Question: Hello Dr,
I had this corn (is what I had assumed at that time) on my right foot, (which hurt like hell) in January 2015. I went to a podiatrist in February and he treated me with salicyclic acid on a weekly basis. While this was happening on a weekly basis, I got another bump below my big toe (bottom of the big toe) and he started treating that applying acid there as well. Every week he would apply acid and the following week, he will debride and then apply acid again. This has been going on for a while now (almost 4 months) and I asked him to refer me to a dermatologist. I met him earlier this week and he cut a part of one of those lesions and sent it to biopsy and asked me to return in two weeks. The word biopsy is driving my anxiety and following are some of the questions you can help me with:
a. I am having a hard time to walk - do these plantar warts hurt like hell i.e. can they be very painful?

b. My lesions are not tender, they are very rough and hard and if i touch it they do cause discomfort and pain. Is that usual?
c. Because the doctor did not see an improvement or because it failed to respond to acid treatment, did the dermatologist suspect anything? or is this a usual procedure to biopsy this? My mind is conceiving several different things and I hope you can help to tone my anxiety down. Thanks in advance.

Regards, XXXXXXX

Thanks a ton for your reply doctor. Few other questions:

a. What would make this a wart? Reason why I ask this is I can see black dots and when the doctor scraped a little bit, I could see blood streaks.
b. I have attached a few pics explaining the progression: Image 1 – initial stages end of January – when I noticed only one. Image 2 – another one popped up below the big toe and it was at this time, the podiatrist had been applying acid and the picture was taken at may be 2 months into treatment. I noticed that the original one and the newer one had gone bigger. Is this normal? Image 3 – is the one I took yesterday i.e. 3 days after biopsy.
c. Aside from corns or warts, what other conditions (growths) are potentially possible in that area given those pics. I know this can be difficult but anything you can provide will be helpful.

Thanks again Doctor.

Thanks again for your support Doctor. I am a little anxious and hence these questions. Few more, I promise this will be the last set, if you do not mind:

a. Do they hurt or can it get painful when they debride? Mine does hurt every time they debride.
b. Also, as you might have seen in the picture, the dermatologist only partly cut one of the lesions for the biopsy? Is this usual and will the results be accurate?
c. The biopsies are used to confirm if it’s a wart or a corn?

Thanks again for all your support.

Thank you so much Doctor. I will keep you posted in two weeks time. Thanks again.

Doctor,
Hope you are well.

I wanted to ask you this question you can help me with: May be I should stop researching the Internet:P

What is an amelanotic melanoma? Have you seen or heard of cases where they misdiagnosed this for a wart or a corn on the foot?