Today

I had yet another appointment at my trusty dermatologist's office in Portland. This is my "before" picture.  I know it's a bad picture. It's my left ring finger. I've had a big ugly wart there for about five years. After nearly 6 months of treating it there has been absolutely no response. It's been frozen, painted with some sort of blistering agent and injected with a yeast derivative to try and  spark an immune response. Nada. Last month I asked if I could just have it cut out. I'm just done with it. A nail disease specialist that is at OHSU once a month just happened to be in the office that day and was willing to consult on it. She suggested splitting the nail and cutting it out and hyphercating (cauterizing) it, as well as sending a biopsy of it out for pathology...possible skin cancer. Again. So that's what I spent my morning doing.

So this is after. It's wrapped up all huge and down around my wrist to anchor it. And it hurts. A lot. I watched the whole thing which Dr. Hopkins couldn't quit commenting on. He said he has no problem doing such procedures but could never watch it being done on his own body. I find it all kinds of intriguing, though! But it doesn't change the fact that it hurts! About 1/4-1/3 of the nail was removed and a fair chunk of tissue beneath. I should have the pathology results in about a week.