Shit Happens Then You Realize You Really Can’t Ignore Science After All
Stuff happening in and around us. We think it’s chance, nope it’s Science working its magic.
Some weeks ago, I developed a fleshy painful growth on my right palm. I only paid attention to it when I bumped my hand against the doorpost. The pain that resulted was rather excruciating. Life continued afterward cos the pain stopped shortly after.
About the time I developed the bump, my husband developed low back pain. I remember the timing cos he had asked me to help him massage his back. I declined cos of the lesion on my palm.
Days passed and weeks passed and then I noticed that without bumping my palm, the lesion would ache on its own. It seemed to ache more when my hands were dry or while I was asleep. This bothered me.
First Remedy.
Hubby suggested I dip my hand in warm saline water intermittently throughout the day. Reason: he had a similar lesion on his foot and that practice had resolved it. I didn’t doubt him, but I felt it was rather inconvenient to dip my hand in saline water. In the meantime, I used aloe vera gel to soothe the pain.
I was looking for a way around it when I remembered that someone had given me sterile saline wipes that I hadn’t used. I converted it into makeshift gauze and covered the fleshy growth with it. I then taped my makeshift gauze.
For the first night, I slept soundly. Covering up the growth was now my thing. I had sustained relief. But of course, I started getting questions like “What happened to your hand? Why is it covered?”
Then one day, my boss asked me the same question. I told him the story of how the growth in my hand evolved. “Judith, you have a plantar wart.” “Are you sure?” “Well, it looks like it and the pain gives it away. If it’s a plantar wart, it’s also contagious. Do you want to see a dermatologist?” “I have been thinking about it.” “Give it a shot and hear what they have to say.”
The science.
When he said plantar warts, my thoughts raced. Maybe he was right. Earlier that morning, I had listened to a lecture on genital lesions. Some genital lesions have wart-like structures and have viruses as causative agents.
I quickly researched plantar warts. According to the Mayo Clinic, infection with certain strains of the Human Papilloma Virus HPV cause plantar warts in the outer layer of the skin. The warts develop when the virus enters through tiny cuts, breaks, or weak spots and it thrives in warm, moist places.
Each person’s immune system responds differently to HPV. Not everyone who comes in contact with it develops warts. It is more likely to affect children and teenagers, people with weak immune systems, people who have had plantar warts before, and people who walk barefoot in areas where a wart-causing virus is common, such as locker rooms and swimming pools.
In my case, a couple of weeks ago, I was under a lot of stress. Maybe that made me susceptible to the virus. The virus might have exploited the opening in the crease of my palm.
More remedies and resolution.
The Mayo Clinic had suggested salicylic acid as a home remedy. Salicylic acid is a keratolytic. It belongs to the same class of drugs as aspirin (salicylates). It works by increasing the amount of moisture in the skin and dissolving the substance that causes the skin cells to stick together. This makes it easier to shed the skin cells. I used it for 2 nights and my skin shed. After that, I used my saline gauze, which moisturized and kept the pain at bay day and night.
Final words
I still intend to do a ceremonial dressing at night just for completeness’ sake. This is my typical case of experience being the best teacher, and these were my lessons. The interplay of:
An Individual’s immune system.
How our environment and activities impact our bodies
The importance of the skin and when it sadly loses its protective function, and
How microorganisms fully exploit our world.
Reason, observation, and experience the holy trinity of science. Robert Green Ingersoll.
Update: I eventually saw the dermatologist. It turns out that a close differential of plantar warts is corns and calluses. I have the latter. She asked what I did for a living and I said I worked in a busy family practice. She said there was not much they could do except to trim away the excess skin, which could cause more injury. So she asked that I manage it as I was already doing. Part of this would involve avoiding the repetitive actions that caused them to form.