[locke4444]

Hi all,
       This was the first and best forum that I have found to help me treat and deal with my molluscum. I came here about 2 months ago to get advice and this is my first post. A quick history, I found the first bumps on my stomach, about belly button level (a little lower) and to the left. I though maybe they were just zits as I had dealt with cysts and zits in my pubic region before. I have eczema and psoriasis and have had a very difficult time over the years with conditions that can be instigated, aggrivated, and created by endless scratching and itching. I finally realized that the cause of my cystic acne was from poor moisturization on my back and neck, but it did take going on a very powerful anti-inflamatory medication [amnesteem] to get calm the flair ups. Just as things were going well with one skin condition (no new cysts in almost 3 weeks!) I noticed the the molluscum. My Derm was on vacation so I had to wait almost 2 months before I got in to see him and ask him about the bumps that ended up being molluscum.


     When I started I had atleast 40 bumps. They were all hidden in my pubic hair, and so I only noticed the ones on my stomach without realizing that there were many, many more. I still think the ones on my stomach were the first as those were definately bigger then the other ones I discovered, but not for long. I first did the freezing method, and obviously didn't like it for many of the reasons stated by others, some of the bumps dissappeared some came back. A month later I did some sort of plant extract that causes a chemical blister. This seems to have a better affect on the bumps, but some how it also spread on to my genitalia and the next day I had blisters all over my testes and penis (very F-ing painful). In the meantime I've been taking thuja occidentals, silicea and calc carb (all homeopathic, but I'm not sure if they're helping at all). Furthermore, I have been taking multivitamens to boost my immune system, and using tea tree oil and iodine over the area. When i first started I had no bumps on my penis, now it seems that there may be one or two right on the base of it. Yesterday I finally tried the squeezing method, extracting the core by myself from the 20 or so lesions that were still left after the last blistering treatment, this has been the method that I am the most happy with at this point.

Its hard to tell at this point how many lesions I may still have. I'm not sure if the blistered ones will come back as a few did after freezing and I'm not sure if the squeezed ones will heal fully either, furthermore I'm quit certain that I will keep finding new ones coming up. However, at this point I have gone from about 40 active molluscum bumps to about 7, with another 25 I'm waiting on to see how they heal. If 90% of those heal and I'm down to a managable 10-12 in 2 weeks I'll be happy.

I think the key to this is to try and reduce the spreading as much as possible (so that you can concentrate on healing the ones you have and not worry about new ones coming up), which seems very difficult. I will continue to allow the derm to treat the molluscum, as well as doing my at home treatments. I trust my treatments more, but would feel foolish not trying what seems to be the generally "accepted" medical practices. I am also going to ask about the aldara cream. I'm afraid that the cystic acne medication i'm taking is reducing my body's own ability to fight the virus and infection of molluscum, and I certainly wonder if the onset of molluscum is related to starting the other treatment. I only have a month left of the acne treatments so I'm not going quit now, but it will be interesting to see how the molluscum reacts when that treatment ends.

One side note, I've noticed that many people have talked about having a severe illness, virus, sickness, ect in the spring wich rocked their immune systems prior to finding molluscum. It might be coincidence but I had a very similar thing occur to me. The doctors at my school clinic tried to treat my cysts with an anti-biotic  last spring, however they gave me a penicillin derivitive (and I'm allergic to penicillin, which they knew, but "forgot" I suppose), so I ended up in the hospital. Then my derm gave me another anti-biotic which landed me in the hospital two more times. Then when i was finally healthy i started my most recent treatment which has helped the cysts, but essentially coincided with the molluscum.

Otherwise, I'm a very healthy "athlete" type individual. I run during the warm months and lift weights during the cold. I eat very very health, though I do smoke and drink (you have to allow some vices in life). I have continued to lift weights, though only at home and not to the point of causing a sweat (just so I can still feel healthy and somewhat active). I have tried to avoid the paranoia some people have felt. I have dealt with many skin conditions, and often times wish I could trade mine in for someone elses. It is very difficult to deal with this especially since I'm supposed to see my long distance gf in about a month and probably will not be able to touch her, although I wonder if I got it from her this summer anyway.

Well I'm not sure if that helps anyone, but it sure felt good to write it all out. Anyone who has questions feel free to email me at locke4444@hotmial.com. I'll post back about what my derm says about the aldara cream, and how my "home treated" bumps respond as compared to my clinically treated bumps.

-Matt

[crayola110]

I just tried your advice on my molluscum. 

Background. I'm 25 and I was diagnosed as having molluscum a yr ago probably due to sexual intercorse about a year ago.  Back then it went away with a freezing and some retin-A after about 2 months.  Well about 2 months ago it came back after being gone for a year. I think it came back due to sexual intercorse again.

This time i tried the same treatment (freezing done twice over 3 wks, and applying retin A[retinol]) This time it didnt work as well.  I would freeze them then they'd shrink and turn black.  Then the tips would scab off only to show smaller clusters beneath which would regrow into larger clusters, greyish in color.  So since this hasn't seemed to work i tried the above remedy (popping them)

Surprizingly they  come off quite easy just pinching them off and getting the insides squeezed out.  I just tried this on 4 of my 16 molluscum lesions.  They came off quite easily w/ a fair amount of blood and a liitle pain.

Although i just tried this it looks like i'm getting good results as the whole wart just gets picked off.  After a couple days healing (& applying alcohol to clean and some neosporin) i will start picking off the rest of these nasty boogers. Its surprizing how easy and effective just squeezing these things out is...  (i should have just done this wks ago as i'm avoiding sex which has been quite an annoyance... [!])


I'll report back here in  a couple days as to how it develops  If this little experiment works then i'd suggest everyone just try it on at least one lesion and if it works on that one then try it on the rest...
 [O8)]

Alright guys it's been just 5 days since I picked my molluscum off as i described above.  It is 95% gone.   I had it in the pubic region, about 15 nasty bumps.  They got nastier after i froze them. I think the freezing made them greyish and lumpy and they just needed to be picked off after that. 

I wish i had just picked them off myself a few wks ago because i'm loving the results i'm getting (i had 2 bad outbreaks over the past year and could have avoided this if i just did this earlier). Now there are just a few small scabs where they used to be and the scabs are healing very well.

good luck everyone! i'm very happy!

[manwithmolluscum]

Well, I dont know about the rest of you but I just cant shake molluscum. At first I was really positive about it and I went to the dermatologist. I did some research before I went and found that cantharidin is the best...I searched the dermatologists in my area for the one that does use cantharidin and went to see him. He did crysurgery + podophilox because he said that cantharidin was to strong for the shaft of the penis which is where most of my molluscum were. Just as I suspected this barelly worked taking away only about a single molluscum each visit. He also gave me aldara which cleared most of the ones that werent on shaft. I knew he wasnt scaming me because he said that after the third time I probably wouldnt even need to visit him and to just keep applying aldara.

Well aldara was having a really hard time taking care of the ones on the shaft so I decided to use the plucking with fingers method after showers. I started taking echinacea pills with vitamin C and zinc included. I would come out of the shower, pluck it, use betadine solution to clean up blood and then apply neosporin. I did this for two months and I did have a clear area or I do for about a week or so before a new one appears. I can also kind of tell when a new one is about to appear because I feel this tingling on the skin of the shaft before a new one appears. I can almost perfectly time it too, my penis tingles for about three days and then BAM, a new one appears, which of course I pluck out as soon as I see.

So, I am shure some of you might be thinking, well whats the problem, you pluck it each time and you go on with your life. Yes, but the thing is that the girls I talk to are great people and I dont want to pass this on to them. I am not shure why it keeps coming back. I did notice burning in my thigh which comes and goes. I got tested for stds twice since I got molluscum and both times Ive been told that I have nothing except this molluscum which "I shouldnt worry about, because it will go away".

One thing as well is that I was told I have heart problems after having done an EKG because of chest pains and tingling that I keep feeling. I was suposed to go to a cardiologist but I lost my inshurance before I got a chance.

So I am wondering if there is anyone else out there whose bumps keep coming back after plucking as well. Or if anyone knows if heart problems are associated with them coming back.

[manwithmolluscum]

More info...well now I am not so shure that the spots I see are molluscum. Because these spots are different in that they are flat and white and not really shiny. I started to use aldara on them again and after two weeks of use, more of these white spots started apearing. I started to do some research on aldara and I came across some shocking sh1t... newbielink:http://www.newstarget.com/019906.html [nonactive]
I am not shure what these white spots are, perhaps irritated hair follicles or just pigment that messed up? anyway...maybe someone has had same problems with aldara?

anyway, I am so parranoid I cant even figure out whats molluscum and what a follicle on my penis anymore...

[meghanpotpie]

I've had this stupid molluscum for 3 months now and it's so frustrating.  I have no desire to have them burned off or scraped out just for them to come back [].  What has worked for me is applying tea tree oil to the papules 4 times a day, using an herbal detox kit to boost my immune system, drinking lots of water, taking thuja, and echinacea pills.  I know it sounds like a lot but it seems to be shortening the life of these little monsters.

[crayola110]

hey manwithmolluscum... if you look above i had a post where i was happy with my picking...

well after picking for a month or so they went away... then they returned in december 06... i've been picking them off once  a week now and like you describe they just pop back up in the same spots... i use bentadine etc as i state above. it obviously isn't working as well as i once thought.  tomorrow i'm actually going to the dermatologist and will have him freeze it again

if anyone wants more info email me    juanalvy @ yahoo dot com

[suzi]

Try AUSTRALIN LEMON MYRTLE. Both my daughters have had molluscum (at separate times). My eldest has been left with a lot of scars on her legs and stomach from this.  When my youngest was 4 the doctors again showed no interest in the fact she had it and said it would go, but cause my eldest had had it for 2 years I knew I had to do something. My friend is a beauty therapist so she asked the company who she orders her oils from(Essentially Oil Ltd tel 01608 659544) if they had an answer.  They suggested Australian Lemon Mertyl. I mixed this 3 parts Olive oil 1 part lemon myrtle   I dabbed this on all her spots (she had around 150) at bed time and within 2 weeks they had all gone.  At least give it a try cause it only cost a couple of pound. I got a couple of spots on my arms but squeezed these out which was gross!!  I have now been trying this on there warts and veruccas for 1 week but nothing seems to be happening yet.  It makes the room smell nice though!

[kdlynn]

here i go sounding dumb again! what are these things? i've never heard of this before. how do you get it?

[monderma]

Try the following method. It's almost painless and superficial.
Use a CLEAN needle to laterally nick and flip the very top stratum corneum, then apply 2% iodine Tincture to kill the virus and prevent infection. The lesion should go away. Make sure you deal with each lesion until there is no more coming out.
This helped lots of patient in my homeland and hopefully it's also useful to you.

[Steveyett]

My 10 year old has had MC for about 2/3 months.  We tried the usual oils /  creams, thuja, tea tree etc and nothing seemed to work.  2 weeks ago we started giving garlic in tablet form, and now the MC have shrunk and disappeared. Could just be coincidence I suppose.

[dentstudent]

Hi Steveyett - welcome to TNS! I hope you find all you need here!

A laymans view - An active ingredient from garlic - allicin - has been used to get rid of Molluscum contagiosum, but only as an on-skin remedy. I've not seen anything about ingestion of allicin and remedial influences of Molluscum contagiosum. However, Molluscum contagiosum is active for 2-3 months anyway, before (usually) clearing, so as you say, perhaps coincidence?

[unknown?]

Hi,

I am 15 years old and worried that I may have Molluscum but im afraid to tell my parents or anyone for that matter but it really freaks me out. They formed on my testicles about a month or two ago and I was wondering what I should do? I'm not a 100% sure but i've done research on it and its the only thing that appears like it could be what I have. I also am worried about it spreading because out of nowhere i've been getting things that appear to be bug bites on me but they don't quite look like them and they itch bad and on the big ones theres a little dot in the center... Someone please help me. Is there anything that i can find in my cabinets and descretely use?

[mrsturn]

Hi,
Can I say thanks to Suzi who recommended AUSTRALIAN LEMON MYRTLE higher up the thread!!!  []  My daughter had molluscum on her stomach for months. I tried tea tree and betadine (iodine), thuja and echinacea to no avail. When I read Suzi's message I thought I'd give the lemon myrtle a go.  I have been applying it mixed with olive oil as described. I applied it for about 2 weeks. The spots all got massive (you know - how they go before they go on their own), they all developed 'heads' and then went really red around them. At this point they looked worse I must say!! However, knowing that my daughters molluscum spots looked like this before they go I knew it was OK. It seemed like her body had finally realised they were there and started to react to them.  At this point I stopped the lemon myrtle and left them - it would have stung if I'd put it on I'm sure.  Within another week or so they all took it in turns to bleed and scab up.  Now they are very nearly gone. Literally there are a couple of scabs to fall off. Another one came upon her bottom and that has also scabbed up without any treatment straight away. There are no signs of any more popping up. 

I had to register to the site so I could post this!!! Thanks again Suzi - hope you read this.  TRY IT. I got it from the company mentioned by Suzi and it was £6 for a larger size bottle. Just rang them and they posted it.

Also I'm sure that picking them works too - but only for that individual spot? My son had some on the back of his head!! He is only one so couldn't ban me from picking them like my daughter did. I was not allowed to touch hers - only to apply whatever stuff I was trying at the time! I got a sterile needle and pricked my sons spots as soom as they were big enough. He never felt a thing! They then bled a lot and went within a few days. One came back so I repeated the procedure and that one went.  So far no more have appeared.  If they do, it will be lemon myrtle for him too!!

Hope this helps someone..............Good luck. Molluscum is vile isn't it!

[mc]

yes, molluscum is vile, i´ve had it for a short two months and i do say short cause i´ve read how long many people have had it and how it keeps coming back. Im terrified, i already ordered dermisil, has anyone tried it? I just finished using aldara for six days but i´ve read some stuff about it and decided to stop using it. Any comments?

[mc]

also i´m thinking of going on vacation but am afraid it might make it worse with the humidity and heat.. please comment

[mc]

well, had a terrible night, couldn´t sleep  and i´m worried sick about this. How come nobody has posted anything since last month? And what has been the improvement on all the people who wrote before? I´m off smoking (anything) cause i know it diminishes your immune system and i´ll begin taking garlic and other available substances. Oh  and a message to all the false testimonials from vendors: You obviously know how bad it is what you´re doing so if i were you, i´d refrain from praying on people with health problems, it´s gonna catch up with you.
To everyone else: please get back to writing your reports and so on. It makes a huge difference for people like myself. And by the way.. i´m wearing duct tape and i feel weird, does it really work for anything?

[fed.up.]

Hi everyone,
Well, I have had MC for 6 - 7 months, and was diagnosed around the time I found out I was pregnant...great!
The GUM clinic froze most of them about 5 months ago and you know what I would definitely not recommend this method. Ok, -it has its pros & cons. The ones that she froze don't seem to have returned, but about 20 more have so you will probably need to make numerous trips to the clinic. For about 2 weeks after they had been frozen they looked DISGUSTING - purple, huge. Once they had settled (and this is the reason I decided not to go back for more freezing) they left a bright purple scar, 5 months later the scars are brown & less noticeable but are still pretty visible. So imagine if you have to keep going back your going to end up with a groin covered in loads of nasty spotty scars for a long time! - if your in a relationship & your partner knows about your prob not so bad, but not great in other circumstances!

What definitely made them worse was origionally shaving. And waxing...that is a BIG no no and is the cause of my current vicious outbreak.

So, I have been using 'THUJA' topically for 2 weeks. This definitly worked on some but seemed to do nothing for the others, so I would say to anyone give it a try because there is no scarring with it. Thuja is supposed to work with your immune system so you would imagine it would be a better bet in the long run because freezing/picking etc doesn't deal with the cause of the problem I assume.Anyway the bottle has run out so I'm moving on tho the next experiment!

I'm going to give the 'popping' & 'pee' method a go, and stop having baths but showers instead and I will update on my progress soon.

Fingers crossed.

[rickyd]

Thought I would add this, hope I am on to something that will be helpful to others. None of what I am posting is new either, but I think it gets lost in the myriad of desperate remedies out there. I'm hoping to offer this and hopefully people can share their progress with it. For the sake of reference, I'll call it the "silver immune booster remedy".

History: My daughter had this twice. First time about 2 years ago (13 yo) and the last a month ago. The first time my daughter got it it was under her arm and I didn't find out she had it for about 8 weeks. Then my wife told me about it because she had my daughter diagnosed and they were getting worried. I was concerned about the treatments I read because of the possibility of scarring and duration of the outbreaks. I decided to research online and read numerous posts about remedies. After all my reading I created this "recipe".

=========
1. Ultra Colloidal Silver 10ppm (Only 4 dropper fulls a day, less than they recommend. Too much silver intake can cause a condition known as argyria. Read about it if you are concerned. It is the essential ingredient IMO though)
2. B-Complex
3. Multi-vitamin
4. Immune system booster (this is open, this time I used an expensive one that listed many various immune boosting ingredients like echinacea)
5. Thuja Occidentalis (Optional - we didn't use this the second time - worked without it, but we did the first time.)
=========

Within two weeks of trying these supplements, my daugher's MC completely cleared up. This latest time, my daughter started the supplements within 10 days of her first outbreaks and two weeks later she has no new outbreaks and looks clean.

No expensive treatments, no painful, scarring procedures. Just about $50 - $70 worth of herbal remedies. The one name brand I would recommend is Source Naturals for the colloidal silver because I think the silver is key to the treatment and we used that brand both times. Aside from that, buy what ever brand you want. We also split it up so my daughter took the silver and multi-vitamin at night, and the rest in the morning.

Some other notes about MC, just my opinion and some are well known insights:
* Lower immune system makes you more susceptible
* Like cold sores, some people just seem to be more prone to get them. I have 3 daughters and only one has gotten them.
* If you get them once you will probably get them again.
* The medical community sees it as a nuisance only, so not much research on it.
* Many medical treatments only address the symptoms (caustic creams, scraping) and do not halt more outbreaks. I think these should be strongly avoided if possible, IMHO.

Anyway, if you try this, please post back with your experience. I can't guarantee success, as it seems different people respond differently. Also, I offer this only as advice and much of my information is anecdotal. If you have adverse reactions to any of the supplements I mentioned stop using them immediately. It would be nice to get some feedback if this works effectively on a consistent basis though.

Good luck to everyone.

 

[mc]

thanks to the people who are back in the forum (rickyd & fed.up.), we all need the support from others suffering this. Specially parents and the feedback we're giving eachother is better than most visits to the doctor, i'm now taking echinacea, garlic every other day and started ..yes, picking the small ones coming up. It's still too early to say, specially since my pubic hair grew back but i think it's actually working. I'm also applying a thuja based oil, other times i'm using my own urine. I'm not a drinker but smoking is definetely off my list now. And i'm duct taping all the visible ones and the ones i've picked. So here's ashort list of what i'm doing to get rid of this:
-Aldara when i go to bed whenever i have it (it's really expensive).
-Thuja oil (dermisil, sorry for the advertisement, will let you know if it works though) day and night. NO ALDARA ON OPEN WOUNDS
-Urine which even though i don't use when i'm around people, it's surprisingly not that smelly.
-picking after showers, only now that i'm down to a few. Later applying iodine and NO ALDARA ON OPEN WOUNDS.
-Duct tape on the active ones or the ones recently picked
-Echinacea pills for the immune system along with
-Pure garlic. I either eat it or as an ointment with olive oil and iodine.
and last but not least.. try to be happy, go watch a funny movie or something, your body is healthier when you're happy or at least having a few laughs.
I know NO sex is a hard one for a lot of us but sh**** that's how i got it i'm pretty sure, someone that had it thought it was ok to have sex after a long period of quarantine but i guess it wasn't enough or i wouldn't have the pleasure of getting to know all you beatiful people. God bless and best of luck.

[mc]

hi chris.. anyone? I'm getting really scared.. i've done so many things to controll and fight this but now i think it's actually spreading faster. Not big ones like the ones i first got but small ones all over my body, i'm ready for anything, oral drugs and the works. I asked about griseofulvin in my country but it seems they've never heard of it. I got some five free aldara sachets and bought another six but at the rate it is increasing i don't know what to do anymore..  please, someone help.