limpy the wart foot

I have a 6 ibuprofen a day foot pain. It has hurt for several weeks. I have been ignoring it (except for the taking ibuprofen part). I have continued to go for one-hour walks and pedal the bike and generally hop around like a busy person. My only concession has been to wear lower, cushier shoes lately, and to keep my slipper habit going at home because barefoot hurts.

Turns out, it was a good idea to keep the slippers on. I have a plantar wart, right on the big round part of the ball of my foot, at the base of my big toe. When I step down or push off, or just sit very still, it shoots arrows of pain through my foot and makes me cringe and squeak.

I have had a plantar wart before. In university I had one. The doctor at the campus medical clinic diagnosed it, and got me to attend the "wart clinic." Every Thursday morning, the nurse would go up to the chem lab and get a big container of liquid nitrogen. All the warty people would sit in the waiting room, waiting for their turn with the wart nurse, who would apply liquid nitrogen to their warts. This is called "cryosurgery" or surgery by freezing. The cold does not kill the wart, but it irritates the surrounding tissue sufficiently that a blister forms and the wart is displaced. I remember, a big limpet-shaped chunk just fell out of my foot one day, leaving a cone-shaped dent. It felt marvellous, and made me realise that having a wart in your foot (in, not one, because it points in, not out) is like having a rock in your shoe that won't move.

So I wonder why I waited so long. I should have recognized it.

I guess I was busy imagining that I had foot cancer, or that I had permanently damaged my foot by wearing high heels once to frequently (oh vanity), or that the doctor would say, "no exercise for a month" and I wouldn't want to hear that because I love to pound my feet, move and push. Also, I have been very busy, and whenever my foot reminded me that it needed help, I was away from a phone. Then when I had a quiet moment, it would rest and feel better.

So today the doctor put liquid nitrogen on the wart. It seems that they have it at my doctor's office all the time. No need to congregate at a certain time with other warty people (although it was fun to imagine striking up a conversation with, "So, you got warts too...how many and where are they?") I will soon be rid of the wart and the pain. And the doc has referred me to a place that makes orthotics because he says the prevalence of calluses on my feet indicates that my walking, running and pedaling are uneven, thus putting more pressure on these spots that I should.

If you see me limping, you'll know why. It's just the human papilloma virus making a limpet-shaped tumour upside down under the skin of my foot. Nice visual, huh?

question: do you have a wart?

mompoet - papilloma spell-checks to "pillow case"