Braftovi Hyperkeratosis: My 10 Weeks Remedy

I had severe hyperkeratosis caused by the medication Braftovi. It was really bad and you can read about it here. Or just see the before picture below.

My mom took this photo while on Celebrity Equinox touring Spain. My feet were in agony for much of the trip and my walking was incredibly slow.

It didn't take very long for those calluses to develop. Maybe 4 weeks. There was significant inflammation underneath the callus and back in late June, I believed I'd never be callus-free ever again. But boy, did I underestimate my own treatment plan.

Below is my guide to how I completely transformed my feet within 10 weeks. The photo below is my feet now, smooth and callus free. I can even feel grains of sand when I'm walking barefoot now.

My feet on Monday, July 20th after what is hopefully my last Elim treatment.

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Step 1:

Consider stopping your medication. This is a big part of what stopped the calluses from continuing to form for me. Braftovi alone, without Mektovi, is what caused my calluses to grow so thick. I stopped for a little over 2 months, under doctor supervision, and immediately my feet began feeling better and I was able to walk on them again without pain. Everything else I did, might not even be necessary, but it definitely sped up the process of getting back to normal.

Step 2:

Invest in moisturizing foot creams. My journey to better foot health began with a trip to a podiatrist. She prescribed a moisturizing foot cream that did something to dry out the callus. It wasn't that helpful because there was no way to slough off the dead skin cells, which were also incredibly thick. She also recommended Atrac-Tain Cream. This cream was highly moisturizing and really made my feet feel better even though the callus was still too thick for the cream to penetrate.

Step 3:

Remove the callus with a technicians help. After investing in the drying cream from the podiatrist, a total waste of money if you ask me, the only remedy for the thick dry skin was to see the clinic's foot nurse and she would scalpel them off. This didn't work for me, because medical spa trips were more affordable in cost. I sought help from Renew Medispa, who offer Elim treatments at around $65 per session.

Every time I went, a total of 5 visits, Morgan scraped off as much skin as she could safely remove from my feet. The first few weeks there were giant chunks of dead, yellow skin. The last treatment, there was only skin and cream scraped off together in several ticklish glides of a scalpel like tool.

Step 4:

Buff the skin and file the callus. Every treatment I had at Renew Medispa, saw Morgan filing my soles for about 5-10 minutes per foot. I even invested in a tool to do this myself. The Nuve Silk Pro 3 helped keep the skin growth in between spa visits as low as possible.

I used this tool once daily for at least two weeks in between my 2nd and 3rd spa visit. I simply flicked the switch on and let the electric tool rotate its file on each foot for about one minute. It felt both ticklish and invigorating. I could really feel it activating the skin cells underneath the callus. I continued to use this tool every few days until the calluses were gone.

Early on, doing this ritual made a lot of skin dust, so I would recommend doing it outside or in the bathroom above the toilet or somewhere else that's easy to clean.

Step 5:

Celebrate getting back to normal. I have extremely sensitive soles now. I can feel every little fleck of dust or grain of sand that I step on. I can't believe that I fully transformed my hideous feet in a matter of 10 weeks.

You may want to consider investing in a new pair of sandals or comfortable shoes you can just slip into. I wear slippers all the time now, as barefoot is just a little unbearable and I'm waiting for a healthy amount of callus to regrow so that I can go shoes free on beaches or just outside my home.

My New Foot Care Ritual

Now that my feet look almost normal (I have a long history of bunions and ingrown toenails and stunted feet) I am almost happy for them to be seen. My new foot care ritual reflects this as I intend to wash them daily, use the Atrac-Tain cream weekly, and get a pedicure monthly.

Once you go through what I went through, you can really appreciate the little things, like walking for over an hour or going grocery shopping without pain. I feel so lucky that they went back to normal, that I am healed. I want anyone who's experiencing this awful side-effect from Braftovi to know that relief is possible! Consult your doctor to ask if you can try taking a similar path. It was worth it for me and restored my quality of life.