boost your body's antibodies by exercising, eating healty and supplemental foods. That is one thing you can control, but this may take awhile to see improvements. IIRC, warts will disappear on their own after a few years.

 

[Ryland]

WE have been trying to remove warts from my sons foot for over a year and can usually get them to almost be gone but then they come right back.

 

[CPA]

WTF, I think the doctor was supposed to give me local anesthesia, but didn't.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Cg20LWKLg

It's basically no different than cutting off a piece of your skin the size of a quarter! I swear it's one of the most painful experiences I've been through.

This made me laugh.

 

[yhelothar]

This made me laugh.

You wouldn't be laughing if you had to get sliced without anesthesia.

 

[ctark]

I had one on my middle finger in my teens. I actually used nail clippers and clipped it away piece by piece until it was below the level of my skin. It was a very bloody and painful affair, but I won.

 

[Imp]

I had to google "thumb wart".

Sickened yet very intrigued. Burn it.

 

[novasatori]

I had a couple when I was younger and I just chewed them off. Usually at the base was a nerve looking thing, may have been a nerve, and it was the most painful bite. It hurt like hell and bled a lot, but mission accomplished.

Looking online it looks like it may not be a good idea to chew on them ( ) but some people say it doesn't matter.

Either way I haven't had any in a long time, and none in my mouth, so that's a plus.

 

[Scouzer]

I had one on my middle finger in my teens. I actually used nail clippers and clipped it away piece by piece until it was below the level of my skin. It was a very bloody and painful affair, but I won.

I'm doing this right now. My god warts bleed.

 

[Ichinisan]

Magnifying glass, a good one with a small focal point. In full sun, zap it 2-3 times, just the wart, shield adjoining skin with several layers of tape, keep the beam on it until it for a few seconds. You'll need some good sunglasses to monitor. The wart itself has no feeling.

It will soon turn white, several days later gently peel it out. Now examine the depression for any regrowth/remnants, if needed zap it again. A couple of very quick treatments this time, you won't have to cook very deep...and it will smart.

I disassembled an old junk telescope years ago, the big lense that is flat on one side and curved on the other gives a pinpoint focal point. Removed 3 warts, the big one left a small scar on my thumb, probably got too aggressive with my technique, but I hated that bastard.

Acids are a joke, they irritate the adjoining skin no matter how accurately you apply them.

HPV + skin growth + intense, concentrated sunlight???

Sounds like a recipe for skin cancer.

 

[gorobei]

I had a wart for literally decades. eventually had the liquid nitrogen treatment with acid. never really worked that well. the otc acid isnt strong enough and eventually the skin toughens up and develops a slight resistance. and if you dont keep up a constant regimen, it will come back.

what worked for me:
-the virus infected cells live at the dermal layers trying to stay close to blood supply. they can grow such that they end up burrowing down. when you acid/freeze/burn the skin, you are irritating the dermis to grow faster and sluff off. if you do this quickly and constantly the virus cells dont have time to burrow and are carried away by the dead epidermal layer being sluffed off.

if you take a break during treatment, you are giving the enemy time to regrow/burrow to resupply. acid only affects the upper epidermis so unless you scrape off that raised bump of skin each treatment, you arent reaching the dermis and irritating it. so the 2nd treatment is usually less effective than the 1st.

-freezing works better since the cold can reach further down than acid. the otc freeze treatments are ridiculously expensive given what it is: canned air.

So just get a 3 pack of computer air duster instead. get some plastic hollow shaft cotton swabs and cut off one end. insert swab into duster. hold duster upside down and spray in small steady bursts until frost forms on cotton tip. apply tip to wart and spray sporadically. keep this up till the skin around the wart turns frostbite red. This will hurt. Repeat daily, profit.

 

[Ichinisan]

I had a strange one on my arm (very unusual texture) through much of my childhood. It went away on its own.

 

[coloumb]

The 2 dermatologists I went to [I wanted them to remove a mole that's about 1/2" away from my right eye] said they don't like to "cut" warts/moles as they leave scars. Someone said I should tell them I'm concerned is cancerous which then they'll gladly remove it.

In the old days [as my mother tells me] - the docs would burn the moles off [numb the area and then use a soldering iron to burn the warts]. Today - freeze method is preferred of course.

Warts can grow back in the same place or somewhere else unfortunately.

Wiki has a lot of good information on Over the Counter methods [including the duct tape method]:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wart

As with others, when I was young I would bite the wart until it became painfully bloody. Today I just go to the doctor as their version is more effective than the OTC method [not as cold].

 

[Bryophyte]

I've had one on my hand, fairly small, for decades. I thought it was a scar until I asked a dermatologist. It doesn't want to go away. I've tried all sorts of things, including freezing it several times.

 

[SandEagle]

don't do what this guy did
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8577572/Wart-blasted-off-with-shotgun.html

 

[qliveur]

I used my dad's electrocautery set on a deep wart on my thumb after numbing it with lidocaine. Hasn't come back in over 15 years.

 

[tcsenter]

I had two small warts on the back of a finger (middle) that were about 3 mm apart. I had another two small warts on the back of the same hand but they were much further apart. My doctor hit them all with liquid nitrogen, told me they were so small that it should only require one treatment.

The two blisters on the back of my finger grew into each other (the blisters started out separately but then merged into one big blister). And the entire thing grew back as one big wart covering the entire area that was previously blistered. The other two warts on the back of my hand came back, too (but separately).

So my doctor is 0-4 (worse than that, since he turned two small warts into a giant one). That's it, you only get one shot. Next time, I'm going to a dermatologist.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

This has worked for me in the past: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_stain

Cover, let dry, and once it wears off repeat. A lot less painful than the other methods, but doesn't always work.

 

[LurkerPrime]

the easiest and cheapest way to treat a wart yourself is to use dry ice. You can usually get a bag for a few bucks (some grocery stores have it, or you can get it from a welding supply shop). Most are already cylindrical pellets, where you can then stick one end in water and evaporate it, till its the same size of the wart (note: use a towel or something to hold it). Then just take it and stick it to your wart and apply pressure and hold for at least a minute (longer if its a big wart).

I've done this twice and its much more effective than the doctors liquid nitrogen since most doctors dont hold it long enough to kill off the base of the wart. You'll have a nice blister for a week or 2 after you do this (try not to pop it), but your wart should be gone, assuming you were man enough to hold the dry ice on it long enough.