…and to share with you our good news that for the first time in a year our family is free of plantar warts! Hooray! I got the first one, or at least noticed it, at the end of October last year and by the time I got rid of mine in the springtime, Abigail had gotten one which then reproduced itself…

Now I have written briefly twice in this blog about Canthacur . This blister beetle extract that we’ve driven miles and miles and paid hundreds of dollars (literally!) to receive from our dermatologist (who in turn orders it from Canada because it is not FDA approved !). And it seems, from the web site statistics, that canthacur is a popular search word for this blog. Maybe there are other people out there curious to read about Canthacur and my experiences with it.

I was happy with Canthacur for my own wart. But it has been ineffective for my daughter Abigail. And the only reason, I think, it was effective for me, was that I did some significant work with a razor blade on my foot. Abigail, being of sensitive nature, won’t even allow me to gently remove flaps of dead skin hanging from her feet. So progress was slow and options were limited.

Starting in the spring, we had gone 3 times for Canthacur treatments (for my daughter – I also made 3 trips earlier for myself as well!). Prior to that we had used Mediplast and castor oil applications at home. We were all feeling a bit desperate, especially after wart #1 spawned wart #2. I’d even thought about using potato or banana peels…Canthacur was the most painless and organic treatment, yet the way Abigail’s body reacted so slowly seemed to indicate it was not that effective with her.

Vickie on our last office visit in September had suggested the “hit ‘em while they’re down” approach, and told me to begin using salicylic acid, Compound W, on her foot a week after the Canthacur. We were supposed to apply the compound for 6 weeks and see if it made any difference before returning to the office yet again.

The first few weeks I was skeptical W would work. It didn’t seem to make much difference on her feet. The warts still looked the same, after canthacur and salicylic acid. One even got a big callus around it, making it more painful and awkward. Abigail would cry each night when I applied the stuff. It was a small ordeal, involving bandages, first aid tape, scissors, Compound W and lots of comforting (bandages and tape to cover the wart). Ted and I tried to convince her that a little pain each night would mean no more visits to Vickie and no more big pain from big warts. Abigail really didn’t want to get any more Canthacur or make visits to the doctor, and after the agonies and expenses we were experiencing, I didn’t want her to do it either. I started using a Swedish file on her feet after showers and baths, to try to gently remove the dead parts of the warts. I was grateful Abigail allowed me to do that. At times, I wanted to cry with her too.

Around 3 – 4 weeks I did begin to notice some change in her warts, and it seemed to be around the time when we got a new bottle of W. Hmmm. We did experience what one epinions reviewer wrote , that the stuff simply disappeared. The first bottle all too soon seemed to become empty. It gets so thick and goopy that it cannot be applied. It is as if it evaporates – and perhaps its effectiveness evaporates with it.

Around 5 weeks or so, I noticed that the bottle said to use up to 2 times a day. So we began applying in the morning and at night. Perhaps it was the new bottle and the added application. Or just the gradual process of time. But very soon the warts got smaller and smaller. By the time the 6 weeks were up, we were wart-free! More than a week now after we stopped treatment, I can’t see either one. New pink skin is growing back on her feet. We are all relieved and very happy.

And I have to say I’m not sure I would recommend Canthacur. If I had been aware of Compound W and its effectiveness, I would have tried it first. It’s easy to find, on the shelf at the grocery store. Maybe it would have saved us six visits to the doctor, time, gas and money. I think I had heard from friends and books about Mediplast so I thought that would be best. But Compound W worked well for Abigail. It involved some effort daily, remembering applications, filing and bathing increasing its effectiveness. At $7 or so a bottle, it’s not cheap, but the total of $14 for two bottles is much less than the $80 or so per office visit. Care does need to be taken when applying the compound – poor Abigail has some extra dead-skin patches on her feet since it was difficult to cover only the small warts themselves with the goopy compound. I even got the stuff on my fingers a few times: it immediately made my skin white and peeling. And, as I wrote in another posting, it smells like black! But I think I’d recommend Compound W over Canthacur, at least for a first try – and this use of salicylic acid fits with another doctor’s preference .

So I hope I won’t be writing any more posts about warts. I hope that what I’ve written has been helpful.

This all reminded me of what Enoch wrote about blogging: “The more you share of yourself, the more readers will get to know you and trust you….Here’s to more transparency in our blogs!”

And I hope this shows that I am writing to you about my life, as I am, warts and all

Today I had to take Abigail back to the doctor. Not only did her wart not respond to the treatment last month, but it spawned another one, on her other foot! And this time I caught the name of this stuff that is not FDA-approved (ordered from Canada)…..So we went back for another application of Canthacur manufactured by Paladin Labs in Montreal. Canthacur is apparently one of their many products .

I requested more aggressive treatment and now we have a plan to use one or two other protocols also, alongside this one, since this Canthacur doesn’t seem to be creating a powerful enough immune response for Abigail’s feet. It is painless – although Abigail cried during the little amount of poking used today during the application – but we also need to take serious action now that the warts are reproducing like rabbits. With soccer, gymastics and swimming on the schedule this fall, we want her feet to be fully functional! We have a friend whose warts were removed after one application of this blister beetle extract, so for some, this may be the way to go. It took me three applications plus two freezes and other stuff, and looking at Abigail’s experience too, it seems that this Canthacur may not be for everyone’s feet: such are the mysterious ways of warts….

Took Abigail to the dermatologist today, actually to the doctor’s nurse practitioner, Vicky, for her plantar wart to be treated with medicine, an extract of the blister beetle. I can’t quite remember the brand name – just tried looking up some ideas in Google but nothing is appearing. The compound itself is called cantherone – here’s a link about warts and looks like it is also used for HIV treatments

This is the fifth time I’ve been at the office for someone in our family to get a dose of this medicine. For the first three times, I was the one receiving treatment for a wart I caught sometime last year, sometime after Europe and Elisabeth. This is Abigail’s second time, for a wart, that I fear she caught from me this spring.

So I feel familiar with this wonderous stuff – it is derived from a natural source, the blister beetle, and it works by painlessly forming blisters on the wart area – or wherever applied. It is much more powerful, at least for our family’s feet, than the Mediplast at the drug store. For Abigail, a little girl with sensitive skin, it has been great.

But in all these visits, I had never heard that this medicine came from Canada or that it wasn’t FDA approved. While looking for her bottle, Vicky said that they have to order it from Canada and it takes two weeks to arrive. The logic went something like this: this blister beetle extract is a common medicine that has existed for a while and couldn’t be patented. Since it couldn’t be patented, there could not be a trial in this country. And without a trial, the FDA can’t approve it. So it sounds like it will be perpertually Canadian. America must be home to many happy blister beetles!

Seriously though…. although I am vaguely aware of the FDA and some of the politics of approval, especially from my years doing research in a laboratory, I had not yet experienced a situation like this in my own life. It makes me wonder. I wonder why this simple medicine can’t be approved. And I wonder what other medicines for much more major needs are not approved – warts are nothing compared to cancer or other illnesses. I wonder how much of the FDA is protection and how much is politics. What is really happening: what is truth?

In today’s Times I noticed an article that vaccination rates are declining . Washington state is in the bottom 10. Coloring in the other states on a map would make an interesting picture. With the exception of Louisiana, they could all be considered “Western” states. I think it could be cultural – the “west” is known for pioneer spirit, independence and rebelling against/suspecting authority.

I am not surprised to hear that our state has one of the lower vaccinations rates. I have many friends on the island who have chosen not to immunize their children. I have gotten to know a woman whose newborn daughter died from the Hepatitis B vaccine. Her husband, Michael Belkin, has become a prominent opponent of vaccination. I have not met him yet but I’ve found here a site with his address to Congress, statistics, letters and other writings. Reading what he says also makes me wonder why Lyla had to die, and wonder what is the truth about vaccines.

This is all disillusioning and quite disturbing to me. As a child I enjoyed science. Forget philosophy – I would find truth through experiments. Science was stable – unlike my chaotic childhood – and it would birth absolute truth. I could stand on science. There truth was clear, not controversial. But as I grew older, studied at college, worked in a research lab, became a parent, I saw that science was not so simple, and that finding truth in the midst of research was murkier than I had imagined.

If only Truth was clear and easy to prove. Without politics or controversy, no fortunes or lives to be founded on it, none of what clouds our culture.

I’m not sure what I believe about science in this country, about the FDA or CDC, about vaccines or medicines. But I still believe in Truth. And Truth is not subject to anyone’s approval. That much I know.