Verruca: The mystery on my feet.
To everyone who supported my first article on this community, I say a big thanks to you all for your support.
Living a healthy life is an individual business; don't expect anyone to take care of your health for you. You want people to ask, "What have you taken?" and "What will you do to fight one disease or another?" You want people to help you find the cause and solution to every health challenge you have, whereas that shouldn't be the case. Your health is your personal responsibility, which you should take good care of and manage well to avoid crises.
I have something underneath my feet that I call a mystery when I have no understanding of what it is. I got it at a tender age on one of my feet when I mistakenly matched a hot I thought the mystery was caused by the trauma caused to the foot until it appeared on the second foot, and then I knew there was more to it than just a trauma. I don't know what it is called and that prevented me from searching out its meaning on Google, I kept on managing it in my little way and according to my knowledge then.
It does cause me pain when I walk, and whenever I notice this, I trim it down with a razor blade, and this helped reduce the pain. Fortunately, one day I was watching one of my favorite programs, "My Feet Are Killing Me," on TLC channel 135 on DSTV when a patient who had exactly what I had on his feet came to the podiatrist for diagnosis and treatment. I took a pen and book to note down what its called, causes and solution. It was then I got to knew the name of the mystery on my leg and ever since then it stopped being a mystery.
My mystery is known as planter wart or Verruca," and it is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) types 1, 2, 4, 27, and 57. This viral infection affects the epithelial cells in the skin of the feet, making them overgrow and thicken, causing small, rough lumps known as papules.
It appears as a whitish lump until the skin is well dried and the whitish lump changes to tiny black dots under the hard skin. I stayed glued to the television all through the program to know what could be used to take care of Verruca. The podiatrist listed two options for the patient, which are, Cryotherapy: a process in which liquid nitrogen is applied to the verruca to freeze and destroy the affected skin cells. This procedure is painful, but the verruca will fall off between 7 and 10 days, and the verruca can return after a while.
The second is to leave the verruca untreated; this might be somehow not cool to say, but I guess it's the best option. If left untreated, verruca can go on their own, but the only disadvantage is that they can get bigger and spread, and if this happens, it's better to go for the first option. The podiatrist told the patient that anytime he feels pain while walking, he should get a new razor blade and trim the surface of the verruca to ease walking, and the most important part of it is that it is not cancerous. That gave me the peace of mind I needed to carry on. Verruca isn't a hereditary infection, and to avoid it, don't walk barefoot on any surface.
The lack of adequate knowledge of a thing can create unnecessary fear and phobia in one's mind. Being educated enough on your health matters can save you from lots of stress and panic. If I hadn't known what my mystery was called, I would have continued being a slave to it, but now that I know what it is called, its causes, and its solution, I have taken a step further ahead of my fear. I couldn't get the first solution done, but I make sure I trim the surface from time to time, and I can say it's reduced drastically. Remember to always prioritize your health; it is your responsibility because health is wealth.
Image credit is mine
It's getting reduced and I can walk freely without feeling pain.
Thanks for reading, and your comments are well appreciated.