Today I saw Dr Foot for what I hope was the last time. My infection is completely cleared up, and it looks like the warts are all gone. He couldn’t say that with 100% certainty, because there was still a little black speck, but he said that was probably just dead skin or some other gross thing. (I always want to ask, “Why feet?” but I can’t think of a non-rude way to say it.) He said keep an eye on things for a month, and come in if anything acts up, but this was probably goodbye forever.
I’m not an everything happens for a reason or what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger kind of person, but it seems silly to go through this whole weird ordeal and not get anything out of it. So what have I learned?
I will never be dismissive of someone else’s pain because it’s “just a ____ and I’ve had a ____ before and it was no big deal.” I am sincerely happy for anyone who’s ever had a plantar wart that gave them little to no trouble and went away easily, but this ridiculously stubborn wart and resulting staph infection was easily the most painful thing I’ve ever been through in my life. Your experience =/= my experience. I might even have more sympathy for man-colds now.
It is okay to accept and even ask for help. I don’t know why this is always such a hard one for me, but it’s my reflex to say, “No no no I’m fine I’ll manage I can do it…” and I was not fine and there was no reason for me to manage when I couldn’t. I’m happy to help my friends when they need it and I’m going to assume that the same is true for them from now on. No point in hanging on for dear life when there’s a safety net right under you.
Last, I really want to say I’ll never let something like this happen again, but I still don’t really think this was on me. I spent a long time treating this with OTC remedies that allegedly work after you…use them for a long time? I asked Dr Foot what I should have done differently and he said most warts do go away fairly easily, and it’s just the luck of the draw because there are different strains of the virus that causes them, but no way to know which strain you’ve got (even though I’m married to a virologist!) and I just got a stubborn one. I mean, maaaaybe I could have gone to the doctor a little sooner, but I don’t think this was really a case of me not taking care of myself, or not making my health a priority. Or maybe I didn’t learn anything at all. Who can say?
