Reallyworks (Philadelphia, Pa) on 11/12/2012

I will not write too much about the past treatments, it was a long and frustrating journey. I will just say that CO2 laser was a BIG mistake. (A few years ago I had a good past experience with pulsed dye laser and I thought that only one type of laser exists; the dermatologist I went to did not fully explain the procedure and when I saw smoke coming out of my foot it was too late - he used a CO2 laser on my heel- painful, useless and makes the wart MUCH more difficult to treat). I spent a year trying pulsed dye laser after I finally found it at Temple University but this time it did not work. The wart continued to grow and became unbearable. I still believe in PDL but it was probably the CO2 laser that made the wart very difficult to treat.

So, after I almost lost all hope, I came across this site as well as a mention of ACV in the Mayo clinic site. I decided to give it a shot. My wife is a physician/researcher and she made fun of me, as this is not a scientifically proven method- but I had nothing to lose.

Here is what I did every night:

(1) Shave the wart with an emery board. I found that the pumice stone is not effective. Also, I found that it is best to do it on a dry skin.

(2) Cut a piece of gauze and SOAK it in ACV. It needs to be dripping wet. Put it on the wart, secure it with a cloth tape and then cover everything with a duct tape. Do not press to hard as it will drip all over. My theory is that other destructive methods did not work because they were applied every 3-4 weeks and this thing just keeps penetrating and kills the skin/wart.

After the first few night (~5) all you see is a puffy white circle. I kept going. At some point, it starts to burn BADLY a few hours after you put it. The wart also turns black. More and more black every day. Keep going despite the pain. I used to go to sleep and it woke me up. It is VERY painful. No way you can continue sleeping. When I woke up in pain, I just removed everything, washed my foot and went back to sleep after a few minutes. In the morning, I put Mediplast (40% salicylic acid) it helped soften the skin for the next "treatment" at night and it is also an analgesic agent.

I kept doing this until I could not stand the pain anymore even in the morning (it was very hard to step on the foot). It took 2-3 weeks. I stopped then and allowed it to heal. After the first round I noticed that the wart had gotten MUCH smaller but it was still there. I was encouraged. I did another round of treatment for about 2 weeks. In the second round it took longer for the ACV to start burning and the black mark was much smaller. It did become painful though and at some point unbearable and I stopped.

Today I went to the podiatrist and she confirmed that the wart is gone. I am still in SHOCK. The described is my personal experience and not any recommendation for anybody to do anything. I will look at this forum in the next few days and try to answer questions, if any.