Okay, I have been dealing with MC for the last two years. I have read more books, blogs, websites, and anything I could get my hands on to educate myself about this horrible skin disease. I am going to lay out everything I know, everything I've tried that works and doesn't work so that hopefully I can help you get rid of this a heck of a lot faster than I certainly did!
For those of you who have just found out you have this, you're probably wondering what the heck it is! In my experience, the doctors weren't much help with this. Two years ago I had a couple bumps on the back of my thighs. Thinking they were something related to acne, dry skin, or something else I pretty much ignored them. When I started noticing more I went to the doctor.
The first doctor told me it was an infection from shaving and if I stopped it would go away. When that didn't work I went to a dermatologist who told me it was MC. She basically told me it is an STD and that it would go away on its own.
Okay, let's stop right there.
First of all, MC is an extremely common skin condition. Yes, it can be transferred through sex and oral sex, but what my doctor didn't tell me is that it can also be caught from swimming pools, dirty gym equipment, tanning beds, and simply by coming in contact with skin infected with it. So, it is truly not the end of the world and its absolutely not life threatening or always an STD. I was lucky enough to keep my MC contained on my thighs and butt (about as lucky as you can get with this horrible thing.)
So, I began going to my dermatologist to have these bumps frozen off. It's incredibly painful and I scarred very easily, granted I scar from pretty minor things. This seemed to get rid of the big ones but new ones ALWAYS came back. I spent over $150 dollars in dermatology appointments and six months of my time doing this "treatment". I very strongly advise you to skip this. It is not worth it. For such a common disease, doctors don't seem to have a whole lot of information about it. Four of them told me it would go away on its own, mine did not. I haven't read any cases on blogs/internet/wherever where that has been the case either. Of course, your experience may certainly differ from mine.
So, I was completely fed up with this disease and really wanted to wear shorts again and generally get my confidence back! So here's what worked for me: (again, this worked for me, and your results certainly may be different.)
First, let's start of with the rules. This whole plan is a hassle and basically a pain in the butt, but it is so worth it when your skin is clear and MC free.
Rule #1: Do not have sex!! Please oh please do not spread this thing around, it is just such a pain! I know it totally sucks and you feel unsexy enough already with gross little bumps all over you, but having sex just spreads it back and forth from your partner to you. That goes for oral sex and generally fooling around as well.
Rule #2: DO NOT SHAVE OR WAX. I cannot stress this one enough. Your MC will literally be everywhere you shave if you do. MC is a tiny bump with a white 'core' inside of it. When you shave you are basically cutting off the top layer of the bump. This allows pieces of the core to be spread around. The core of MC is INCREDIBLY contagious. Don't do it! This was really hard for me, but it is worth it.
Rule #3: DO NOT SWIM. Hanging around in a wet bathing suit is a breeding ground for MC. Don't do it. I've read a couple things about salt walter helping, but I haven't tried that myself.
Rule #4: NEVER REUSE A TOWEL: Wash your shower towel (I would recommend only showering, not taking baths giving how MC thrives in a moist environment) every single time you use it! Use bleach whenever possible and wash on hot/sanitary cycle. Honestly, this made the most noticeable difference for me. It's a pretty big pain and you're going to feel like you're doing laundry all the time, but its worth it. I read on another blog, some people used paper towels to dry off rather than constantly doing laundry. Also, dry off immediately after your shower! Keep the area as dry as possible.
Rule #5: DO NOT USE LOTION: You're skin is going to need some serious TLC by the time your MC is gone, but do not use lotion. It's too moist and will only make MC spread.
Rule #6: DO NOT WEAR TIGHT PANTS: MC affects pretty much all areas of your life. IT SUCKS! Your lifestyle, the way you dress, it's just awful. But trust me, tight pants make it worse.
Rule #7: DO NOT PICK, POP, OR SCRATCH. You've probably read about some people popping these little suckers and getting rid of them. In my experience that causes them to spread. If you are dead set on carving them out, let the dermatologist do it. It's quite painful and my worst scars are from that.
RULE #8: WASH EVERYTHING! Wash your sheets at least every two or three days. Use bleach/hot water whenever possible. Never wear pants/underwear/or whatever touches your skin more than once. Again, your laundry load is going to be pretty extreme.
Okay, that's basically all of the things I know for fact you should do to prevent spreading as much as possible. Here's some more things I did that worked for me.
Quit smoking. Quit drinking. MC is a virus, which means its living in you and you cannot take antibiotics to fight it. Your body has to fight it on its own. So it's important to keep your immune system in good shape. I'm not sure if this had a direct affect to fighting my MC but it's not a bad habit to get into regardless. I started taking a multi vitamin everyday, being more conscious of what I was eating, and exercising a little everyday. As far as exercising goes, shower immediately after. Drink tons of water. I literally felt like I was drinking my weight in water. Water helps your body push toxins out of your skin, so I felt like this would help. Again, even if it didn't, I feel healthier than ever. V8 is a good source of vitamins as well. Vegetables are incredible for skin health. Spinach, carrots, broccoli, and tomatoes are really good for your skin.
Shower everyday and more than once! I threw away all my loofahs and all my wash rags, as those can harbor/spread MC. Use only your hands to wash. I used anti-bacterial body wash (Dial sells a few that smell pretty good) and I also used Neutrogena liquid acne wash over the infected areas. I read that salicylic acid can help MC and Neutogena has the highest over the counter dose in it. After showering, dry off immediately and again do not reuse that towel until you wash it in HOT water!
I tried everything under the sun to get rid of this stuff. I even bought an at home wart freezing kit, which did not work by the way, just stung like crazy and left some minor scars. I tried the popping thing and that was messy and way too risky to have them spread. If you do have one that is just screaming that it needs to be popped, make sure you use tweezers, not your fingers. the virus can stay on your fingers and under your nails and can be spread so easily. When you do pop one, a small white ball should come out and the bump will bleed a ton! Use alcohol on the tweezers, your skin, and the bump and cover it with a band aid. But like I said, in my experience they spread very easily.
I also read urine can help MC, I was never brave enough to try this one however.
I read on a few blogs that apple cider vinegar helps get rid of MC. I was so desperate to get rid of this I was about ready to just cut my legs off so I figured I would give it a try. Please keep in mind that on many forums/sites about MC people will try to sell you things that "work" to "cure" MC. Don't buy into it. You can spend hundreds of dollars on that crap. Don't waste your money. I did however try ZymaDerm, which you can buy at Walgreens. It seemed to keep certain MC bumps contained but most certainly didn't heal anything or make it go away. It also turned my skin a weird color around the bumps, I believe from the iodine in it.
So, I bought a couple things of apple cider vinegar, which you can get an any grocery store. Walmart sells it pretty cheap. I've found that Heinz better than generic brands with 5% acidity. I also bought a BUNCH of water proof bandaids. I recommend the NexCare brand, they are little bit less harsh on the skin (they don't have as much of the sticky area). At first I tried normal bandaids, which of course just let the apple cider vinegar drip everywhere and it smells so strong! I've heard of people poking the top of your MC bump before putting the apple cider vinegar on it, I have only done it a couple times not feeling that it was totally necessary.
So every night before I went to bed I cut cotton balls into smaller sizes and soaked them in the apple cider vinegar. I put the soaked cotton ball on the MC bump and put a water proof bandaid over it. Then I left it there all night long. It's a little uncomfortable to sleep in, especially at the beginning when you have a ton of bandaids on.
I did this for a few weeks to get them all. I left them on all night and removed them in the morning and showered using antibacterial soap and the Neutrogena soap as well. I have incredibly sensitive skin, so the worst part was the red marks left by the bandaids. You can put a little bit of A&D ointment on that if you have a similar reaction. After this your MC bump should be pretty red and ugly. It'll look bigger and worse. In my experience in the course of about a week the bumps turn either black or a nasty dark red. It eventually turns white and just kinda scabs off. Some of the bigger ones take a little longer to heal. You can use peroxide and neosporin to avoid infection if they seem to be getting infected or not healing fast enough. I also bought 91% rubbing alcohol and rubbed that on the areas around where I put the bandaids. This can dry out your skin and I'm not totally sure if it had a significant effect on keeping them from spreading. Don't be discouraged when more pop up, this tended to happen to me when I got my immune system back in order. It means your body is doing what it is supposed to, it's finally reacting to them and turning the tiny, microscopic ones red. It helped me to take a shade off a lamp and hold it up to my legs to see the little tiny ones so I could get them with the apple cider vinegar. The apple cider vinegar treatment can sting quite a bit, especially on the big suckers. In my experience of trying a thousand different things this is the only one that worked. I have a couple scars from it, but I would certainly rather have a scar that will fade in time rather than a bunch of red bumps! The smell is of apple cider vinegar is pretty intense so I would definitely not recommend wearing the bandaids when you're around anyone. And the a few months later when you are all healed and you smell that stuff, you are going to want to vomit. Also, the apple cider vinegar is acidic, so if you leave it on too long it has the potential to burn your skin. When my skin got a little red from it, I would put a little big of A&D ointment on it. It took me a while to figure out that a little bit of apple cider vinegar goes a long way. You can cut the cotton ball pretty tiny so you just cover the bump and not to much of the surrounding skin.
I really really really hope this works for anyone out there struggling with this. I feel your pain! It's a confidence sucking pain in the butt and hopefully one day they will find a simpler cure for this thing. I'm going to pray for anyone who looks at this site and I truly hope it helps you! Again, this is only my experience and yours my differ. I hope my horrible experience can at least shorten the experience for others. Good luck and don't lose hope! It will go away, I promise!
As far as scarring goes, I am going to try mederma. I made a home made sea salt scrub that has helped my skin to recover from all this. It's equal parts course sea salt (available at any grocery store for very cheap!) and olive oil. I use it in the shower after I shave and it leaves my skin really smooth. The salt promotes new skin cells and the olive oil helps scars fade. Again, good luck with everything. I know this is pretty much the worst thing you could imagine having on your skin. But its going to get better! Don't lose hope :]
