A painful bump on my foot was treated as

This foot bump deserves a booked clinic appointment rather than another week of home treatment — because it is getting worse, because walking now hurts, and because it is on a spot you have already been cutting and applying acid to.

This is not a diagnosis, and I am not a physician. Telling a corn from a plantar wart reliably is a clinician's job, and the two need different treatment — which is exactly why the acid has not settled it. What I can do is give you tonight's care, what to stop, and a clear go-back trigger.

What tells them apart (for your notes, not for a verdict)

• A corn comes from pressure or rubbing — a tight shoe, a toe pressing on another, a hard floor. It is a small hard lump of skin with a central core, sitting on a pressure point, and it is tender or painful.
• A plantar wart / verruca is viral, caused by human papillomavirus. It sits on the sole or toes, feels firm and rough, often has tiny black dots under the hard skin, and is often painful "like standing on a needle". Clusters (mosaic) are common on feet.
• Wart-specific red flags: bleeding, or a change in how it looks. Warts spread through shared towels, socks, shoes and wet or broken skin, and you are more likely to spread one from a swimming pool — which matters in a school-week household with an elder and a sibling in the house.

Checked 12 October 2026 against the NHS public information pages on corns and calluses and on warts and verrucas.

So the honest read on your two clues: the black-dot check and where it sits on the sole are the most useful things you can tell the clinician. Cutting it and then acid-ing it is not a diagnostic move, and it is a fair guess what has made it worse.

1. What you already tried vs. better alternatives

• Cutting it yourself → stop. The NHS advice for corns is explicit: do not try to cut off corns or calluses yourself; for warts, do not scratch or pick. Beyond the pain, cutting is how a wart spreads to other spots and to other people in the house.
• Salicylic acid → bring the tube, don't escalate. A pharmacist can advise whether to continue. Wart treatments can take up to 3 months and can irritate the skin, so "not working yet" is normal for a wart — but I am not changing anyone's medication, so take the tube to the pharmacist or the GP and let them say yes or no. Do not put acid on skin that is now broken, raw, weeping or spreading red.
• Padding and comfortable shoes → keep, and make them the priority tonight. Wide, well-fitting, supportive shoes with a low heel and a soft sole that does not rub, thick cushioned socks, and soft pads or insoles to take pressure off the spot. Both the NHS corn page and a foot specialist put these at the centre of treatment.
• Add: soak in warm water to soften the skin, moisturise, and gently reduce hard skin with a pumice stone or foot file. Gentle, and no cutting. Damp skin is also how warts spread, so towel dry carefully and change socks daily if this turns out to be a verruca.
• Also: do not walk long distances or stand for long periods, and avoid heels and tight pointed shoes. On a school week with a walking commute, that one sentence may decide whether Monday is manageable.

2. Constraints / avoid list

• No cutting, picking, or working at it with a blade or blade-type tools.
• No acid on broken, weeping, or spreading-red skin, and no stacking a second product on top.
• No sharing towels, socks, shoes or nail tools in the house — with an elder and a sibling nearby that is the cheapest protection.
• Cover it with a plaster in a pool or shared shower; do not walk barefoot in public places.
• No prescription-strength acid bought online, and nobody else's product.
• If diabetes, circulation problems, a weakened immune system, or being an older person applies to you: NHS advice is to not treat corns and calluses yourself at all — go to a GP or foot specialist.

3. Red flags — when to stop DIY and get clinical or urgent help

Same day, clinic or urgent care: redness spreading around the bump, warmth and tenderness with a red edge, swelling moving up the foot or leg, pus or discharge, or bleeding that does not settle. Pain out of keeping with how it looks, or pain that stops you walking. The NHS corn page lists bleeding, pus or discharge, severe pain affecting normal activities, and no improvement after 3 weeks of self-treatment as reasons to see a GP; spreading tender redness is same-day on our skin card, and pain out of proportion is an emergency.

Go now, emergency services: redness spreading fast over hours, the skin turning dusky or blistering, fever or confusion, or a foot that goes black. Mark the edge of any redness with a pen and write the time beside it — that single habit is what tells the clinician whether it is moving.

Also book regardless: no improvement after 3 weeks of careful self-care, a lesion that keeps coming back, or any doubt about diabetes or circulation.

Tonight, in one line: padding in the shoe, comfortable wide shoes, no cutting, no more acid on damaged skin, warm-water soak and moisturise — and book the appointment: call a GP or primary-care clinic for a slot in the next day or two, and ask specifically for a foot clinic or podiatry referral, since that is the service that treats this.

What "success" looks like in 24 hours — not a cure; warts and corns can take weeks or months: walking to school and back is no worse than today, the skin is not newly broken or weeping, no new redness and no new spots nearby, and tomorrow's plan is a booked appointment rather than another cutting session.

The one thing I need from you: do you have diabetes, known circulation trouble, or a weakened immune system? That single answer changes whether you should do any of the home steps above at all.

I made you a one-page sheet for the appointment — the facts to fill in, what to bring, and the four questions to ask: foot-bump-visit-sheet-e2d64cfe.pdf