Dr Pimple Popper has dealt with a wide range of skin conditions in her time, including patient Amber, who suffers from a severe form of a painful skin condition, hidradenitis suppurativa, causing infected, oozing cysts.
Although fans of the TLC show watch for their entertainment of the pops and squeezing of cysts and lipomas, Dr Pimple Popper often changes her patients’ lives for the better. Let’s take a look back at patient Amber, her condition, and how Dr Lee worked her magic once again.
Dr Pimple Popper patient Amber suffers from hidradenitis suppurativa
Amber is a 37 year old DJ, who calls her career an “escape” from her condition that tries to “steal your daily life, joy, hope, and who you are as a person.” She then sadly explains how it makes her feel like a “freak.”
She suffers from hidradenitis suppurativa, also known as HS, which is an inflammation of sweat glands. Amber says it affects “90% of her skin that you can’t see,” and causes craters to form. Sometimes the size of dimes, and sometimes as big as baseballs.
The patient says they’re “full of infection” and very painful. When they’re drained, she says they smell of “rotten trash.”
The condition started when she was eight years old, and like many of Dr Sandra Lee‘s patients, she has seen a number of doctors, however, none have been able to help her.
Dr Sandra Lee explains the condition
After an emotional visit to Dr Pimple Popper’s office, she breaks down the condition, explaining that she has fistulas and tracts. She says it’s called honeycombing when if you squeeze the cysts, sometimes they will “trap off onto the other side of the armpit.”
It’s “inflammation and irritation of the hair follicles and sweat glands, and that’s when the body decides ‘there’s a foreign object, let me destroy it.'” That’s when it becomes red, painful, and swollen.
Locally injecting steroids helps calm down the immune system, however, injecting these on a red, painful area hurts, as Dr Pimple Popper says she “hates hurting her patients,” but in this case, it’s necessary to get good results for Amber.
The injections really help the active cysts, but the doctor is going to look for other areas that can help improve her life.
Watch the video of the procedure here. Warning, some viewers may find some scenes uncomfortable to watch.
Dr Pimple Popper breaks down in tears after helping Amber’s oozing cysts
As well as physically, Amber is hurting emotionally, as she emotionally reveals she doesn’t have anyone to talk to about her condition, making Dr Lee break down in tears.
Amber said she felt like she “didn’t have a support system” until she had her child. The TLC doctor has a lot of patients with the same condition and gave Amber numbers of people to contact who can relate, and she can speak to.
Four weeks post-surgery, the patient called the injections a “game changer” changing her life dramatically.
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