Misc notes

[liv]

I got to spend some time with rysmiel this week. Dundee is really not reasonably on the way from Glasgow to Liverpool, so I very much appreciated the effort it took to make this happen. rysmiel is very cool and very cuddly, both of which I knew, but it's still very pleasant to experience these things first-hand! *bounce*

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My home computer has gone to be repaired and slightly souped up, so that I can write and back up my thesis reliably. I really hope I'll get it back soon, but for the time being I'm connectionless at home. I will see email and LJ but probably won't be in much of a position to reply to anything in any detail or very quickly. If anyone wants to phone me this is probably a good time, since the phoneline will be free for once.

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Several computers on the university network have been infected with a virus (this is the kind of thing that happens when there are a lot of clueless users on a network, but there is some reason to believe this may be a deliberate attack). Anyway, in consequence, please don't open attachments that originate or appear to originate from the dundee.ac.uk domain without checking with the apparent sender first. In particular, be alert to apparent bounce messages including a .txt or a .zip claiming to be the original message, since those are in fact viral executables in disguise. I'm sure most of you are pretty sensible about this kind of thing anyway, but this virus seems to be a little more subtle than some.

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I'm slightly regretting promising darcydodo that I'd get my warts seen to. So far the treatment is doing no good at all, and some amount of harm. Before I started the treatment I had several warts on my hands, most of which were too small to be noticeably ugly. The first time I got squirted with liquid nitrogen, it hurt at the time and all the warts were slightly sore for a couple of days afterwards. The second time (yesterday), it hurt enough that I was nearly in tears, and my hands have been quite distractingly painful since. Maybe this progression is a sign that the treatment is having an effect; I hope so. Apparently the deal is that I have to keep putting myself through this every fortnight until the warts go away; the nurse was evasive when I asked how long this was likely to take.

Comments

[darcydodo]

I'm very glad that you're getting them seen to, though I'm sorry that it's being so painful and apparently useless. I hope it's not just that your doctor is inept! Knowing the NHS, they probably didn't let you go to a specialized dermatologist, did they?

[liv]

The person who does the treatment is a nurse who runs a specialist wart clinic once a fortnight. It can't take that much medical training to squirt some liquid nitrogen on people's hands, can it? Anyway she seems entirely competent as far as I can tell! She did also warn me that it might hurt, and indeed it seems entirely reasonable that a cold burn designed to break up all the cells in the wart would be painful. I'm just a wimp, as you know!

Both the GP who referred me to her and the nurse herself seem to think that I have pretty straightforward, common-or-garden warts. So I don't think I would have got much out of seeing a dermatologist. What do you think the specialist would have told me beyond, you have warts, you need to get them squirted with liquid nitrogen?

[wychwood]

I had that treatment for a while... I ended up stopping, because it hurt *so* much, and didn't seem to be doing any good - and lo and behold, they vanished within a week or so :) Warts are funny things...

[darcydodo]

No, it's that a dermatologist can choose to use a different treatment, if they think it will work better. For example, remember that wart I had on my finger for a couple years? (I just wrote "that finger I had on my..." before noticing.) The dermatologist gave me some medicine that's normally used for genital warts, and some urea cream to make the skin there thinner so that it wouldn't completely ignore the medicine, and it worked like a charm. She thought one month, it actually took two, but it disappeared after it had been there for all that time.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

I got a verucca a few years ago. My doctor said I could have it frozen off or chemically burned off, but he recommended I just ignored it and it would go away of its own accord after a year.

It took three years, and my habit of walking barefoot keeping the heel of my left foot off the ground was so ingrained, I still feel the urge to do it now.

Mind you, hoping they'll go away if you ignore them is not going to be applicable to you if you're continuing to wear latex gloves.

[liv]

She thought one month, it actually took two, but it disappeared after it had been there for all that time.
Well, I'm really hoping that this method is going to take less than two months. Apart from anything else the wart clinic happens at a particularly annoying time which really disrupts my working week. Anyway, we'll see. I think the nurse or GP could perfectly well prescribe me medicine (without having to refer to a dermatologist, I mean) if this method doesn't seem to be working.

[liv]

The thing is, I was quite happy to leave the warts alone and see if they would go away of their own accord. Or just leave them there, since they're really only aesthetically a problem. But darcydodo talked me into getting them treated, and I'm bad at saying no to darcydodo.

Also, if the past year or so is any kind of trend, they seem to be spreading rather than going away. And I know the latex gloves don't help; neither does my habit of constantly inflicting minor injuries on myself. I've switched to the hypoallergenic kind at the moment, because my hands are way too painful just now to deal with latex as well. I may continue with them, in the interests of the warts not just coming back with renewed vigour, but I feel a little guilty doing that since I'm not actually allergic.

[darcydodo]

But my point is that a dermatologist is going to have more clue as to what other possibilities there are, and can be more innovative, given that this is their area of specialty. When I told the GP up here (when I went to ask about my disappearing foot warts) about the finger-wart treatment, she just boggled. It's not a question of being able to prescribe something.

Incidentally, what on earth is "száztízezerszáztíz"?

[liv]

Incidentally, what on earth is "száztízezerszáztíz"?
It's Hungarian for 110,110. I'm using it for my subtitle because it's such an immensely cool word.

[redbird]

I am glad you and rysmiel got to spend time together. Considering that I met you through Rysmiel, it seems odd that you and I met in person before you and Rysmiel did.

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When my dermatologist decided that some of my warts should go, she burned them off--I don't recall the heat source, but it was a one-time treatment, followed by weeks of waiting for the burn/depression to heal. I've not let her remove any of my remaining (smaller) warts since.

[liv]

I am glad you and rysmiel got to spend time together.
So'm I, most exceedingly glad!

Considering that I met you through Rysmiel
I'm very glad of this too!

it seems odd that you and I met in person before you and Rysmiel did
Doesn't it just? rysmiel also met darcydodo before meeting me (after I introduced them via LJ). It's a combination of geography with general weirdness, since I don't exactly live near you and rysmiel doesn't live any nearer to darcydodo than to me.

When my dermatologist decided that some of my warts should go [...] it was a one-time treatment
Yes, I was kind of assuming this would be the way it worked. Having to give up Thursday afternoons every two weeks is a major nuisance workwise.

I've not let her remove any of my remaining (smaller) warts since.
I'm inclined to the view that if these warts prove very recalcitrant or come back after apparently successful treatment I shan't bother again. I decided a long time ago that if I was going to be a lab scientist I'd have to give up being vain about my hands, and putting up with warts is probably covered by that resolution.