After a nice long swim at the pool you decide that it’s time to go and shower off in the locker rooms. You walk barefooted from the pool house straight to the locker room and begin to wash up after finding a spare shower stall. You feel great, your work out is complete and you are ready to meet the world. While you walk all over the locker room happy and barefooted, your feet are suffering underneath you.
A month later you are taking off your shoes in the same exact locker room. You are preparing to go for another swim and realize there is a wart on your foot. You don’t remember getting it, but it is very obvious now. How did it get there? When did it get there? Are they going to spread all over your foot and arch? You should have worn a pair of water shoes into that public shower at the gym last month, and now you are paying the price. You have a plantar wart.
Plantar warts can appear all over the foot, but typically appear on the bottom of the plantar arch. At first, they might seem to be a callus forming because the skin thickens and starts to rise. Slowly the skin builds up and begins to poke out even more against the foot. The wart is in full effect and you have no idea how to get rid of it.
These warts are caused by a virus. Usually they are transmitted by direct contact from the virus to the skin. People who walk barefoot in public areas are more likely to get warts. A pool, locker room, and public shower are all havens for the plantar wart virus.
Plantar warts come in intervals. They can appear one day then go away for a while and come back all over again. They can also come as a single wart or in a group of warts.
A podiatrist can remove the wart by excision, freezing, burning, strong acids or lasers. Most of these types of treatments are done under local anesthesia so that the patient does not feel any pain.
After treatment, be sure to pay close attention to your feet as plantar warts have a high reoccurrence rate.
Have a wart on your foot? Not sure what kind it is and how to get rid of it? Call Mid-Michigan Foot & Ankle Center located in Saginaw and Bay City, Michigan. There Dr. Andrew H. Cohen can examine, diagnose and treat your warts. Call 989-790-8009 or make an appointment online today.