In wart, truth is the first casualty
A bit back, my five year old son had a wart on his big toe. After trying some over the counter remedies and having his pediatrician try to freeze it off, the wart persisted. So, he was referred to a podiatrist. The doc prescribed a cream that we were to apply daily for 24 days. Imagine the sticker shock when I got to the pharmacy and saw that the retail price for the cream was $975 (yay, co-pay). After about 5 treatments, the wart fell off but we kept applying it for the full run to make sure. Then, we have a follow up appointment with the podiatrist to make sure we’re all clear. And we are.
I then tell the doc that I was a little surprised at the retail cost of that stuff. And he tells me that if I knew what it was for, I wouldn’t be surprised that people would pay that. Seems it’s for warts that occur in, uhm, areas that are a bit more embarrassing.
A bit back, I noted the correlation that the more embarrassing the prescription you drop off at the pharmacy, the hotter the pharmacy technician will be. Only I didn’t realize it was embarrassing at the time. But, yeah, she was pretty nice looking too.
March 20th, 2012 at 11:08 am
Since yours was covered, it doesn’t really apply, but shopping around can make a difference. I’ve seen a price difference of 500% between two places for the same prescription.
March 20th, 2012 at 11:15 am
About 15 years ago, I had a couple warts on my hand that kept coming back even after I had them dug out by the dermatologist. Then one day, I used this new cleaner, Clorox Clean up to scrub my shower, without gloves. Lo and behold, no more warts. Cheaper all around and I got a sparkling shower out of the deal.
March 20th, 2012 at 11:23 am
Was this Aldara cream? I had a wart on my hand that I used it on, but it was only $85 for a box…maybe that was with insurance though(?).
And yeah…I made sure to say it was for the wart on my hand when I got it because the doc said it was for warts “down there.”
March 20th, 2012 at 11:31 am
Not sure, I tried googling it but that was a mistake. Do not do that.
March 20th, 2012 at 11:32 am
My father bought my warts when I was 12. He asked me to sell them to him. Gave me a buck for them and they went away. I bought my son’s wart on his toe for a quarter. Placebos are 50% effective.
March 20th, 2012 at 11:36 am
Explains why I always get the swarthy Italian gentleman when I pick up my asthma inhalers or my wife’s seizure medication.
There are some attractive ladies behind the counter, but they must get buzzed when the scripts for anal fissures and Colonoscopy cleansers come up.
March 20th, 2012 at 11:54 am
The wife antifungle foot cream was $1100 without our insurance. So the doc gave her a coupon for $100 off. With our insurance it was only $75 so we got it for free. People wonder way no one goes to the doctor without insurance.
March 20th, 2012 at 12:07 pm
Imiquimod seems to be the generic, so if thats the stuff I’d recommend finding a compounding pharmacist.
Big Pharma comes up with such innovative products as “ibuprofen with codeine” to replace cheap generic patent-expired “Tylenol with codeine”. So I always try to do a double check before “swallowing” whatever the doc writes on the Rx pad.
March 20th, 2012 at 12:12 pm
>Since yours was covered, it doesn’t really apply, but shopping around can make a difference.
If people shopped prescriptions like they shopped gasoline, then they would drive 5 blocks to save 5 cents per gallon. (less than a buck per tank usually)
March 20th, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Plantar warts are not fun. I had one on my big toe. I clipped it off with a fingernail clipper all the way down to where it bled. A lot. It did not come back. But I would not do that to a five year old or my ten year old.
March 20th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
I’ve got about $500 in for treatment of my plantar’s wart on the ball of my foot. Got the high deductible plan this year so the first two treatments were straight out of pocket at $225 a piece. Need to find some full strength liquid N2 and blast it myself.
Of course now that I’ve reached the deductible (yeah, kid broke his arm!) I can get it done for a measly $25.
Maybe I’ll try the shower cleaner first…
March 20th, 2012 at 2:55 pm
Was that cream made in Oww-stria? I think everything from there is at least $750 a tube. Strong medicine there. White Man’s medicine.
March 20th, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Excellent post title, btw.
March 20th, 2012 at 4:35 pm
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt to prove it. Same situation, with a planters wart in high school. Tried over the counter stuff, had the dermatologist freeze it, finally got the genital wart cream a try, and yep, poof, gone!
I laugh at it now, but it was kind of embarrassing at the time.
March 20th, 2012 at 7:25 pm
So, everyone . . . Does anyone have the list of ingredients? I’ve found that whenever it’s a cream / liquid application, there is usually only one active ingredient. All the others are carriers, perfumes, colorants. Look at similar items and see if that active ingredient in the same strength is not available elsewhere. You’d be amazed.
March 20th, 2012 at 7:54 pm
I had a few warts on my foot, so after having the corpsmen try to freeze them off a few times without success, they sent me to the “real” doc, a Navy dermatologist. She had some kind of liquid that she said came from a type of beetle. One application, and all four of them went away in a few weeks and have been gone for a year. It did burn a lot. Interestingly, she dripped some on the floor while I was there. She got a look of horror on her face, so I waited for the smoke to start. It didn’t, but she did spend a great deal of time cleaning it up, so I suppose that it would have at least damaged the floor.
March 20th, 2012 at 9:24 pm
Duct tape. Seriously. (not for Plantar’s, though)
March 20th, 2012 at 9:55 pm
Seems more common than I would have thought… I had plantar’s that were burned, frozen, shot with a laser, treated with the genital wart creme, given an acid treatment – sometimes these were in combinations and multiple treatments of each type. I was also given oral medication and told to visual the warts going away. I finally gave up and they went away the following month.
March 20th, 2012 at 10:16 pm
I’m a physician assistant working in Dermatology. Warts are the bane of my existence. It also seems that *everything* hovers around 70 – 80 % effective.
What’s in our toolbox for warts? Liquid Nitrogen, Canthacur (JAG2955’s Beetle Juice), Podophyllin, Aldara (imiquimod) … hell even Retin-A prior to Aldara with duct tape occlusion.
As far as pricing, Aldara cash price runs ~ $25 per .25gr packet at Costco.
Fuck I hate warts
March 21st, 2012 at 12:06 am
From what i hear duct tape works as well, and is much cheaper.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-204_162-525523.html
I’ve used it yet, but it is worth a try
March 21st, 2012 at 10:19 am
I can vouch for duct tape as well. Not personally, but I saw how it annihilated my fruend’s wart in his hand. It really did work.