Nothing Cool About "Kulugo": My Warts Removal Experience

A few weeks back, my sister and I got facials. It's been waaayy too long since my last one (12 years, in fact! Side story: I had my first and only facial in FIRST YEAR HIGH SCHOOL, because I was at SM, had just gotten my stipend from school and was bored. Haha. After that, di na nasundan--until about a month ago). Anyway, as the attendant was cleaning my face, she told me "Ma'am, may warts pala kayo. Andami o", and I was like, "where???" because I couldn't see any. 

I don't know about you, but when I hear the word "wart", I immediately think of something resembling a boil, only less red. And when you search for photos of either, Google shows really vile images--like the worst-case scenarios--that you can't help but associate that to uncleanliness and bad hygiene practices. And I wasn't unclean. I know I'm a little too low-maintenance when it comes to skin care, but I think I do enough (read: the bare minimum) not to call myself unclean. Anyway, I really, really thought warts were those fully formed bumps already. (And as I'm typing this, and knowing what I know now after my research, I'm thinking "but duh, Farrah, those big bumpy warts had to start somewhere", but I didn't know they started out really small)

Of course, the attendant offered to have my warts removed but I said no for the meantime because that would cost me too much. And although it would eventually grow, it wouldn't generally bother you. The only thing is, the larger it grows, the more it would cost to remove but my warts were still small so it wasn't urgent or anything to me. 

Warts are caused by strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), which enter the body through breaks in the skin, causing excess skin growth. Like any other virus, they are contagious, so if you live with someone who has them and for example, used the infected person's towel to wipe your face or something, you may get warts. There are also genetic factors that come into play here. Like, if your mom gets warts, then there's a chance you may get them too.

I hadn't planned on having them removed but I found a voucher on Metrodeal that offered "unlimited" (will explain why it's "unlimited" later!) warts removal at 99php and had a branch so near our place, so I grabbed the chance! I didn't get to take photos of the place because I hadn't planned on blogging about this experience anyway. There are so many ways to have warts removed. You can freeze them til they fall off (cryotherapy) but the most popular method is to cauterize it. During cauterization, your face gets zapped with this soldering iron-like tool that has electricity running through it to burn the wart. It sounds scary, but the good thing is that it only sounds scary. It's really not. You should take my word for it as I'm one of the scarediest (if there was ever a word) persons I know and I survived it! After I got there, I was led to one of the rooms. The attendant asked me what area I'd want to have my wart removed and I told her "my whole face. It's unlimited diba?" She countered me with a "How many Metrodeal vouchers do you have?" and I told her that I only had one. "So", she said, "you can only have one area removed". And the bad thing about that was, the voucher was only valid for pin-sized warts. According to her, my warts were big already. (Me inside, still disbelieving: how can they be big if I can't see them??) So I asked how much would it cost to remove all of them. She gave me a reasonable price naman (note: not over Php1000) so I went for it. (Just wanted to say: Be wary of deals you buy on group buying sites. I did read the fine print of my voucher. It did say it was only valid for pin-sized warts but it did NOT say you needed to buy a lot of vouchers to avail of "unlimited" treatment. So if you have doubts, I guess it's better to call the business offering it. AND record your conversation na din a la Kanye West and Taylor Swift, so if they try to say otherwise, you have proof. HAHA) Anyway, on to the story. The attendant examined my face and put topical anesthesia on each warty area to numb my face for the cauterization. She covered the area with tape so the medicine would easily absorb into my skin and so it wouldn't evaporate I guess. I had to wait for 45 mins, and I didn't know I had to until I got restless and surfed the internet on my phone.

HAHA my photos here are gonna be ugly. I don't even care anymore. =)) Basta, just look. Marami pala akong warts

After 45 minutes, the attendant came back in with the *dun dun dun dun* cauterization machine (hindi lang pala siya parang soldering iron, para din pala siyang voltmeter/ammeter na portable) and started zapping warts. To be honest, it was the sound of the machine that really contributes to the scare factor, cause it goes "bzz", and you think they are draining a hole on your skin! But the whole think just took like 5-10 minutes. I was very disbelieving (yun na yun?) when I was finished. So this is what I looked like after I was done: It's not super obvious but up close, I looked like I got bitten by ants Two of the most important post-cauterization care reminders for me were: 1) Don't wet your face for 3 days. This is because your face has little wounds that could get infected, especially with the dubious quality of the water supply. When I heard that, I thought "how would I take a bath?" and then I imagined putting the shower cap on my face instead of hair. HAHA. The visual was weird. and 2) DON'T SCRATCH THE SCABS!!! (All caps because very important!) Because do so and they will leave scars! I love scratching scabs, plus the wounds can get itchy, but I really stopped myself--for the sake of vanity. The facial center also recommended I buy medicine I can put on, but I've read some posts online wherein the girls opted not to and their skin healed just fine, so I didn't. (Tsaka dagdag gastos noh! #kuripot4ever #may4eversakakuripotan) This was Day 2. It's not clear in the photo but the scabs were darker, harder and less red. Also very tempting to scratch! But boom! By Day 3, they were falling off on their own. I did panic for a bit and call Kwesh because the raw pink skin was exposed and I was afraid it'd get infected (or worse, I'd contract a new case of warts!) but she reassured me it'd be fine. And 2 weeks later, it is more than fine. :) BTW, I took extra precaution and changed my sheets and towels when I got home. =)) Have any of you gotten cauterized? Let's compare notes! :)) ------------ If Frank Ocean can stage a comeback after 4-5 years, I think I'm more than welcome to do so in my old blog after all of..3 months. Haha! I decided to keep this blog and just post my kaartehans here, and maybe some food trips and then use the other blog for my self-improvement goals. Maybe one day I'll merge them into my own professional site, when I have the money. I just know I'd always want to keep blogging and writing even if no one reads my posts anymore. I'm aso really grateful (and surprised!) that I still get about the same number of page views a month even though I haven't posted in forever! I also ask that you show my other blog some lovin, sil vous plait? It's http://farrahgarcia.blogspot.com