Sunday 20 September 2009

On and On

Well long time no post.
Have things got better - well kind of!
We have continued the treatment religously and the following pictures show the progress in August.

You can see how black the one on the side of my foot got.















This next one shows quite well how the rest of my foot is begining to suffer a bit, the pink skin is very sensitive. The plasters at the top of my foot are where the verruccas covered in Avoca are.
















One of the hardest things about treating verruccas is knowing when they are in retreat and you're getting on top of them.

















































Not long after this picture we decided it was better for the skin to be uncovered to allow the healthly skin to harden up. We started to Avoca all the verruccas and then cover with very small plasters. (Very small circular ones bought from ebay, cheap and do the job!)

Meanwhile we had been using the Avoca pen on the top of the foot. Applying for 3 days consecutively and then scraping off with a disposable razor.
















Looking better!

Sunday 9 August 2009

Going in the right direction!
















As you can see, things are changing! The biggest thing is that my feet no longer hurt :-)

They seem to be turning black one by one. You can see the nasty one on the side of my foot is going greeny black. The large white area that swelled up has gone and the verrucas seem to be slightly smaller. The heel is still being covered with vinegar soaked cotton pads and surgical tape.















The top ones that have been treated with the Avoca pen look very black. I am still rubbing with an emery board and then using the pen once a day. Covering each with a small plaster. I am uncertain as to how long to carry this one for and what to look for to know if they are gone or not.



All in all it looks a hell of a lot better than a few days ago.

Saturday 8 August 2009

A step in the right direction?

Feeling a little more positive............
Gave my feet a long soak in a bowl of water as the skin is suffering from being covered all the time.

The white area at the top of the picture is now greatly reduced due to scraping it with a razor.
You can just about see the big crator on the side of my foot has gone black, thats by far the most painful one. I'm waiting for the pain to lessen before I scrape that one. The foot itself is much healthier, I'm not using duct tape any more just surgical micropore which allows the skin to breathe. I didn't see the point of continuing with duct tape as I'm covering the verrucas with cotton wool soaked pads so they're not getting any light anyway.















Wasn't quite sure what the avoca pen would do. You dip the tip of it in water and then rub it onto the verruca for 1 minute. It looks as though nothing has happened but after a while of being covered with a plaster it turns black. You can just make out the black beneath the plasters.

Once they were all re-covered I moisturised the rest of the foot with baby moisturiser and it made them feel sooo much better.
















So today we have reapplied the avoca to the ones at the top of the foot and are still vinagaring the ones on my heel. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Friday 7 August 2009

No Pictures

The last two days have been tough. No photos as,to be honest, I'm trying not to look at them. The most painful ones have now begun to go black in the centre of the crater, I sincerely hope this is because it is dying. The biggest group (the bottom section of the picture below) have now formed this white/yellow kind of base.. when you touch it it is solid as a rock, and is raised about 13mm so obviously walking is very very painful.
I decided to use a razor blade and scrape, had quite a good effect actually. Over the really painful parts of my foot I was really gentle though. On the top of my foot a few of the verruca tops actually came off, so for the first time I used the avoca pen (Silver Nitrate).
On my other foot my toe had swollen. I think this was the tape although the verruca was one of the nasty ones that has gone black inside and is quite raised up. I thought long and hard and decided to go for it and scrape the most painful one. It actually wasn't that bad as long as I was gentle it was a bit like grating garlic!!!!!
I then used vinegar and gently taped it with micropore.
I used vinegar for the others again, but even so this is a tiny step forward, I managed to touch the verrucas and they have been SO painful, its almost relieved a bit of pressure of them.
Im now thinking of the next step forward. Hmm...

Wednesday 5 August 2009

Eeeew

Didn't manage to last 48hrs as the tape was coming off and the foot were painful so we wanted to check it wasn't about to fall off. I think its safe to say the vinegar is taking effect. My foot is sore to walk on, so as its the summer holidays I'm trying not to spend too much time walking about.
Some of the craters are looking more grey now, and many have swollen.
















These are the ones on the side of my foot (the top of the previous pic) and are by far the most painful at the moment you can just about see how they are going grey in the middle.


Tuesday 4 August 2009

Fed Up!!!!






























Begining to feel a bit desperate now to be honest. As you can see the white bits have continued to become craters. I managed to take a bit off with a razor before vinegaring them again. Have decided to put the vinegar on a cotton pad and tape up for 48hours and leave well alone. I'm worried that by uncovering them once a day and scraping that all I'm doing is stimulating them.
On the upside, still no pain, I thought once I'd scraped them that placing the vinegar on them would be murder, but it was fine. They just a feel a bit sensitive thats all.

ETA: sorry if this is becoming a depressing blog, I'm going to kill the buggers if its the last thing I do.

Monday 3 August 2009

Who wants feet like these?

Feeling a bit negative at the moment as we've been here before and I was really looking forward to wearing sandles this summer for the first time in years.
Anyway, still no pain although the feet are not surprisingly very tender at the moment.
The white puffy areas are not quite as big as last time. Strangely enough the top part of the foot doesn't seem to go white and puffy like the bottom. The ones here are younger but have still be there for around a year.
















Sunday 2 August 2009

Square One

Well thats what it feels like anyway. The feet are puffing up again and craters are begining to form so I guess we were kidding ourselves that they were on the way out.
Vinegar and parcel/duct tape is continuing.
The upside is - no pain, well at least only a bit of tingling. Not sure if this is a good sign or not.





























As you can see the skin has just got a point where is has stopped falling off.

Saturday 1 August 2009

1 step forwards and 6 back

Well thats how it feels at least.
After seeing the spots of red inside the old verruca sites we decided to start taping the foot again as we just weren't sure whether or not they were dead. We dabbed each white area with tea tree oil and vinegar in a kill or cure attempt and getting rid of these blasted things. We then taped up the foot, firstly with parcel tape and then covered with duck tape. (The main reason for doing this is that it is so hard cleaning the glue of the duck tape off an already sore foot. If you use parcel tape first the foot remains nice and clean)
According to info found on the web the vinegar may well be painful but we'll see.
Anyhow todays pictures.
















You can see by taping them overnight the white areas have swelled up again. This is really depressing as we really did think we were getting on top of them.

Friday 31 July 2009

Hmm really not so sure now















Well a few days have past and we have been using a foot buff and removing the dead skin. We have been tea treeing the top ones and covering with nail varnish.
Having checked the feet this morning, it is clear that there are tiny red specks in the white patches where the verrucas were. (WIll try and get a close up later to show you what I mean)
So back to tea tree and tape over the heel of the foot. Needless to say its all rather depressing.

Tuesday 28 July 2009

Flakey feet















This shows quite nicely how dry the feet are. The orange skin is just flaking off and new pink skin is showing underneath.
Am trying to decide if this heel is actually free from verrucas now. Its so hard to tell.
I am now going to stop the tea tree on this heel and just moisturise it to give the skin a chance to recover. I am continuing the tea tree, scraping and varnishing on the top part of the foot though.

Friday 17 July 2009

Slight change of attack




Bad photos due to light, but the redness is from the scraping. Feet are really really dry so I'm going to take a gamble and stop the taping but continue with spotting on the tea tree oil. This way I can moisturise the sides and bottom of my foot. I'm going to use baby moisturiser as that should be nice and gentle. I'm going to try and block out the light and stop reinfection by covering the remaining verrucas with nail varnish.














Monday 13 July 2009

WIll they ever go?















Not much change really. These look a bit red, but they had just been scraped and therefore a bit tender.


Thursday 9 July 2009

Are they dying or not?















The skin on the foot is getting drier and drier. Its definately changing, I wish I knew for certain at what point they are definately dead.


Wednesday 8 July 2009















Same treatment, more tea tree, scraping and taping.

Saturday 4 July 2009

Must update more regularly!!!!















Not sure at all whats going on with the white areas. They are all places where the oldest verrucas were, I don't know if this means they are gone or not.

Still tea treeing, scraping and taping. My skin is really begining to dry out now.















The top of the foot is scraping off nicely, I think it is because these were the newest, and were not so deeply rooted.

Thursday 2 July 2009















Have started to banana the top of the foot now as I felt they weren't improving enough. Its really hard getting it to stay in place though, and much harder to scrape as I'm really sensitive on this part of my foot.

Friday 26 June 2009

Is there light at the end of this long depressing tunnel??















No craters left at all now although am still using the razor every day. You can see the large white blob on the lhs, that is where the first verruca appeared. Not sure what the black is, it could still be staining from the banana or it could be dried blood from the verruca.

Monday 22 June 2009

The same treatment continues















Bad photos, but you can see how the foot has flattened out and white patches are appearing.

Saturday 20 June 2009

No more banana

We are using baby wipes to clean the foot every morning before scraping it with the razor. We have also started to cover the parcel tape with black duck tape in the hope that we are blocking all light from the verruca.
We are also now swopping the banana for tea tree oil. We dab it on each verruca morning and evening using a cotton bud.

Friday 19 June 2009

Treatment changes















Treatment has changed slightly. We are now scraping over the heel with a disposable razor before applying the banana to try and remove some of the white dead skin.















Notice how the large crator at the side of the foot has lessened considerably.

Thursday 18 June 2009

Small changes















The craters seem to be filling in now. Not sure if the black is dead verruca or left over banana as its really hard to clean the banana off.

Wednesday 17 June 2009

Tuesday 16 June 2009

On and On















You can see how the banana is drawing the verrucas out It actually looks as if I have more, but I think its just that they are all coming to the surface.

Whatever the banana is doing, the verrucas don't seem to like it

Monday 15 June 2009

Big Changes

What words can describe this................