Week six of Duct Tape versus the Wart.

I took the tape off yesterday for what should have been the last time, but as I suspected, the two weeks where I couldn’t get the duct tape to seal properly around the wart have left the wart hanging on, by a thread, but it is still there, very small now, but still alive and kicking.

Two weeks ago I found a fantastic plaster/bandaid in the pound shop, which acts very similar to cling film with a sticky side, and that finally enabled me to seal the duct tape down over the knuckle, and the resultant shrinkage is amazing. So although I should be finishing now, I have decided to carry on for another week or two, just to get rid of the thing by Christmas, for once and for all!

So watch this space for further up dates. Either I am right, and the failure to seal the air from the wart has allowed it to hang on, or in another two weeks time it will be gone. I know which one I am hoping for!

Week 4 of duct tape versus wart

The tape came off yesterday to give the wart its 24 hours of freedom. I had got the taping right this week, and the wart had been deprived of fresh air, though it was difficult getting it in the proper position as the wart is on my right index finger, and if you have ever tried cutting duct tape to a specific size, I’m sure you can imagine how hard it is to do left handed to boot, add to that how hard it is to put a plaster on a knuckle that will stay there without cutting off the circulation, and I think you will get the idea! LOL

The wart is softer, and the centre seems to be smaller, and over the 24 hours of freedom it didn’t regain its original hardness, so I am hoping that this is working, but as they say in the films, “Its early days yet”, as I have at least another two weeks of this, if not four because the first two weeks I didn’t manage to get a proper seal on it.

Update on wart versus duct tape

I have just taken the duct tape off the wart for the third week of the six weeks cure and I thought I’d give you all an update.

The first week I tried it, I put a smallish piece of duct tape over the wart and then covered that with a plaster the next day as it started falling off. Unfortunately the position of the wart is right above the second joint, on the palm side of my index finger, and duct tape and plaster rolled back, allowing air to the wart without me realising it, and I suspect that the week’s coverage was ineffective, though the wart did seem a little smaller on the day I left the covering off.

The second week I tried a smaller piece of duct tape, covered by a larger piece of plaster. Again the plaster and tape seemed to roll back, and I could see no visible change in the wart on its day of freedom.

The third week, I covered the whole finger from just below first joint to just above knuckle with duct tape. Because the tape was over lapping itself I didn’t need to cover it with a plaster, and I really did think I had the problem solved. But when I took the tape off this evening to give the wart its day of freedom, I discovered that although a lot of my finger was that horrible dead white you get when you have had a plaster on for too long, the wart and its surrounding area appeared to have had enough freedom from the bending of the knuckle to not be effected! I am beginning to feel as if I am loosing the battle here, but I will persevere, for the next three weeks, and may be a bit longer if I can figure out a way to solve this problem.

As Halloween approaches…

I’m thinking Witches, and as I think Witches, I think of warts. Now my experience of warts was zero until recently. I had this vague idea they were bobble like and hard, and if they were sitting on a Witches chin they had to have a hair or two sprouting out of them, that was the sum total of my knowledge. Not much I think you will agree.

So when I noticed a hard lump of skin on my index finger that was smooth, I thought it might be a wart, but felt I ought to make sure, just in case. So on my next visit to my doctor I showed it to him, but he was more interested in getting my breathing sorted, which was a little shaky at that time, so he gave it a cursory glance as he reached for the breath pump that measures your lung capacity, and said, “Haven’t got a clue what that is.” And he left it at that, and I let him because he distracted me with the lung capacity tests he was doing.

I left it for a while, but the lump kept growing and getting in my way, until it got to the point where I was filing down the lump more often than I was my nails!

So I bought one of those wart freezing preparations, but when I read the instructions, it described a wart very clearly, and I was right, warts look like cauliflowers made of dead skin, mine looked more like an insect bite made of dead skin, it even has a black centre to it, which makes it more like a verrucca than a wart, and to add insult to injury you can’t freeze off a fungal infection like that if you have bad circulation, the surrounding skin wouldn’t recover quickly enough from the freezing, and you’d land up with frost bite! I wish they’d said that on the outside of the packet, before I’d spent £9 on the product!

Well and truly fed up I phoned the doctors to make an appointment with the nurse to get this lump thing identified for once and for all, and to discuss what steps should be taken to remove it from my life, it kept catching on my yarn for heavens sakes! Anything that interferes with my crafting has to be sorted out ASAP! Only the receptionist wouldn’t make the appointment with the nurse, after I’d explained my need to see her, she said a doctor had to diagnose it first and decide what treatment would be best. So I make an appointment with a doctor, not my normal doctor, but a new one to the practice who I hadn’t met before.

Well in I waltz, and the doctor instantly picks up on some tell-tale signs that my thyroid isn’t functioning as it should be, even with the meds I’m on, and tries to distract me again, but I wasn’t having any of it! I wanted this thing, what ever it was, gone!

Reluctantly he looked at it and confirmed it was a wart! Hooray! “Now how do I get rid of it?” I managed to ask calmly.

“Just a simple freeze spray…” He starts. I shake my head, “I’ve got Reynolds, bad circulation, can’t freeze it out.”

“Then you have one of two choices.” I nod. “You could have minor surgery to remove it.” I nod again, as I was willing even to go through that if it got rid of this bane of my life! “Or you could try something my dermatologist friend told me about, I’ve not tried it before, but he says it works and it’s non-invasive, with no drugs involved.”

Now it being near Halloween must have been what made me think it, but I had images of me dancing under the full moon, sky-clad, rubbing a toad on my finger, while the doctor watched and stirred a cauldron. Not a pretty thought! Me dancing naked that is.

I think the poor man must have read my mind, as he quickly rushed on to explain it involved one of my favourite crafting materials, duct tape!

Yep that’s right, DUCT TAPE!

Apparently you cover the wart with the tape for six days, and on the seventh leave the wart uncovered and open to the air. Do this for six weeks and wart should be gone.

Guess which one I decided to do…

I go back in just over five weeks to let him record the results.

I had a few comments yesterday from people, and I have tried to reply in the comments, but I just had to make these two again here.

Riohnna said she has gone out and bought anti-slip soles for her home made slippers. I didn’t even know they made anti-slip soles for homemade slippers; I just use my glue gun and dot bits of glue over the sole if I feel they need them, I’ll bet it’s a lot cheaper my way! Having said that, I have worn the slipper sock pattern I said about yesterday for the best part of a year, without anti-slip, on wood floors, and not slipped once yet, I think it’s the pattern.
(And thanks for the tip about linking, I’ll try that the next time I want to link to something, and then come back and find out what I did wrong!!!)

Posh and Trendy, we are on the same wave length regarding banks, not to be trusted Shylocks, each and every one of them!