Once again she outdoes herself, or at least the pilar cyst does.
On this week’s Dr. Pimple Popper, we were introduced to 67-year-old Dennis from Wyandotte, Michigan, who had giant pilar cysts on his head. One was so buoyant that it moved independently of his head in a motion that could be described as a jiggle. Check it out:
Spoiler alert but after the big one was removed, it was still jiggling.
It’s kind of inspiring, really: Take this as a message that even if you feel wholly discarded, even by an expert, at least you can just keep jiggling.
Dr. Pimple Popper referred to Dennis’s big one as a “water balloon cyst” and…
Yep! Checks out. As this cyst was oozing into a bath of its own juices, Dr. Lee called, “Look, it’s like gold! Look at it!” While Dennis’s wife marveled at the liquid gold, Dennis refused Dr. PP’s invitation. His loss was this show’s audience’s…well, not a gain, per se, but it was definitely something to look at.
Dennis’s extractions yielded the return of Dr. PP’s food metaphors. “Old egg salad,” she used to describe one flow of pus, while her assistant identified another as “honey mustard.” Remember this clip at your next barbecue:
Speaking of metaphors, one extremely notable aspect of Dr. Lee’s treatment of Justin, a 25 year old from Tustin, California, with tuberous sclerosis and angiofibroma on his nose, was her description of the smell of burning skin:
“The smell of burning skin is the same smell you get when you blow dry your hair and the hair gets stuck in the back of the blowdryer. So it’s not really something that you want to smell,” she said. Remember this clip during your next cosmetic self-care session.
Finally, there was Natalie, 28, of Atlanta. Natalie had bumps covering her arms and legs.
Natalie informed Dr. PP that she had “prurigo nodularis,” and Dr. PP did not disagree. But! That’s a “nonspecific skin condition” that suggests some sort of irritation, and does not indicate its root cause. Because of the spots’ spacing and their absence from such hard-to-reach spaces such as Natalie’s back, Dr. Lee suggested the condition was brought on by Natalie’s picking and scratching (which only makes the spots itchier, thus thrusting Natalie into a vicious circle). While she did not diagnose Natalie with OCD outright, Dr. Lee did suggest that the picking was a compulsion and that Natalie’s condition was in her mind. Natalie “definitely” didn’t think it was that but was amenable to Dr. Lee’s suggested treatment of covering some spots with a steroid-impregnated tape and wrapping one of Natalie’s forearms in a bandage to see if her condition improved when Natalie’s ability to pick at her spots was impeded.
Natalie’s 10-weeks-later update was narrated with Dr. Lee’s trademark chipper affect…
Hm, this one seems like a draw. A rare miss!