I had a wart on my right index finger, right smack in the middle of the pad at the point where everything you touch with the tip of your index finger touches right there. It was round, about 3 mm in diameter, and stuck up about 0.025 mm, roughly the thickness of a piece of paper. Sometimes it hurt.
My doctor told me warts are caused by a virus and can pop up anywhere on your body. She also gave me advice for a home cure, something that involved over-the-counter wart-freezing compound and duct tape. I decided a dermatologist was a better idea.
I called our town’s most famous dermatology practice and was told they had on staff a podiatrist (!) who did nothing but excise warts on hands and feet. Treatment by an expert sounded good, so I made an appointment.
The famous wart and foot doctor was nice enough, although mostly businesslike, and after looking over my particular protuberance decided to zap it with a red laser beam. He actually took two passes at it with the laser, scraping it with some implement in between, and then used some scissors for something. I’m not sure what he did exactly because I didn’t watch.
His assistant put ointment on it, covered it with a band-aid, and sent me away with a sheet of instructions – wash with soap twice a day, apply Neosporin, keep it covered with a band-aid. It would heal completely in three to four weeks, they said.
It did heal within the promised time frame. That was four years ago, and I can report I have been wart-free ever since. Where the wart used to be, however, there is now a small round scar about 3 mm in diameter that sticks up about 0.025 mm, about the thickness of a piece of paper.
But it doesn’t hurt.
No comments:
Post a Comment