Lindsay Kolasa

Hycleus lugens, Blister Beetle – image by Muhammad Mahdi Karim

…a little story about the virtues of a common household item, vinegar…the discomfort of the blister beetle, and the ridiculousness of our medical system (anyone experienced the tangled web that is our health care?)…

I’ll try to make this short (insert Pinocchio’s growing nose here).

As you all know, I’m an herbalist. If I can take care if it at home, I will. I know the plants and I know their power. When used appropriately, amazing things happen.

However, I felt I had thrown everything at this plantar wart (thuja essential oil, banana peel, poke root, etc). Considering I was still sifting through the postpartum period of birthing my little one…I didn’t have as much energy to direct at the wart.

So, two years after its development on my foot, I went to a local podiatrist for help. I just wanted some help as I felt tapped out with caring for my little one and I wanted someone else to care for me for this ONE issue.

He used cantharidin (from a blister beetle) to try and ‘irritate’ the wart off. He said it would take THREE treatments.

So, SEVEN treatments later….the skin was very badly irritated and the wart was GROWING. And, it’s important to mention that I couldn’t walk on that foot (I have to hobble on the edge) for 4-5 days after each treatment (due to the intense burning and irritation). Imagine me chasing my little one all day like a pirate for a complete picture.

Meanwhile, I’m paying some ridiculous amount for this treatment even though our family has a gold level comprehensive health care plan. (I phoned numerous times and contacted the doctor about this…and he is going to code it in a different way so that they are not gouging me for every visit)……

Really though.

I should have run for the hills when he started to use words like ‘nuke’ in reference to my wart.

As you know, in herbalism…..the body and its processes and challenges…..they are not the enemy…… The body gives us information and gives us messages……we have to tune in to hear what is going on. We have to build up the soil, increase vitality, and do as little harm as possible.

So, I got on the Clinical Herbalist Group on FB which I’ve been a member of for some time and asked for a ‘wart magician.’ I think I had over 80 comments. So many ways to treat a wart, as you can imagine!

I distilled all their comments down to those related to plantar warts and those that were repeated proving their efficacy. My treatment was thus (it took about 3 weeks for the wart to ‘dissolve’ but, in most cases, this treatment will work in 10 days):

– take the ‘skin’ of the wart down to pin-prick bleeding with a rasp and shaver (about 1-2 x a week)
– vinegar on a cotton ball, place foot on top (cotton ball sits on a plastic bag that I reused), once in the AM and once in the PM for 5-10 min’s is what was suggested (I always did it for 15-30 min’s) => the stinging that you eventually get means that the vinegar is doing its magic

I think this would have worked all by itself….but considering how feisty this wart was (and, I’m sure pregnancy and breastfeeding didn’t help such issues on my extremities as my immune system was tied up a bit)….I also:

– swabbed the area with lemon essential oil twice a day
– took homeopathic thuja three times a day

You know, I had read on-line about vinegar treating warts….and the wart turning dark brown to black and a hole being left behind….and it seemed like hocus pocus, lol. The reason I felt it was hocus pocus was the exclamatory language that accompanied these posts on-line and that I could never find a reliable source saying something similar.

Anyway, it’s TRUE.

After about three weeks, the area that the wart inhabited turned dark brown…with a cotton ball and vinegar I steadily wiped the dead cells/skin away and a hole was left.

I’ve been using my pine pitch salve to heal up the area and it is doing well.

I just wanted to share this story with you as I don’t pursue conventional medicine much (well, almost not at all)…..but it always seems….that when I do……I get another lesson on why I do what I do…and the magic that arises when I crowd-source info from healers/herbalists who are really holding it down in their part of the world.

And, I wanted to commiserate with those of you out there experiencing the slippery slope of allopathy and their constant default to war medicine (I mean, ‘nuke’ something on my foot!?). They are great with broken arms and mangled bodies….but not good with basic care and preventative health.

Further, I wanted those of you with plantar warts to experience relief!

Vinegar works and it’s amazing!

I didn’t make this short (smile).