Favorite pimple stories (maybe TMI)

[renigademaster]

So a few weeks ago I was washing my butt in the shower and I noticed a lump. I didn't think much of it, as hey, we all get ass pimples. Over the next couple of days it got bigger and bigger and began to hurt, I was afraid I maybe had a hemmroid (at age 18!) and was getting worried. I put a warm washcloth on it to see if that would help and when I took it off, there was a large white head on the thing. I thought I might as well get it over with and squeezed. Holy #$^&! I could hear the pop and hear the blood and whatever the stuff inside it was hit the shower wall! There was quite a huge mess on my hand and all over the shower. There must have been at least a tablespoon full of junk in there! I was so suprized I nearly wet myself, as I thought I had hit an artery or something. I soon realized I had popped the mother of all pimples and it was on my butt. I gave it one more good squeeze and it happened again! After that, it was all gone and I washed myself off, and applied hydrogen peroxide to the bastard to make sure it wouldn't be re-infected.
Why don't you share your favorite pimple story with me?

[OpalCat]

I'm jealous!! I love a good zit.

[drewbert]

Originally posted by OpalCat
I'm jealous!! I love a good zit.

Believe me, I'd be willing to work out an equitable trade, if such a thing were possible... :o

[mouthbreather]

I was standin down on the corner, and I'm tellin you I had some MADFLY bitches bringin me money ALL NIGHT LONG.

Then SupaFly comes up to may, and that jive turkey tries to lay down some shit on me that I aint heard since ....

Oh, PIMPLE stories.


Nevermind. :o

[Daowajan]

Well, this beats my story about the one in my ear and 7th grade French class.

Another un-top-able OP! Damn!

[astro]

I can top it with a sinus infection story.

I usually get a nasty cold that leads to an even worse sinus infection at least once year and it generally takes a month or two to get rid of. I hate being congested and have to blow my nose like crazy. Last year I was at the tail end of one of these episodes and thought I had gotten rid of most of the congestion. I was blowing my nose and felt this weird rattle way up in my sinus cavity when I breathed afterward. It was driving me nuts so I determined to see if there was anything in there and begin blowing so hard I expected my brains to come through my nose, and then suddenly I felt a fullness in my nose and blowed harder and then IT came out.

Now we've all blown runny mucus and snot out of our noses but this was a *different* animal. It was this thick, strong rope of yellow green mucus that hung together like rubber cement. I stared at the Kleenex hardly believing what had just come out of my nose. It had this funky (not super strong but noticable) *infected* smell to it. I prodded it with a paper clip out of amazement and it's tensile strength was amazing. It was like a rubber band.

I was a bit freaked out by this so I renewed by blowing efforts and got one more rope of similar mucus for my efforts from the other (left) sinus cavity. Suddenly my sinuses felt clear for the first time in a very long time. I could feel this huge volume of air moving through them. It only lasted for a few minutes before my normal 24/7 stuffiness returned.

I couldn't believe those things were parked up there! How the hell long was I carrying those nasty things around?

[JonScribe]

Maybe TMI?

Is there a hole for me to get sick in?

[Stinky]

Way back in high school I had a huge zit right on the tip of my nose. And wile I was being harrassed by the prettist girl in class I felt I had taken enough shit for this zit. So I gave it a squeze and pop it shot out and hit her right in the forehead! I was the hero of all the freeks and geeks for weeks afterwards:D


Freeks and Geeks for Weeks
Talk about a good band name.:cool:

[LorieSmurf]

It is rather satisfying when you have One of Those Zits that has the solid stuff in it, and when you squeeze it, it shoots out on to the mirror.

Sorry, I don't have a specific cool pimple story. I wouldn't mind hearing the one about The Ear Zit in the English Class.

Ooh ooh, on second though, I do have a weird pimple story, but it didn't happen to me. I had a friend in Middle School that ended up in the hospital with a brain absess. Apparently it started from a zit in her nose that she messed with. Weird.

[Coldfire]

Well, so much for lunch.

Anyone interested in being an MPSIMS moderator for a day? Ugh.

[Sublight]

I had one many years back that was on the same scale as renegademaster's, except that it was on my face.

I noticed a large, but not freakishly so, pimple had formed on my left temple, so I decided to give it a squeeze...

POW!!!

After recovering from the recoil, I looked up to see a huge spatter of blood and pus splashed across the mirror. Further gentle prodding brought forth a quarter-sized dollop of yellowish goop, but not too much blood. After washing my hands and cleaning the mirror, I could still feel the soft resistance of another pimple sac further beneath the skin. I decided to press my luck. This one also produced a gout of blood that hit the mirror in an audible spray.

Ah, pimples. A pain in the ass, sure, but sometimes they can be downright entertaining.

[rubes]

Isn't it amazing the sounds that the human body can make. Like popping a zit and hearing the fart sound as pus goes shooting everywhere. Ah, the simple pleasures...

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

I am horrified with my own fascination with this topic. My first thought this morning was "Oh good, 12 replies! Maybe there will be some good stories!"

[auntie em]

Originally posted by CrankyAsAnOldMan
I am horrified with my own fascination with this topic. My first thought this morning was "Oh good, 12 replies! Maybe there will be some good stories!"

Ditto. And what's WORSE is that I'm really starting to regret that course of Accutane I endured... ;)

[kellibelli]

Color me a freak too, I love the satisfaction of popping the really big ones, I am actually looking forward to my kid getting acne.

[Coldfire]

You guys are doing this on purpose, aren't you?

[renigademaster]

All these great stories, now I don't feel like so much of a weirdo. :D I told my mum about what happened, and she said she was jelous. She is one of those "you have something on your face, (sqeeze) "OW!" people

[OpalCat]

I love to pop zits. If I could get away with it, I'd chase down strangers and pop their zits. I used to make my boyfriends endure untold hours of me squeezing all the zits on their back.

Ahhh... zits. Love em.

[rubes]

oh OpalCat, I don't know if that's the nicest thing I ever heard or the meanest.

[Judith Prietht]

Like CrankyAsAnOldMan and auntie em, I couldn't be more pleased this morning. Sadly, if you put TMI on it, I'll read it. I had a good pimple, though not of the violently expulsed bodily fluid types, several weeks ago. I shave my nether regions, and was beginning to get the irritating stubble back as I lapsed into shower sloth (on a sidenote, putting in your contacts before getting in the shower really helps with getting a smooth and straight landscaping job). Anyhoo, I was scratching about trying to relieve the stubble itch when I noticed a little lump. I got the mirror out and took a look, and discovered an ingrown hair. Ick. I couldn't possibly leave the hair ingrown--after all, the joys of popping a zit are neck and neck with the joys of extracting a seriously ingrown hair, especially from the armpit. But that's really another thread, isn't it? I dug about with the tweezers and got the hair out--a long sucker, looked like it had been there awhile. But there was still a lump there. I gave it a preliminary squeeze, and out came a massive, larva-like blackhead, of near-epic hardness and girth. "My God," I muttered, and placed it carefully on my nightstand, and showed it to my mother that evening.

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

Originally posted by brondicon
I got the mirror out and took a look, and discovered an ingrown hair. Ick. I couldn't possibly leave the hair ingrown--after all, the joys of popping a zit are neck and neck with the joys of extracting a seriously ingrown hair, especially from the armpit. But that's really another thread, isn't it? I dug about with the tweezers and got the hair out--a long sucker, looked like it had been there awhile. But there was still a lump there. I gave it a preliminary squeeze, and out came a massive, larva-like blackhead, of near-epic hardness and girth. "My God," I muttered, and placed it carefully on my nightstand, and showed it to my mother that evening.

That is a fine piece of literature, and is exactly the sort of thing that keeps me coming back to the SDMB.

[lee]

Well, my husband has some of the best zits. I scout daily. Once he had a cute little white head between his thighs with what looked like a nice ingrown hair. I squeezed and not only did that on explode, there was one directly under it with a tract that let out a cm away that burbled out a huge quantity of bloody pus. A double-decker zit!!

Check out http://www.pilonidal.org/ for great stories involving pus and ingrown hairs.

[Stuffy]

NOt a zit stroy but it was funny.

Like a lot of black men I get ingorwn hairs under my chin from shaving. So periodically my wife will get out her needles and alcohol and go to work on them. Normally we do this in the bedroom because fo teh good light.

On day I was reading a book on the living room couch, while absently scratching a few recent eruptions. So my wife gets the needle. She'd just stuck the needle in the first bump when Stuffy2 walks in the door and yells "Daddy she's fixin to stick you with a needle" This causes up both to laugh, which of course made her jab me harder with the needle.

[Rosebud]

I have no stories of my own at the moment (just average zits with occassional mirror impact for me, I'm afraid, and far fewer of them in the last few years), but I just wanted to say that I love you guys.

*sniff*

[MsRobyn]

Last fall, I developed a rather large, nasty boil on my upper lip. I kept a hot, moist towel on it, and it subsequently popped, spilling a large amount of gunk into the towel. Naturally, this had to happen a few days before I was to meet Airman, so I went to the doctor and got antibiotics. It speaks well of Airman that he didn't stare at my upper lip the entire time.

Robin

[White Lightning]

Originally posted by Stuffy
Like a lot of black men I get ingrown hairs under my chin from shaving.
I have always wondered what that was about, but never wanted to ask. Thank you, thank you.

[ruadh]

Here (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17565) is the thread I started about a particularly nasty one of mine.

[GargoyleWB]

Ingrown-hair story...

I was returning from a camping trip in the passenger seat of my friends car, when a felt a sharp pain on my inner thigh. I wiggled around a bit, thinking I had a thorn in my pantleg or something, but the pain grew to the point that I couldn't stand it any longer.

I shoved my hands down my pants and felt a huge tender lump about the size of a grape. I squeezed hard, yelling "arghhh", and felt something burst with a gurgling pop. I pulled out my hand, covered in gooey strands of gelatinous pus/blood. Not knowing what else to do, I speechlessy showed it to my friends in the car, to their now eternal disgust. Apologizing profusely, I then took off my pants in the car to find my legs smeared with the gunk, and....and....

oh, I just can't go on.

[Judith Prietht]

Originally posted by GargoyleWB
Not knowing what else to do, I speechlessy showed it to my friends in the car, to their now eternal disgust.
:D
I'm crying over here.

[Tansu]

I like to squeeze people's blackheads and pimples. I also like to inspect their pore strips.

My man has a very productive blackhead farm on his nose. I go digging for treasures there every few days. On his torso, he has the Motherlode Pore. It's nearly a millimetre in diameter, and snakes away into his skin like a cavern. Left for a few months, it produces the most eeeeenormous blackhead. Larva-like indeed.

I have a theory that everyone has a Motherlode Pore on their body. You just have to search until you find it.

[Sophie]

Originally posted by lee
Check out http://www.pilonidal.org/ for great stories involving pus and ingrown hairs.

lee, I checked out the site. And I am seriously ill at the moment because of it. If you love zit stories, you'll really enjoy this page.

*gag*
:eek:

[booklover]

Not technically a zit story, but......After I had my wisdom teeth extracted, I developed a persistent swelling in my jaw. I would take a course of antibiotics, it would go away, then it would come back. After about four rounds of antibiotics (I finished the prescription each time), the swelling came back---about the size of a golf ball, and just under my jawline.

So I was examining my mouth in the mirror, in pain, massaging the lump gently and I noticed as I peered into my mouth that there was a white streak where my inner lip met my gum. Huh, looks a lot like a zit, I thought. Wonder what'll happen if I squeeze.

I kind of pushed the lump in toward the white spot while squeezing---this big gush of pus came out, plus this foul-smelling, foul-tasting greeny-yellow mass that had the consistency of skin. After a couple more squeezes, I spat out lots of whitish pus, but that big hard glob was the worst!

My jaw infection cleared up after that :)

[Tattva]

So, my insane desire to pop the zits on my boy's back isn't really insane?

Ooh, we'll have a fun Friday night tonight!

[booklover]

Not technically a zit story, but......After I had my wisdom teeth extracted, I developed a persistent swelling in my jaw. I would take a course of antibiotics, it would go away, then it would come back. After about four rounds of antibiotics (I finished the prescription each time), the swelling came back---about the size of a golf ball, and just under my jawline.

So I was examining my mouth in the mirror, in pain, massaging the lump gently and I noticed as I peered into my mouth that there was a white streak where my inner lip met my gum. Huh, looks a lot like a zit, I thought. Wonder what'll happen if I squeeze.

I kind of pushed the lump in toward the white spot while squeezing---this big gush of pus came out, plus this foul-smelling, foul-tasting greeny-yellow mass that had the consistency of skin. After a couple more squeezes, I spat out lots of whitish pus, but that big hard glob was the worst!

My jaw infection cleared up after that :)

[Billy Rubin]

Yeah, ball zits. Not exactly on the scrotum, but just where the regular skin meets the scrotum skin.

I had one for about a year. It was hard and hurt when I tried to squeeze it, but I couldn't get it to come to a head for a long time.

After a long day of work in a particularly hot factory, I went back to my hotel to take a shower, and while washing felt a tiny "bump" on Herb ( yeah, I had a zit so big I named it)

I finished my shower and sat down on the hotel bed, and gave one great squeeze, and this string of blackhead-like material squirted out- it kept coming and coming and coming, and before long I had a little ropey pile of it on the notebook I had placed under my ass when i sat down. I kept on squeezing until nothing more would come out, even though it felt still partly full.

I placed the pile of zit squeezin's on the nightstand and went to bed. In the morning, I felt it in the shower again and the size of it was considerably changed, in fact it was almost gone.

At the end of another hot sweaty day, I inspected it again, and a good squeeze right after the shower yielded a large (oh, black bean size, I guess,) lump with wadded hairs in it. After that Herb went away never(yet) to return.

I miss Herb (snif)

b.

[OpalCat]

Originally posted by Tansu

I have a theory that everyone has a Motherlode Pore on their body. You just have to search until you find it.

I dated a guy for several years who had one on his back. I loved that thing. I'd let it go for weeks... cultivating it, so I could finally harvest that gloriously huge black waxy plug... mmm....

[OpalCat]

Originally posted by Billy Rubin
I placed the pile of zit squeezin's on the nightstand and went to bed. In the morning,

Was I the only one who expected to read some sort of Tooth Fairy type line next?

[fish in the sky]

I'm literally making this face as I read this whole thread: :eek:

My god, but this is revoltingly fascinating.

(memo to myself: do not read the zit thread while eating spaghetti. urp.)

[Stuffy]

Originally posted by White Lightning

I have always wondered what that was about, but never wanted to ask. Thank you, thank you.


No problem. If you know someone suffering from it, tell them to use witch hazel before shaving and after. It doesn't cease the problem, but it does minimize it.

Yikes, I must have posted that before my coffee took hold. I didn't even notice all those typos.

[Daowajan]

Okay, I'll tell the ear zit and 7th grade French story now.

I had this marble-sized lump in one of the folds of my ear for about a month. Having just started to go through puberty, I didn't know you could get zits in your ear.

One day, at the beginning of French class, I was sitting in the very back as per usual, and began running my finger around in my ear. I pushed on the bump with my thumbnail, and you can probably guess what happened.

The junk went all over my hand, all over the carpet, and I hope to god not all over the kid next to me. There's no way to act cool when you're in class and a giant pimple has just exploded in your hand.

Then it started bleeding. And I do mean bleeding. I tried to stop it with my finger, but it just kept on coming. I ended up walking alllllllllll the way up to the teacher's desk, with my finger in my ear, to get a kleenex. The kleenex ended up being covered with blood spots, and I'm back there trying to wad it up so the other kids don't see it.

[Danalan]

OK, I wasn't going to share this, but you all have inspired me...

Last weekend I was showering in preparation for a tourist visit to Vancouver, BC. I didn't notice, but must have popped/scraped open a pimple or ingrown hair.

I'm finished showering, and lift my foot up to the edge of the tub, when a large, perfectly round, dark red circle appears on the tub beneath me. Fascinated, I gape at it as it slowly loses it's crisp edge, mixes with the film of water remaining on the porcelain, begins to drain way.

Then there's another drop. Aha! I'm bleeding. But from where? While I'm trying to discern, Mrs. danalan remarks :eek:
You're bleeding from your SCROTUM!
(An observation made possible by her position -- on the throne, as it were)

Searching about, and after much wiping with the towel, I find a pinpoint that is just slowly leaking blood, indeed located on the left lower portion of my scrotum. No amount of application of pressure, application of toilet paper, or other ready method of staunching blood flow seemed to work. Meanwhile, the departure time to meet our tour bus is fast approaching.

Employing the ingenuity perhaps inherent in any SDMB'er, I solved the problem with a device I knew of, but had only encountered personally once before: A Panty Liner.

My previous encounter with A Panty Liner was as a cushion in a boot -- not the same as my then adventure of figuring out which side goes where, and where to attach the device on my boxer briefs to acheive the desired result.

So, humiliatingly I ventured forth, only revealing my secret to Mrs. danalan several hours later, upon her inquiry as to my apparent restlessness. Panty Liners must fit better on women, because it was noticably not entirely comfortable on me.

So, four hours later, I'm in a museum restroom stall, removing the feindish device. It was soaked with blood. Soaked through. Apparently, I was having a heavy flow day.

[Baker]

Not a zit but a pop-goes-the-infection story.

Back in August of 1974 I was in basic training in the Army. We got a long series of shots with those air pressure gun thingies. One of mine got infected somehow. At first it was a small red spot. Then it got bigger and started to swell a little. It kept on growing until it was a large, flat, red lump with a tiny white spot in the center. It hurt my arm to raise it.

Not being the most accomplished of recruits I was reluctant to go on sick call and maybe get accused of malingering. So I got soap, water, hydrogen peroxide, a towel and a needle and went into the bathroom. I barely poked that little white spot and suddenly a stream of black, green, and white pus starts drooling down my arm. I hadn't expected this much so I sort of just stared at it for a minute. But the girl at the next sink, took one look and shrieked her head off. I squeezed it until it ran clean red blood, then washed it and doused it in peroxide.

Next day at roll call my drill sergeant Ogg(honestly, her name was Sgt. Carol Ogg) asked to see my arm. The girl next to me had ratted on me. The swelling was down by then and my arm was more or less comfortable, so she just told me to go on sick call if it started up again. It did, a little bit, but this time I doctored it when nobody was around, and it healed up completely that time.

[rubes]

I can't read anymore zit stories......I can't not read any more zit stories

[Broomstick]

OK, here comes Broomstick's Abcess Story (again)

I think it started as a bug bite, but truthfully, with a hide like mine with so many creative ways to break out, rash, or otherwise develop nastiness it could have been anything, really.

Well, a day later, I wake up at 2:30 in the morning and it's like I have a ping-pong ball implanted under the skin of my cheek. Pain. Redness. An ominions black scab on the center of it.

So, of course I go into the bathroom to inspect it. This mother was so painful I couldn't even touch my skin lightly, much less squeeze the sucker. After nervous consultation, the husband get's a needle and a bic lighter for some home surgery because the wife is running around the apartment moaning in pain.

Well, that sucker is DEEP. And painful. And the husband can bring himself to get that needle deep enough to release the steadily building pressure.

A couple hours late I am throwing up from the pain. Mind you, I've broken bones and waited days to go to the doctor, so I'm not exactly a whimp in the pain tolerance department.

Dawn comes, the husband calls the doctor who says bring her in first thing. So there I am in the doc's office, my eyes watering from the pain, and the ping-pong is now a softball. The doc goes "ooooo... that needs to be drained. Today. Let me call the hospital, I know this surgeon...."

This day is really starting to suck, you know?

So, we (husband and I) drive to the hospital. The surgeon looks at me. He pokes at the softball. I somehow resist the urge to cause Great Bodily Harm to the perpetrator of such pain. He goes "ooooo.... I'm not comfortable operating where that is. Let me call this other surgeon..."

The new guy is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. He and the first surgeon start talking about landmarks and nerves and nicking nerves and....

This day is NOT going well.

Eventually, I am ushered down to an OR

[continued on next post]

[medstar]

I wasn't going to add to this post because my contribution just isn't in the same league as my esteemed colleagues. But I had to chime in and agree that some of my best times in front of the mirror consisted of finding the correct position for my fingers and just the right degree of pressure to gently . . . oh who am I kidding . . . explosively hurl that irritant, assorted pus, blood and other bodily solids, fluids and gases onto the mirror with a satisfying splort .

Isn't it odd that most of the females who responded to this thread are fascinated with popping zits, but are reserved about:
farting, burping, vomiting, etc.? I know I am. Carry on.

[Broomstick]

There's this really stupid song-and-dance we women have to go through before getting surgery called the Great Pregnancy Question. An orderly type comes in and the dialogue goes like this:

"Are you pregnant?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes"
"You are abosolutely sure you are not pregnant?"
"Yes"
"When was your last period?"
Tell him/her
"So you're sure you're not pregnant?"
"Absolutely"
"Could you urinate in this cup so we can do a pregnancy test?"

I'm not even going to start into why this whole exchange is stupid. It should be obvious. Anyhow, after the verdict comes back, confirming my basic honesty, I ask what would happen if I HAD been pregnant.

"We would postpone the surgery until after you deliver."

Uh, yeah. Right. I have this THING on the side of my face evolving into a basketball, obviously a virulent infection of some sort, discussion of involvement of vital facial nerves and you honestly think we're going to DELAY the ice-pick treatment for 9 months? I don't think so!!!!....

A student plastic/reconstructive doctor (has MD, still getting additional training, forget exact term) comes in for a little discussion. They don't really want to put me all the way under, although they will if I insist but that's much more involved and--

"Hey, can you numb me up so I don't feel any pain while you're doing it, even if I am awake?"

"Yes."

"OK, I'll do it that way." Mind you, the swelling is so bad by this time that my speech is starting to get messed up, I'm drooling, and my lower jaw has gone from hot-poker-painful to falling-asleep-tingling-numb as the infection continues to compress the nerve.

Well, I am told to dress in one of those stupid little paper gowns, although they allow me keep my pants on (how generous). I am led into an OR which reminds me of a bathroom I once used while drunk in Clermont-Ferrond, France (another long story). Bilious green tile up to eye level, everything scrubbed, drapped, etc. with big ol' lights overhead. A nurse has me lie down and goes about draping me with bilious green sheets which helps because the OR is cold.

Well, the doctor comes in with the student doc and they start doing things as the nurse puts another sheet over me, this time over my face (most of it) "because we don't want anything nasty to splash on you, especially in your eyes". Oh, lovely, I really needed to hear that. But the nice nurse is holding my hand and I'm trying not to whimper. I just know this gonzo LUMP is sticking up out of a sea of sheets.

Well, the docs spray something on to numb the skin, warn me it's going to hurt (always a bad sign when they say "hurt" or "pain" instead of "discomfort"), apologize in advance, then stab me with this 18 foot long harpoon --- well it felt like that but it was just a teeny little jab with a teeny little needle. There's this horrible nasty burning that still doesn't hurt as bad as the Boiling Zit From Hell, then another jab, then another jab, with a dialogue like this (remember, I'm not talking to distinctly at this point):

"Can you feel this?" jab
"OW!"
"Can you feel this?" jab
"OW! You 'ASTARD!"
"Can you feel this?" jab
"'un uh uh 'ITCH!"
"Can you feel this?" jab
"MUDDER'UCKER!"
"Can you feel this?" jab
"Feel wha?"
"OK, she's ready"

contiued on next post

[Broomstick]

Do you know what the sound of scalpel cutting through your flesh sounds like?

Take a piece of paper, s-l-o-w-l-y tear it in half in the loudest manner possible. That's what it sounds like.

I am under many bilious green sheets. A nice nurse is having her hand squeezed by little old me. I am actually starting to feel better because of the local anesthia. The doctor says "don't move".

zhzhzhzhzhzhrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip!

There is actually a sense of pressure being relieved at this. All sort of numb and distant. Well, the docs are fooling around and I hear this:

"Oooo... look... there it is"
"Ooooo"
"Huh"
"Oh, it's gonna a be a squirter for sure!"
(me) "Huh?"
"What did I tell you about comments when the patient's awake? You - no talking, OK?"

Well, they get this water-hose thing going, sort of like what is used to clean filthy trucks at the drive-through car wash, and dither about the proper PSI to "clean it out". (12 psi, in case you were wondering). They warn me there may be some nasty odors coming up.

Then, with an odd sort of reverence, they Pop the Zit from Hell.

It was this indescribable splorching, followed by a call for more towels and this frantic mopping up kind of activity going on. I mean, this thing SPRAYED because they were mopping the sheets over my forehead, my shoulder, down one arm..... I was so distracted by the sound effects I neglected to register any odors.

But I felt so much better!!!!!

Wow.

Anyhow, I'm warned that there will be some tugging things going on. It feels like they are pulling the skin from my jaw to my cheekbone up into the air and pressure-spraying the muscles and stuff underneath. For all I know, that might even be what they did. They're like rooting around in there, popping pus pockets, shooting water in there... this goes on for like 20 minutes. More mopping up.

They pull the sheet off my head. "OK, smile for me"

Uh, yeah, dude, I'm like having a really good day here but I go for a grimmace and - hey! The face works again!

"Good, good, excellent."

At this point they start troweling this white goo into my face (feels like they excavated down to my teeth from the outside in), apply enough gauze to supply a MASH unit for a week, and ask me to sit up slowly. I'm escorted to a nice comfy recliner chair and told to sit quietly while the nice nurse watches to make sure I don't just up and die on them. I'm sure I have a stunned look on my face.

to be continued...

[Coldfire]

There's more...? :eek:

[renigademaster]

We need to start a moderator barf bag fund!

[lee]

Originally posted by Sophie


lee, I checked out the site. And I am seriously ill at the moment because of it. If you love zit stories, you'll really enjoy this page.

*gag*
:eek:

I am so glad that you enjoyed the page too! I am dissappointed that my husband and gf won't grow one of those cysts for me. I do pick their zits. my favorite zit story of all time is the the case of the brain zit (http://www.epidermoidbraintumor.org/fink.htm),but some of these come close

[Spooky]

Jesus Mary Mother of God



:eek:

[Monster104]

I'll toss in my own little tale.

2 years ago, I noticed a small little bump on my chin. At the time, I thought it was a zit in development. I let it sit for a few days, but it didn't seem to get bigger. However, as every month went by, I noticed it did get a little bigger.

As of about a week ago, it was a grayish lump the size of a small pea. I noticed a small whitehead on it, so I decided to go all out on it. For several minutes I squeezed and squeezed. I changed the position of my fingers to try and get more force on it. After about 15 minutes of ever increasing squeezing, it popped.

A little bit of pus oozed out, getting on my fingers. They started slipping, but that just made me squeeze harder. Suddenly, a chunk of hard yellow-brown stuff poked out. I grabbed this and pulled. It came out, followed by something else: The ends of about 20 ingrown hairs. I grabbed those and pulled. And pulled, and pulled some more.

Finally, I got a clump of ingrown hairs out of my chin, all stuck together with hard yellow-brown stuff. They were about an inch long! After getting those hairs out, I gave the lump some more squeezing for a couple more minutes, rewarded with an outpouring of fresh pus and white stuff, as well as 2 year old hardened chunks of stuff. Sometimes it would ooze, sometimes it would pop, and once it exploded all over the mirror. It looked like someone with a really stuffed nose sneezed snot all over the mirror.

That was a fun day.

[astro]

Originally posted by Monster104
I'll toss in my own little tale.

2 years ago, I noticed a small little bump on my chin. At the time, I thought it was a zit in development. I let it sit for a few days, but it didn't seem to get bigger. However, as every month went by, I noticed it did get a little bigger.

As of about a week ago, it was a grayish lump the size of a small pea. I noticed a small whitehead on it, so I decided to go all out on it. For several minutes I squeezed and squeezed. I changed the position of my fingers to try and get more force on it. After about 15 minutes of ever increasing squeezing, it popped.

A little bit of pus oozed out, getting on my fingers. They started slipping, but that just made me squeeze harder. Suddenly, a chunk of hard yellow-brown stuff poked out. I grabbed this and pulled. It came out, followed by something else: The ends of about 20 ingrown hairs. I grabbed those and pulled. And pulled, and pulled some more.

Finally, I got a clump of ingrown hairs out of my chin, all stuck together with hard yellow-brown stuff. They were about an inch long! After getting those hairs out, I gave the lump some more squeezing for a couple more minutes, rewarded with an outpouring of fresh pus and white stuff, as well as 2 year old hardened chunks of stuff. Sometimes it would ooze, sometimes it would pop, and once it exploded all over the mirror. It looked like someone with a really stuffed nose sneezed snot all over the mirror.

That was a fun day.


I retire from the field. You win!!

[KarlGrenze]

I want to hear the end of Broomstick's story!

[Deadly Nightlight]

Originally posted by lee


I am so glad that you enjoyed the page too! I am dissappointed that my husband and gf won't grow one of those cysts for me. I do pick their zits. my favorite zit story of all time is the the case of the brain zit (http://www.epidermoidbraintumor.org/fink.htm),but some of these come close

OMG OMG OMG OMG
WHY DID I LOOK AT THAT
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

[Broomstick]

When we left our heroine she was huddled in a Recovery Lazy-Boy, half her face swathed in white gauze...

The doc pulled my husband to the side, telling him about how long the bandage needs to stay on, pain medication and antibiotics to pick up, and after care stuff. After an hour or two I was bundled into car and driven home and tucked into bed. On my way out of the hospital I had been presented with a small stack of "surgical drapes" and advised to lay them on the pillow prior to retiring.

Why? Well, let me just say your face is not supposed to go sploooorsh when you roll over, but if it does, you want something between your oozy self and your favorite, pus-absorbant bed linens.

That went on for three or four days. It was really really disgusting.

Anyhow, the bandage stayed on for two days. By the time the anesthetic wore off my husband had returned from the drug store with My Friend Codeine and an assortment of drinkables (must replace lost fluids, of course). I was under strict orders to do nothing but sleep, drink, and eat for at least four days.

Day two it was time to change the bandage. In accordance with doctor's instructions, the husband had doped me up good about an hour before, so I'm sitting in the bathroom muttering "You're my friend... you're my friend... I love everybody... " He's peeling off the icky, pussy gauze and somehow the brief look of utter shock on his face penetrated my Barney-like haze of bliss.

"Oh, no! It's really horrible isn't it? I'm gonna be all scarred up and- and- BWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"No, honey, it's just really ooky it's not that bad it's just infected it'll be OK --"

He's really good at damage control. Anyhow, he got me back into the Barney-bliss state and was wiping at the surface goo. Then we had to move to the Debris Removal Stage. That's using water under pressure. He's got me in the shower (easier secondary clean-up), I'm back to "You're my friend...sunshine and butterflies... puppies and kittens...." You could drop a safe on my foot and I'd probably giggle.

>SQUIRT!<

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!

"Honey, let go of the ceiling tiles and come back down here... we have to finish this"

While in retrospect, the next 15 minutes of chasing me around the shower stall with a water-squirter leaving trails of oozy, pussy, bloody nastiness splattered around the bathroom tile has a certain morbid humor, at the time it wasn't very funny.

We had to do this three times a day for several months. The husband must love me. He held me down three times a day, caused me intense pain, listened to me whine, whimper, beg, plead, and shriek, washed the most indescribably icky shit out of my face, retroweled this smelly medicinal paste into the wound, rebandaged me, and smoothed down my feathers telling me that I would get better and that I'd always be a beautiful person. Me, I was ready to kill him, except I felt too sick and icky to be that ambitious.

Meanwhile, in between treatments, I was producing so much pus that the bandages weren't soaking it all up. The pus would ooze out and run down my neck. The first week we used a LOT of gauze, and it all smelled AWFUL, like rotting meat (which, in a way, it was sort of).

After four days, I returned to work. Why, I don't know - I probably could have milked this further. I must have looked like hell because I didn't even get any dumb questions. The problem was, the first two weeks back to work once or twice a day the damn pus would overflow the bandages. I'd feel a trickle starting down my jaw or neck and leap up, running like mad for the bathroom.

I usually tried to swap gauze bits when no one else was in the room because this really was too gross, but one time someone walked in on me.

Now, you have to know what this wound looked like. It was 1 and 1/2 inches long, a half an inch wide, and 3/8 inch deep (my husband the engineer had to measure it, you know?). When it was cleaned out you could see pus reforming and oozing up from the bottom even as you looked. (This was the initial appearance - it did get better as time went by)

Miss Walk-In expressed disgust that I would be wiping the worst of the Volcanic Pus off my face and replacing the bandage in the >gasp!< ladies' room and expressed an opinion that I should not be doing such things.

"LOOK, BITCH, I DID NOT GO OUT AND GET THIS CRATER ON MY FACE FOR FUN. IT'S UGLY AND PAINFUL AND I CAME IN HERE SO I CAN TAKE CARE OF IT IN PRIVATE WITHOUT GROSSING EVERYONE OUT SO JUST DON'T F***** LOOK, ALRIGHT? IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE THAT NEXT TIME I'M CHANGING THE BANDAGE SITTING ACROSS THE TABLE FROM YOU AT LUNCH - GOT THAT?"

Did I ever mention I get cranky when I'm hurt and/or wounded?

[to be continued]

[Broomstick]

You guys totally grossed out yet, or does anyone want the final installment?:)

[Billdo]

Oh my god, Broomstick, there's more. You sure know how to do a cliff-hanger. Spreading it over two pages was a master touch.

I read each installment, thinking that this would be the end for our hero, and then you'd leave a teaser that more was coming in the saga of the incredible Super-Zit.

You damn well better finsh the story. If you don't, I will hunt you down and pop an oozing whitehead all over you.

[Eggles]

broomstick - I hope by the time we get the final instalment of this, you will have told us exactly what 'it' was - AND what caused it and all the other absolutely necessary gory details.

[KarlGrenze]

I want to know the end, Broomstick!!

[(your name here)]

oh my, we are all so sick.


more broomstick, more!

[astro]

Originally posted by (your name here)
oh my, we are all so sick.


more broomstick, more!

Broomstick what was the origin of this? An insect bite? Why didn't they just irrigate and remove the source of the infection instead of letting you suffer with this oozing wound.

[KarlGrenze]

It wouldn't be so interesting...

[Broomstick]

the saga continues....

But first, to answer Astro's questions - we were never able to determine what, exactly, this started as. They did remove the "source of infection", or at least a small chunk of jaw muscle (remember, when I say "crater" I'm not kidding - it really was over an inch long, half an inch wide, and 3/8 inch deep). Mainly because that small chunck of tissue had actually died (that's what the black scab actually was - dead tissue.) This had all blown up literally overnight and the doctors were more interested in draining and controlling the infection than back-tracking to it's original source. I was told at the time that there would be a significant scar, but that a second operation could be done later, after full healing (6-12 months) to make that scar less obvious.

The lab results said it was a strain of staphlococcus aurens resistant to several antibiotics, which is a very virulent bacteria that can be life-threatening and does, in fact, kill people every year. I was on 1,500 mg of Augmentin a day for a month. Amazingly enough, I did not puke or have diarrhea, both very common side effects of that antiobiotic. The docs said that if I had waited 12 more hours (maybe even less) they would have had to admit to the hospital and pump antibiotics in by IV (hence my doubt they would have delayed surgery even if I had turned up pregnant). In addition to that, we were shoveling silvadine cream into the wound - I believe they use that on burn patients and others with open wounds. Aside from retarding bacterial growth, it also stopped scab formation. That kind of wound has to heal from the bottom up - if skin forms over the infection and seals it in you just get another abcess and go through this all over again. That was what some of this thrice-daily cleaning was all about, too - preventing scab formation. That's why the wound wasn't stitched.

Oh yes, cleaning - this was not your garden variety pus. I called it the "condiment effect". You know when you put too much ketchup and mustard on something, how it can ooze out of the bun? That was my face - looked like mustard and mayonaise, with some ketchup and the occassional chunk of green relish. The first week was the worst, but it continued to ooze for weeks as it drained and healed.

Well, at first I was going back to the surgeon every week for follow-up care (needless to say, if things had stopped getting better they would have had my butt in a hospital bed in no time), then every other week. Twice he had to do debridement. You see, there was still so much nastiness in that wound that a couple of small spots of tissue had died and those had to be removed since rotting flesh in a wound is just not good. So he took a scalpel and scraped at this dead spot in a raw, open wound until all the dead tissue was gone and the spot was oozing fresh blood. Gross, n'est-ce pas? Didn't feel too good, either. Those were just the stubborn dead chunks. While doing the water-squirting thing at home we did occassionaly dislodge small shreds of tissue. Some were green relish chunks and some looked like a fragment of tomato skin. Icky.

Anyhow, on one of these visits to the doctor, about 5 weeks along, he asked if I minded having a new medical student do a medical history with me. I said sure, why not? It's just questions, right?

Now, remember, I'm feeling better. I've been going to work. I'm dressed in a dress (for once), hose, my hair done up a comb and some fancy hairsticks, nice shoes, etc. This young guy comes in, the medical student, and he sees this nice, elegant looking professional woman who is probably old enough to be his mother sitting there. He's nervous, because he's new at all this, but very earnestly he starts in on the questions - age, onset of problem, etc., etc.

Then he says "Have you looked at the wound?"

"Yes, I have."

"How would you describe it?"

"Well, it looks like raw meat."

He sort of blinks at this and mentions that's an unusual way to describe something like that. I say yes, I'd have to agree, but I'm a very honest and direct person. And, anyhow, it looks a heck of a lot better than it did just after surgery.

"Oh. And how would you describe how it looked just after surgery?"

"Like putrefying raw meat" in a soft voice with a smile, like we were discussing the weather.

That's when the medical student jumped up, knocking his chair over, and ran from the room.

The doctor came in, asked me what I had done to the poor medical student, who was apparently urpsing his guts up in the next exam room. I told him I had answered the young man's questions - and which question and what answer.

The surgeon sort of laughed grimly at that and said "Well, yes, it did look that way, but most people don't say it that bluntly. You know, he's never actually seen an infection like that. I better go see how he's doing, he's going to have to learn to deal with this sort of thing." So he went and took care of the medical student before coming back to take care of me.

[yes, there's more - but not much more]

[KarlGrenze]

More! More!

[Mona Lisa Simpson]

As an occasional lurker and infrequent poster I am thrilled, delighted and horrified that other people are as fascinated by pimples, abcesses, etc as I am.

I have a few stories, (being a nurse) but none are nearly as weird and wonderful as Broomstick's. Let me know if anyone wants them.

[Lsura]

Juliefoolie, of course we want them.

It took me a while to decide to read this thread. And I can't believe I've been as fascinated by it. But heck, bring some more on.

[Mona Lisa Simpson]

The categories are

Skin Pits
Stupid Doctor Tricks (actually this could be a whole new thread!)
Sebaceous Cysts
Emerging Foreign Bodies
Wound Dehiscence
Just Plain Weird

Oh and my apologies in advance to those who be squemish.

(Old joke from student days...
Q..Whats the difference between a bunch of nursing students and a toxic waste dump?
A...You can sit and eat your lunch next to a toxic waste dump)
(Business students found this hilarious!)

[screech-owl]

Originally posted by Juliefoolie
...Stupid Doctor Tricks (actually this could be a whole new thread!)...

Oooh, oooh, oooh, this one!!!

Start a new thread! Wheeeee!

[Lucki Chaarms]

Originally posted by Deadly Nightlight


OMG OMG OMG OMG
WHY DID I LOOK AT THAT
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG




AAAAHHHHH!!!!! OH. MY. GOD!!!

I was eating a deviled egg when I opened that page and it was so disgusting I spit the egg out and that reminded me of some massive pimple-cyst and that made me end up on my bedroom floor retching in to a trashcan oh my god why oh dear god nooooo!!!!

I love you guys. :)

LC

[Mona Lisa Simpson]

Great. Now I have to go to work, and Im thinking about all the wonderful skin anomalies I can prod and poke at. Except Im sure Mrs. B's daughter would not be impressed if I "expressed the contents" of her mom's sebaceous cyst right before she picked her up for Easter dinner.

(No they didnt teach that in nursing school, its something you just kind of *know*)

[medstar]

Ooh, I can contribute to this thread!!

A few years ago, I seemed to have a rash of behind-the-ear pimples that would come and go. I guess I have a lot of dandruff and other thingies that would block progress so to speak. Anyhoo, I hadn't felt behind my ear for a few months, so one day at work, I absentmindedly scratched behind my ear and I felt (and heard) a wet splorch behind my ear. I pressed ever so gently and this time the sound was louder and I felt ickiness dripping down my neck. It stopped after a few seconds and I wiped it off with a baby wipe from a pack I keep in my desk. Just then, something came up work-related so I had to stop and pay attention. Please bear in mind that I have thick hair and it was about shoulder length at the time. This will be important.

I held off from examining my "ear volcano" at work (even though it occupied my every thought), because I knew I could manipulate it at will when I got home. The minute my door closed behind me, I kicked off my shoes and got down to business. I found that I couldn't get to my ear because the pus and other contents had dried in my hair. I spent about 20 anxious minutes scraping and combing crud out of the area before I could get down to some serious squeezing.

Let this be a lesson to all of you!! Remember to wash behind your ears so that you are never faced with a potentially embarrassing situation like this again!! Then again, if you like this sort of thing, just let the pile grow undisturbed and you might be rewarded with your very own "EAR VOLCANO" too!!!

Seriously, I'm glad that none of my co-workers noticed my disgusting predicament. I'm not so far gone that I wanted anyone to have concrete proof of how gross I am.

[Muffin]

Can one nominate a thread for threadspotting prior to the star poster submitting her final post?

{And the crowd chants: Broom-stick! Broom-stick! Broom-stick!}

[Broomstick]

Well, as if having the Zit From Hell, emergency surgery, thrice-daily wound care, AND going to work every day wasn't enough...

Halfway through the healing period our lease was up on our apartment. The landlord lady announced our rent would double. We basically said something printable only in the BBQ Pit. She said we had no choice - there were only two weeks left on the lease and "you won't be moving with your wife so sick and all". And even if we did find another place, she said she'd give us a bad reference. So we had no choice, we would have to sign. Because, as she said, "If you can afford to fly airplanes you've been holding out on us and should have been paying more rent all along" (Yes, some people actually think that way - that they're somehow entitled to YOUR money)

We told her where to stuff it. But - ha! ha! - I'm not supposed to be exposed to dust or dirt until I'm fully healed, we've got an apartment full of junk, two weeks to move, and (after doctor bills) not enough money to pay someone else to do the job.

This is why friends are so important.

Yes, our friends did pitch in. Even so, my husband would plaster multiple layers of gauze over my face. After a day of sorting, packing, tossing, and loading a friend's pick up (this is before we bought a truck of our own) I'd be covered in dirt smudges. Then we'd spend 20 minutes scrubbing before peeling off the bandages, cleaning the nasty goo out of my face, reapplying medicines, rebandaging, and going back to working.

I was supposed to be resting. Right. I was going on 5 hours of sleep a night. I'd wake up, get my face scoured, go to work, come home, get my face scoured, work on moving, get my face scoured, drop off to sleep, and do it again.

But we did it - moved us from Rogers Park, Chicago to northwest Indiana in two weeks. The first weekend in the new place I think I slept 14 hours on both days. The only good thing was the wound wasn't oozing Miracle Whip any more but much more normal blood and clear fluids.

The other problem, of course, was that in the course of moving the husband and I both acquired many cuts and scrapes, particularly on our hands. This made cleaning the wound even harder, because we had to treat all the nasty crap coming out of me as infectious. We used a lot of latex gloves.

One of our new next door neighbors was a young tough who though he was hot stuff and...ah... did not have a high opinion of women, viewing them largely as whores and housewives. Well, the new landlord filled his head with a story about how the husband and I had fled Chicago due to legal problems involving the fate of a young tough who had attempted to rape me at knifepoint (hence, the heavy bandages on my face) and uh... what happened to the young man? Well, he was in the graveyard. The young tough next door didn't believe a word of it.

Until the bandages came off.

Because, you see, a scalpel is a knife, and I clearly had a slash across my face....

Funny, that young jerk next door was real polite to me after that.

How bad was the scar? Well...

The last time I went to the surgeon the doc-in-training who had assisted at the surgery was there, too. The surgeon had me sit so when the other doc came in he saw my good side. Said "remember her?" Oh, yeah, he did. Then the surgeon had me turn my head, and the other guy went "wow!". Because the wound had healed not into some gargantuan crater but a thin red line. The surgeon said the scars don't usually look that good even after he "revises them".

It was bright red for about six months, then faded. Nowadays, a lot of people miss it unless the light hits my jawline just right.

Well, after all that fuss and bluster I don't even have an interesting scar! How did that happen?

Couple of factors here -

1) I heal well. I always have. I have exactly two scars on my body. One is from a smallpox vaccination. The other... well, look what I had to go through to get it! All the other gashes, scrapes, frostbite, and road rash healed up without a trace.

2) Excellent wound care. Whether I wanted it or not. The husband was most fanatical about this (bless him!). Mind you, I go to the point I'd start crying before he used the water squirter. That hurt. I can't help myself, I whine, whimper, and snivel when I'm in pain.

3) Good diet. Doc also suggested multivitamin on top of good diet (yes, he did inquire about my eating habits), to help the healing body.

4) The initial surgery was done by a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. These guys know how to slice the skin so scarring is minimized - when they can they follow the "grain" of the skin, cut so normal movements are less likely to pull on the wound, and so forth. As I age, this thin scar will probably fold into one or another wrinkle. (oh joy!)

Well, that's the story of the Abcess from the Abyss, hope you enjoyed hearing it more than I enjoyed experiencing it.

[auRa]

*jumps up from seat applauding with wild abandon*

My god, Broomstick, you should receive some sort of award for that.. Your story has kept me coming back to this page over and over again these past few days (and left me squeamish every time).

I showed this thread to a friend, who had to go lie down for a while. Psh. Some people have no tolerance for things nasty. :)

[Judith Prietht]

I can't believe it's finally over.:(
Broomstick, I lie prostrate at your feet.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I finally found Airman's classic The Back of My Ear Just Exploded (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=73451) thread.

[booklover]

My God Almighty. Broomstick, you should submit your case history to a medical journal.

[medstar]

Broomstick, I humbly step aside and hail your absolute right to reign over us with your saga. It will be told and re-told millennia from now, when the next ice age hits, as a tribute to bravery, perseverance and good wound care.

P.S. I hope you cooked your husband his favorite dinner as a reward. I once had to assist a member of my immediate family in this way, and while I did what had to be done, there's not enough therapy in the world to eliminate my shuddering when I recall the circumstances.

[Eggles]

Thank you Broomstick for a fabulous story, told simply superbly (did you initally plan to tell it in instalments or did that just happen?)

I am pleased to hear your wound left you with minimal scarring. You sound not only blessed with good genes (as evidenced by lack of other scars) but also a patient and scrupulous 'nurse' who must love you very very much. Plus all the other positives you mentioned.

I don't have any stories of even vaguely comparable ickery, although I did once have a large sebaceous cyst removed from behind my ear (which has now come back - the cyst, not my ear!). I hesitate to go through the procedure again to have it removed - not so much for the discomfort etc, but the sound of the scalpel scraping away at the contents (at least I think that was what the noise was) - I had just a local anaesthetic and the procedure was done in the doctor's rooms. But there is this large lump under the skin, which I can just catch sight of in the mirror and I feel most self-conscious about it when I have my hair cut. In fact it was my hairdresser back then who first commented on it and suggested I get it seen to. But I'm chicken.

[istara]

God Broomstick that was so interesting, thank goodness you had such great support from your husband and you recovered so well. I guessed it might be Golden Staph even before you got to that part. I once knew a guy who had it on his back (like a few small boils, nothing on your experience).

Incidentally a guy in Australia was supposed to have come up with the world's first cure for golden staph last year, his remedy used a lot of eucalypt and tea tree oils:

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/s293242.htm
http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/05/09/FFXVPWNJGMC.html

[GuanoLad]

Broomstick's story would not be out of place in Reader's Digest.

Except, of course, it would be entirely out of place in Reader's Digest...

[brainychick]

Originally posted by Danalan
OK, I wasn't going to share this, but you all have inspired me...

Last weekend I was showering in preparation for a tourist visit to Vancouver, BC. I didn't notice, but must have popped/scraped open a pimple or ingrown hair.

I'm finished showering, and lift my foot up to the edge of the tub, when a large, perfectly round, dark red circle appears on the tub beneath me. Fascinated, I gape at it as it slowly loses it's crisp edge, mixes with the film of water remaining on the porcelain, begins to drain way.

Then there's another drop. Aha! I'm bleeding. But from where? While I'm trying to discern, Mrs. danalan remarks :eek:
You're bleeding from your SCROTUM!
(An observation made possible by her position -- on the throne, as it were)

Searching about, and after much wiping with the towel, I find a pinpoint that is just slowly leaking blood, indeed located on the left lower portion of my scrotum. No amount of application of pressure, application of toilet paper, or other ready method of staunching blood flow seemed to work. Meanwhile, the departure time to meet our tour bus is fast approaching.

Employing the ingenuity perhaps inherent in any SDMB'er, I solved the problem with a device I knew of, but had only encountered personally once before: A Panty Liner.

My previous encounter with A Panty Liner was as a cushion in a boot -- not the same as my then adventure of figuring out which side goes where, and where to attach the device on my boxer briefs to acheive the desired result.

So, humiliatingly I ventured forth, only revealing my secret to Mrs. danalan several hours later, upon her inquiry as to my apparent restlessness. Panty Liners must fit better on women, because it was noticably not entirely comfortable on me.

So, four hours later, I'm in a museum restroom stall, removing the feindish device. It was soaked with blood. Soaked through. Apparently, I was having a heavy flow day.


Hahahahahahahaheeheeheeheeheeheeheheheheeheheheheheh!!!!!!:D

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

The only way to improve on Broomstick's fine tale would be to include pictures. Maybe even video.

[brainychick]

Loved Broomstick's saga -- full of pathos, conflict, laughter and a happy ending. Sounds like the makings of an independent film.

[Judith Prietht]

Or, what if we could set up like a live feed for squeezings and excisings and lancings? We could cheer each other on, offer suggestions, tips, and encouragement.

[Sophie]

I try to keep it clean in MPSIMS, but I am a goddamned idiot for opening this thread, and an even bigger goddamned idiot for continuing to read this thread, and oh my good lord up in heaven, I thought having Bell's palsy last year was bad, but now, god, now I know the truth, that there are some fates that are even worse than that...

I cannot look again. I will not.

And I'm going to meet a friend for lunch in a bit? Riiiiight.

(BTW, you guys rock. I love a good zit story, usually, but I had *no idea* it was gonna grow to such epic proportions. Keep up the good work. But if I read any more I'm going to barf, for real.)

[TwistofFate]

Originally posted by brondicon
Or, what if we could set up like a live feed for squeezings and excisings and lancings? We could cheer each other on, offer suggestions, tips, and encouragement.


thats just twisted. really, really twisted.
Some people should not be allowed out ;)


My worst one was when I got a tiny spot on my arm near my armpit become infected.

It grew to the sixe of a tennis ball, and I was unable to move my arm. the doctor gave me some cream to bring the infection to a head, so to speak. It took 3 days of applying the cream 3 times a day to get it to form.

when it did, I went to the bathroom to clean it. it started to leak, so I washed away the pus as it came out.

After about 15 minutes, it stopped.

But It was still the same size.

I squeezed ever so gently.

I swear, it was like my arm was a freaking green playdough factory.

After the playdough, came a flood of about half a cupful of pus.

I cleaned my arm up and have been paranoid of even the smallest spot ever since.

[booklover]

Originally posted by TwistofFate


My worst one was when I got a tiny spot on my arm near my armpit become infected.
I cleaned my arm up and have been paranoid of even the smallest spot ever since.

This is frightening...you know, the bubonic plague normally starts with a swelling under the arm (or inner thigh---it's a lymphatic infection) and the plague has been known to occur in modern times (primarily due to contact with an infected animal).

[Caricci]

This is the happiest day of my life! I love this thread so much.

I really can't top most of these stories - especially the Broomstick saga- but I will say that my husband gets these cool things on his left shoulder. They don't look like zits really, in that there is no head or anything like that to speak of. If not for my ability to think outside the box, they would never have been expressed. But, hey, I had to try and let me tell you, even though the crap that comes out of these bad boys has the initials P.U., it's been worth it. Last time I really let it go and the force of the pus was so great it shot into my hair. I needed two tissues to mop up! It was so cool! I now have gloves for this important work.

Also, he has two "motherlode pores" on his chest that he insisted were moles for the longest time. Now I've seen moles and these ain't them! I got two very huge black plugs out of those pores and they stayed clean for an entire year.

[booklover]

On a related note, anyone else use those "nose strip" thingies? I find that the Pond's brand is far more effective than the Bioré brand. They can be totally gross....all those little pus stalagtites sticking up.

I had a big zit one time and put a strip over it, even though you're not supposed to use them on broken skin....when I ripped it away, there was this thick, half-inch high column stuck to the strip.

The fun part of the nose strips is that they kinda partially extract zits sometime....thereby opening up new popping potential you didn't even know was there in the first place.

[KarlGrenze]

Nose strips don't seem to work for me...I have my nose full of blackheads, once put a strip, waited the time, took it off...and nothing!! :( Blackheads are the only things I get, seldom have zits and other explodable things.

[Caricci]

Biore and other nose strips are a little bit of heaven and so much more for me. If you aren't having success, leave them on longer! Perhaps it's a bit humid that day or whatever. I find that if it really smooth it down with a towel after application, it helps. My husband won't look at my used Biore despite the surgery I perform on his chest and shoulder.

[TwistofFate]

Originally posted by booklover


This is frightening...you know, the bubonic plague normally starts with a swelling under the arm (or inner thigh---it's a lymphatic infection) and the plague has been known to occur in modern times (primarily due to contact with an infected animal).

it was an infected spot, on my arm, not my armpit. not the bubonic plague.
thanks for feeding my hypochondria even more though ;)

[OpalCat]

Those nose strips seem to yank all the tiny hairs out but not much else... tips, anyone?

[Caricci]

Originally posted by OpalCat
Those nose strips seem to yank all the tiny hairs out but not much else... tips, anyone?

My tip is those aren't tiny hairs, that's crap from your pores.

[Wonko The Sane]

Originally posted by OpalCat
Those nose strips seem to yank all the tiny hairs out but not much else... tips, anyone?

Wash your face with hot water, soap, and a washcloth, then while your nose is still soaking wet (like after a shower) put on the strip, and press down hard. Then let it dry for a while till it's stiff. Then pull it off slowly- you seem to get more porecrud out that way. I think the pressing down hard seems to make a big difference too. Look at the strip under a bright light at an angle, it makes the porecrud more visible.

Of course, I've heard this from -other- people. My skin is perfect.

[Velma]

I am in awe. I...am...in...awe.

Astros: Do not underestimate the ability of your nose and sinuses to harbor large objects. I recently had surgery after years of chronic sinus infections...my doctor peered up my nose after numbing it with delightful anesthetic and pronounced me ripe with grape-sized polyps. I had grape sized masses on each side (the big grapes, too, not the little underdeveloped ones). And I never knew they were there! How could I breathe? This actually answers the question of how little kids can lose things up there.

After removing them the Dr. presented these wonders to my S.O. who did not take them home but did excitedly describe them to me after I came to. Glistening...firm yet malleable...sigh.

On the subject of blackheads, I find a fertile pasture is behind the ear, as many have discovered. Not on me...but on my S.O. who happens to have deep creases behind his ears just made to grow long. long strings of white pus. Even better, the creases hide them so he can let them go for a long time without anyone else seeing them. Then, when the time comes, I insist on extracting them and seeing how much I can get in one piece. It's as much fun as peeling a good sunburn, but that's another story. Then I show him what his body hath brought forth and we gaze in wonderment together.

::sung:: A-men

[booklover]

Originally posted by Velma
On the subject of blackheads, I find a fertile pasture is behind the ear, as many have discovered. Not on me...but on my S.O. who happens to have deep creases behind his ears just made to grow long. long strings of white pus. Even better, the creases hide them so he can let them go for a long time without anyone else seeing them. Then, when the time comes, I insist on extracting them and seeing how much I can get in one piece. It's as much fun as peeling a good sunburn, but that's another story. Then I show him what his body hath brought forth and we gaze in wonderment together.

::sung:: A-men [/B]

Ahh...true love!!

[medstar]

Broomstick, you mentioned that you had a thin red scar from your ordeal. I don't know how noticeable it is, but if it bothers you, you might want to consider applying emu oil on it. This oil penetrates the skin deeply and has taken care of serious cases of dandruff, dry skin and some raised scars. You can get about one ounce of emu oil for about $10.00 at health food stores. Let us know if you grow any more honkers. Your storytelling is impeccable; it ranks on a par with Scylla's sagas, in my opinion.

[Dragonblink]

*snif* ... I feel right at home here now. I used to think I was weird for enjoying a good zit-poppin, but no longer!

I ain't got nothin' that could possibly compare with Broomstick's Mighty Morphin Pimple of Oozing Death, but I just wanted to mention that I can top the sinus infection story waaaay at the beginning of this thread. When I was younger I too had long strings of goo coming out of my nose, not unlike the sticky thingummies you can get from vending machines. I was pulling 'em out of my nose constantly. For a week and a half. Man did that suck! I went through more Kleenex ...

[Nacho4Sara]

This thread has made me happier than you can imagine. I love zits.

My personal gross-out story involves the area where my right nostril meets my face. There's a slightly deep crevice there that I never really looked at. Well, I was on some sort of skin medication (I can't remember the name, I was on so many) that dried my skin out quite badly. One night I was going through my picking/popping routine when I came across the aforementioned crevice, positively respendent with an array of blackheads, whiteheads, and headless bumps. I let out a Valkyriesque yelp of glee and got to work. Most of the blackheads weren't that exciting, but I popped a few mini-whiteheads and these tiny little hard yellow balls came out. I carefully examined them and set them aside before attempting to take down the largest whitehead, the one most closely resembling a really good zit.

Well, it took a looong time but I finally positioned my fingers correctly and shot a hard little wad of gunk onto the mirror. It was a slightly maleable ball, about three millimeters in size, and quite fun to play with. But when I went back to excavate some more, I realized that by popping this old nasty zit, I had somehow disrupted the foundation of my nose crack. The whole area was gaping wide open and bleeding. It was red and raw looking, and I could see some more pimples sacs hiding inside the wound. I had to mess with them, so I washed my hands and stuck my fingers in the would to try and get to them. It was pretty pointless, so I just put some Neosporin on it and left it alone. When people asked, I told them I just had really dry skin.

Maybe three or four days later I go to the dermatologist for my monthly visit. He could not believe what I had done to my face. He poked at it, stared at it (as if in reverence) and finally prescribed me some antibacterial cream. It didn't really look so bad when you looked at me, but when I pushed my right nostril to the left and exposed my crack it was horrible, very deep and nasty. The doc told me not to play with it or push the nostril aside unless I was applying the cream, but I really couldn't help staring at it. I managed to not pick it anymore, but boy did I kill some time just peering at that crack in the mirror.

I had that bloody crevice on my face for a week or so before it healed. It was pretty nasty, though it's got nothing on Broomstick's Giant Face Zit From Hell.

[Baker]

If Broomstick is considered the winner in the zit story contest going on, maybe we can have a "first runner up" or an "honorable mention" category. Although she is a latecomer to the thread I would nominate Nacho4Sara for one of those awards, on the strength of her telling us how she "played around" with a 3 millimeter zit that had some malleability.

[Broomstick]

Eggles, I knew I couldn't tell the whole saga in one go - there are limits to the amount of text you can post at one time on these boards. Also, there's this thing called "my life" that keeps interfering with my hobbies. And then my hobbies interfere with my posting.

Medstar, thanks for the emu oil tip, but the redness has faded and the scar color matches the rest of my face. I wouldn't descibe it as "raised". I think I got off real lucky with that.

I've had other boils, pimples, zits, and eruptions, but nothing quite like that ever again!

By the way - since I finished the story I have been afflicted with some sort of nasty upper respiratory thing, so I am snorting out and coughing up Yellow Nasty while re-reading this entire thread. Really adds to the atmosphere. But it's clearing up now, and not worth mentioning compared to the rubber cement sinus crud or underarm play-dough factories.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Originally posted by Juliefoolie
Great. Now I have to go to work, and Im thinking about all the wonderful skin anomalies I can prod and poke at. Except Im sure Mrs. B's daughter would not be impressed if I "expressed the contents" of her mom's sebaceous cyst right before she picked her up for Easter dinner.Odd, I didn't notice this post before. I have recurring sebaceous cysts in my armpits, one per pit. A day or so after popping the one in my right pit (not much squeezing involved, I had to do little more than just touch it!), the one in the left returned. I popped that one too, it's still there but is much smaller now. I've been meaning to try those nose strips to clear the gunk out of my nose pores.

Opal, you'd be welcome to come pop any zit you find on me if UDD doesn't mind. :)

[Kabbal]

Originally posted by OpalCat


Was I the only one who expected to read some sort of Tooth Fairy type line next?


Actually, I was expecting to hear that he woke up to find the zit squeezin's gone, the window broken, and his wallet missing. :D

[booklover]

Reading one of the other threads on this topic, I noticed that another poster has one of the same problems I have---horrible, hard lumps in one's earlobe.

I got my ears pierced when I was 15 and have had those monsters ever since. It took a YEAR for my ears to heal completely---at times, the lobe would be so swollen the earring had been completely surrounded by flesh. After all the trouble I went to, I discovered my skin's so sensitive I can't wear earrings.

Anyway, I periodically get these painful, pea-sized lumps in my lobes or further along the rim of the ear (in the cartilage). When I pop them, the pus flies out with an unbelievable force. If they weren't so painful, I would take far more joy in the explosion.

[lieu]

Once, just once, I'd actually like to hear one go "pop".

[KarlGrenze]

Opal, if you ever see me and find a zit on my face, feel free to pop it.

[Cervaise]

I avoided this thread the first couple of days it was up because I was worried it would be too gross. Turns out it wasn't that bad; I ate lunch while reading.

I also note that almost all of the stories involve dealing with one's own body's secretions. Except for the odd spouse, you're all coping with your own blood, pus, and so on. What I'm about to add doesn't really top anyone's story, but I do feel it's worth mentioning.

In college, I had a roommate who...

...wait for it...

...left his pimple squeezin's on our bathroom mirror for me to find.

And not just one or two a week; I'm talkin' dozens. Three or four a day minimum. The guy was absolutely impervious to criticism; I'd say, "Hey, could you not do that?" and he'd say, "Oh, sure," and then he'd erase the conversation from his mental database. If I didn't clean 'em off, they would have been there when the landlord was setting up for the next tenant.

I swear, I went through more Windex that year...

[A2Steve]

Okay, this tale requires a little personal background information... when I was younger, I used to break a lot of bones. I mean, a LOT of bones. As a result, when I was quite young, I had steel rods put into both femurs to help keep them growing straight, act as in internal splint, and so on. As I grew, I'd have to have the rods replaced periodically as my leg would grow longer than the rod. Until the time of this story (hint, hint,) I had had this kind of operation 3 times on each leg. Anyway...

When I was about 12 or 13, I broke my left leg about an inch or two above the knee. Being quite the coward when came to pain, I thought to myself, "While I should probably go to the hospital for this, it's gonna really hurt and I'm really not looking forward to being in another cast, so... ." So, I didn't go. Instead, I put on a splint and decided it would heal on its own. Reasonable expectation, VERY poor judgement.

After about 6 to 8 weeks, it had healed and I could remove the splint, getting back to a semblance of a normal life. As I'm sure you can guess, although the bone healed, it healed rather crooked. To give you an idea of what it was like, my left leg continued straight down from the hip until you got to about two inches from the knee. At this point, Mr. Left Leg made a 45 degree jog toward Mr. Right Leg. Now here's the catch... due to where the leg broke, the end of the afore mentioned steel rod stuck out of the bone and began to rub against the flesh of my thigh from the inside.

Now we fast forward a couple of years. Don't know if there was a specific triggering event, or if the rod just decided, "To hell with this, I want out," but I suddenly found that my leg was really sore, and really swollen. "Hmm, wonder what's causing that?", I innocently pondered. Well, back goes the splint, and back I go to bed rest for a couple of days (any excuse to get out of school, right?) That's going okay until I'm sitting in bed watching TV (dad's still at work,) and it occurs to me, "Y'know, something doesn't feel quite right. Dare I say, something feels kinda wet down there." I popped off the sweat pants, opened up the splint, and beheld a mass of thick, grayish yellow pus attempting to cement my skin to the padding of the splint. Suffice it to say, the sight scared the bejesus out of my 14 year old mind.

In the period of a couple of weeks, I went through a couple of rounds of swelling, leaking, healing, swelling, leaking, healing until I finally got it fixed. It was quite interesting as, during the healing episodes when the swelling was down, I could see the shape of the rod under the skin.

Long story short, if there's anything worse than externally leaking puss from an internal wound, it's having the doctor try to squeeze the puss pockets out of your thigh as he tries to clean the wound.

Maybe some day I'll share the tale of getting it all fixed.
;)

[slackergirl]

Good grief! A2Steve , didn't you have parents? Guardians? Somebody older than 12 to think maybe this wasn't right?

[OpalCat]

Originally posted by Caricci


My tip is those aren't tiny hairs, that's crap from your pores.

Nope, it's hairs.

[Danalan]

Originally posted by A2Steve
Long story short, if there's anything worse than externally leaking puss from an internal wound, it's having the doctor try to squeeze the puss pockets out of your thigh as he tries to clean the wound.

My, this thread has degenerated way beyond pimples, hasn't it? Here's my pus sqeezing story.

I was working for a week on the trauma ward at a large military hospital as part of my training. I didn't have much to do except transport patients and specimens, as the nurses didn't want me doing any of the procedures I'd been doing for 6 months before my training started. I wasn't qualified, since I was in training. Huh?

One patient in particular had a bad injury -- he'd come close to losing a leg in a forklift accident. The inner part of his thigh was flayed wide open from groin to knee in the accident, and he was undergoing daily physical therapy prior to getting skin grafts.

I took him down to PT for his daily whirlpool, and stayed with him for company. I wasn't busy, he needed cheering up, being alone and far from home with a serious injury, and it was pretty cool to look at his wound. There was no flesh covering the musculature of most of his thigh. The inner part was all gone, along with most of the front and back sides. Only the outer portion had been saved -- the accident had ripped the flesh from the inner area, but merely crushed the outer thigh against a crate.

The physical therapy tech lowers him into the tank and turns it on, and we're thinking about tracking down a chess set to occupy us while he soaks. Just then, his doctor comes in, he was doing rounds with about 5 med students, and wants to show them the wound.

We shut off the tank and raise him up. The entire area is glistening and clean, it looks like a model or illustration. The med students ohh and ahh, and the doctor points out 7 muscle groups and attachment points. Pretty cool. The doctor asks the guy, 'How do you feel? We want to do the skin grafts soon.', and the patient answers back that he's all for that.

Then, he mentions that this red spot on his outer thigh itches like crazy all the time -- could the doctor look at it? Of course, no problem. The doctor peers down at this innocuous dot. Nothing striking about it. He reaches out with his hand, and feels it. 'Feels a little warm -- might be an infected cyst.' Putting on a glove, he tries to 'express' the cyst. That means squeeze it.

He squeezed a little, nothing. Squeezed harder, still nothing. Then he really racked down on it.

The doctor and the 5 med students are focused on this dot on the outer thigh. What they can't see is the cupful of green pus that gushes out between all those muscle groups on the inner thigh.

'Doctor, it's coming out over here'! 'What'? Looking and squeezing again -- another cupful of green pus.

The smell is coming now, and the patient is moaning in pain. Green, pudding-like pus is dripping off the leg, into the bath, which has a scum of pus on it. Some of the med students turn away in horror, I think one is puking. Another student is fascinated -- can't get enough. Either a future pathologist, or psycho killer, I guess.

There was no way to measure it, but I'd estimate we got out nearly a quart before the doctor decided to take the show to the OR. All this time they'd been treating this awful open wound with the greatest of care, this tiny puncture was festering. It was several months before the patient finally got his skin grafts.

[Enola Straight]

i am watching the screen with glazed eyes, and frequent giggles emanate from my gut.

Mother Straight has accused me of visiting a porn site.

Anyways...

I have a story of a boil/carbuncle thingy on my nuts, but it sure can't top Broomstick's megazit!

Here goes...

One afternoon I felt this sharp pain in my very personal regions.
Expecting a plucked short-n-curly, I instead found what appeared
to be a third testicle trying to push through the nut-sac.

I knew this...thing ...would have to be lanced, lest the micro-
organisms festering in the pus-head migrate to the jewels.
Also knowing that I could do the same thing a doctor would do for
serious money, I got out the tools:

Sterilized needle,
Rubbing alcohol,
tweezers,
Cotton balls,
Anbesol,
Neosporin,
Liquid Styptic,
Jack Daniels.

Tossing back a shot to steel my nerves, I first wiped the enire area with alcohol, winced as I plucked three hairs from the growth, and, with the Jack kicking in, scored the head and squeezed.

AAAAAIIIIIIIIIIII-HU-HU-HU-HU-NNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!

I lay on the floor, convulsing with my eyes rolled up in my head
for about two minuites, before looking at the bloody mess.

Blood, pus, a dolop of squeezin' which looked like a kernel of corn,
and a wound-up mass of ingrown hair.

I squirted anbesol, neosporin, and liquid styptic into the wound,
and, discovering I couldn't walk without jiggling my naughty-bits
around, proceeded to lay on the spot till my mother came home.

Looking at the mess she saw, I cut her off with "Don't ask."

[Broken Doll]

Originally posted by Nacho4Sara
The whole area was gaping wide open and bleeding. It was red and raw looking, and I could see some more pimples sacs hiding inside the wound.....when I pushed my right nostril to the left and exposed my crack it was horrible, very deep and nasty...

Dear god, that just made me physically gag. I think you just described one of my worse fears - having gaping, open cracks in my skin that I can look into...*dry wretches*

But anyways, everyone thinks I'm gross for being so darn excited about pore strips and squeezing blackheads and such. My girlfriend has some pretty wide blackheads on her nose, but never lets me squeeze them - pure torture. I think I may have to attack her nose in the middle of the night.

I've worked out that there are certain types of pimples:
- The really sore ones that are underneath the skin and won't pop, no matter how much you squeeze them. Then one glorious day, a big ball of goo pops out onto the nearest surface.

- White heads. They're pretty boring.

- The blackheady type ones that pop out a hard bit of dried up pus.

- Teeny tiny ones that ooze out the *longest* thinnest line of white goo....those things can go on for ages, making a pile on the skin.

Ahhh....Pimples...how I love thee.

[Jonathan Chance]

Neither of you are all that far from me!

And, no foolin', I've got this enormous zit on my right jawline. I've popped that sucker five or six times and it's still coming back from the dead!

Who's interested here?

[Kabbal]

Originally posted by slackergirl
Good grief! A2Steve , didn't you have parents? Guardians? Somebody older than 12 to think maybe this wasn't right?


Actually, that story came from me. For some reason, SDMB was of the opinion that I was A2Steve (who sits in the next office over.)

As for parents, yeah, I have parents. But when you've been busted up as many times as I have, the scenario becomes old hat. Besides, not every break requires a trip to the emergency room (this one did, but I opted to hide that fact. Live and learn.)

[medstar]

I now have a pimple that has come to a head on my jawline. Guess what I'll be doing over the weekend.:D

[Caricci]

Oh, and here's one more squirting pus story to start off the weekend. Years ago, my sister had five warts on both hands. She had them burned off and each one became a large blister: one clear, one pink, one red, one purple, one black. Each one was a squirter and, really, how could sis resist? So, one morning she pressed the pink one, which was really big. Well, this happened to be at the table and it went into our dad's coffee.

Well, you know that dads can be cranky and she didn't want to hear any whining about how he now had to get more coffee and a clean cup and all. So she didn't tell him. And he drank it.

25 years later I still love that story.

[lee]

My motherlode pore is back. Unfortunately it is on my right labium minorum near the base with the opening toward the right labium majorum. When I first nothices a marble sized lump there years ago, I had my hubby look at it. He said it looked like a grain of orzo embedded in me. He could not see an opening so he pierced it with a tiny beeding needle and squeezed. A tiny bit came out of the needle hole but he gasped as the other side started to give up its contents.he told me that he found the pore and then started squeezing firmly. It hurt quite a bit and he wasn't saying anything so I told him to stop if it was not popping,. He then showed me the stuff. It was several inches of rope like sqeezings that started out about a millimeter wide and them gradually got up to about 3mm across.the stuff was white and very firm. He got that much again from it before he called it quit. He did a good job because it did not show up for years. Recently It has been growing. it was a bit bigger than a pea and extruded about an inch worth of that same stuff about a week ago. a few days later it got red and tender splorched pus but now it seems no longer infected. Still there though.

[Wikkit]

Oww. I'm a guy and that sounds like it'd suck. I think you also get the TMI award for location, too. Coldfire, what say you?

I still have this bump on the back of my neck, but it's deep so I think it's an alien tracking device rather than a pimple.

[Wikkit]

Oww. I'm a guy and that sounds like it'd suck. I think you also get the TMI award for location, too. Coldfire, what say you?

I still have this bump on the back of my neck, but it's deep so I think it's an alien tracking device rather than a pimple.

[Mudshark]

Right now I have some sort of pimple/bug bite in my left ear. It oozes pus/blood every time I wash it in the shower.

[ems]

I have just sat and read this whole thread at work and laughed, giggled & retched all the way.

You lot are all absolute stars - god I love the SDMB:D

[malaka]

For several years, when I was in high school, once a month, like clockwork, I would get a huge, red, pressure zit on the end of my nose. The kind of zit that can't be popped. Instead, it simply swells and turns red and hurts.

It was so bad that, often times my parents would take pity on me and let me stay home from school. When I did go to school, I endured names like "north star", "rudolph" and the like.

On one of the days that I did go to school, I was trying to keep a low profile. At lunchtime, I bought a cafeteria meal and headed to the lunchroom to sit with some friends. I was chomping on a chocolate-chip cookie when another friend sat down, looked up at me and said, "What is THAT?!?". The rest of the conversation went like this:

Me: I know, I know. It snuck up on me over night.
Him: <bewildered look>
Me: Look, dude...I can wash and wash, but it won't go away!
Him: <more bewildered looks>
Me: Leave it alone! It'll be gone in a couple days!

At that point, he stood up and left as another friend sat down, looked up and said, "Dude...you've got some chocolate on your nose."

:)

[Judith Prietht]

lee, I've got one of those motherlode pores in the same general area. This one's a little further up and, uh, tucked away, though. I'll let you use your imaginations. I excavated it about a month ago to spectacular results and it's been dormant of late. Your husband, by the way, sounds like a wonderful man.

[MrVisible]

To all of you who've participated in this thread so far, thanks. And eeeeewwwwww.

I've got two small contributions to this growing body of pimple knowledge. The first is my own, of just a couple of weeks ago.

My boyfriend and I had just scheduled a trip to Vegas, and two days before the trip, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a big honkin' zit, right at the end of my nose. Just a big, red, painful splotch, with no head, making me look like W.C. Fields just off a bender.

So, I hit it with the hot washcloth for hours, hoping to draw it out, and finally, the night before we left, I saw a tiny little head appear, peeking shyly out of one pore.

Now, I know better. I know that I should have let it develop, maybe overnight, into a respectable head. But this thing had been driving me nuts; it was now a vendetta. So I squeezed, and got a satisfying amount of yellow goo out, and then I was satisfied.

Until it reappeard in mid-flight to Vegas.

It continued to hound me for two days. Wandering through the flashiest, gaudiest place on the planet with my nose hurting and bright freaking red. Nothing like painful embarrassment to make a vacation, I always say.

And then, one magical night, it called out to me that it was ready. So I took it to the mirror, and I squeezed and I squeezed and I squeezed some more, and finally, *pop*, out comes a small, rock-hard ball of goo.

One of the nicest memories from the trip, actually.

And just this weekend, I was playing with my dog, and I took a good look at the little lump just at the tip of her floppy little ear. I saw that it had developed a little ring around the very tip of the lump, so I squeezed it like a blackhead. Which, in fact, it turned out to be. A big freaking blackhead, at least three millimeters in diameter.

My puppy looked puzzled, but relieved.

And I have to say, I'm proud to have now brought this thread into even grosser territory than before, having introduced a whole new element: dog zits.

[Judith Prietht]

Oh, Mr. Visible, I pity our fingerless animal friends.
OK, so who here has popped turkey zits? I'm talking about the blackhead-looking things on a plucked, defrosted turkey. I think they might be feather follicles (?) or something, because sometimes you can pull the end of a feather out of the gaping hole. Best part of Thanksgiving.

[Lodrain]

I love you guys.

I have this pimply sort of thing on the left side of my face, sitting right over my cheekbone. Several months ago, it was a bite that I had scratched enough to cause it to infect - it swelled enough to make keeping the eye open a challenge and really mess up the shape of my face. It was noticeable. Really. The infection sneaked up on me - I was sitting in class, first period, and nothing was wrong. By third period, it was this enormous spider-bite-like injury that people were getting concerned about.

So, when school lets out, I go home. Mother applies stuff to it (tar-like substance - have no clue what that did, but it smelled like asphalt) and a large bandage. I wait a few days for the bite to heal and remove the bandage. Now, periodically, the remains of the infection swell up and I get the temptation to squeeze the living daylights out of it. When I do, a small amount of some clear fluid comes out, like plasma, maybe and only the smallest amount of pus. Much fun, because it's fairly noisy. Unfortunately, it's disappearing. :(

I have something on my butt as well. I have a bony butt, so my buttbone makes contact with wherever I sit if I'm not slouching. It hurts, but if it were a pimple, it'd have popped already due to my weight. Or have compacted into a neutron star of pus and blood. Either way's fine with me.

[Wonko The Sane]

Originally posted by Lodrain
Much fun, because it's fairly noisy. .

Your zit made noise? Ewwww!

[booklover]

I had a pretty amazing ear zit a few weeks ago. I tried squeezing it but was unsuccessful because it was hard to position my fingers properly inside my ear. Finally, as I was absentmindedly fingering it, I decided to push my fingernail along it steamroller-fashion.

First round: popped with some lumpy pus on my nail. Second try (still felt bumpy): same result with more fluid. Third: a big gush of liquid pus. When I felt in my ear for a fourth round, the thing had swelled up to a monstrous size, so I pushed one more time---a big, shattering POP of pinkish clear fluid. God, what a relief! My only disappointment was that I didn't get to see it--the location was too awkward to see it in the mirror.

[lee]

Lodrain, that may be a piloniday cyst. Check out www.pilonidal.org and see a doctor. If it is a plionidal cyst, they can become quite nasty when you least expect it. And if you have it lanced, please share the gory details.

[liirogue]

You guys, this thread is just so sick and disgusting...
And I'm loving every minute of it! :D
I have the same obsession with zits and the like, and it's nice to know I'm not the only one out there! My SO has a *huge* nose (looks just like Tom Cruises) and the top of it towards the end is just littered with little blackheads... Do you know how tempted I am to attack his poor nose in the middle of the night??
Unfortunately, I don't get many good mirror-hitters, but every now and then I get lucky... :eek:
I don't think my SO will let me near his zits... he's got butt zits and all... Hell, I have a hard time convincing him to get even a *little* kinky during sex! He would put me in the mental ward if I told him just what I want to do with those little suckers... :D
He's already freaking out because I'm trying to convince him to let me at least *try* and give him a male-version of the brazilian wax... Heck, I'm even offering to do a little patch on his leg to prove to him it's not that bad! :p
Alas, I will have to be content with popping my own zits... Neither of my 2 dogs or 2 cats have zits... Which might be a good thing, especially for them! :D

[liirogue]

Also, my web browser won't let me look at the brain zit pics! I just get an empty box with a little red X in the corner :(
Could I possibly get someone to put them into an email for me? (Either pics in the body, for AOL users, or attachments...) I'm so curious, and this is just killing me!!!

Amy
liirogue@aol.com

[lee]

The pics are no longer there for me either. Here is something to look at though. http://www.atlasdermatologico.com.br/

[Enright3]

Many years ago I developed pimple on my nose, just over my nostral. It was so red and sore that I couldn't even touch it without extreme pain! Finally enough was enough, I could actually feel the bump on the inside of my nostral too! It developed into a small head on the surface, so I took that as my cue that it was ripe for zit harvesting. I sqeezed until my eyes were watering, and I was about to pass out from the pain. After the initial blood and pain and puss and pain and zit pudding, I thought I was done. Oh no, I'm not getting off that easy! I managed to grab onto a hardened piece of something like a blackhead that's dark on one side, and white on the other end. I wish I could describe the feeling of pulling a zit nodule out s-l-o-w-l-e-y where you can feel it moving out of your skin. Sort of like the feeling get when you pass a really big piece of shit past your prostrate. Sorry, I went overboard there! Anyway after pulling this hardened zit thread out, I saw another coming up. I pinched on it with my fingernails and pulled it out in the same fashion... except with ten times the pain. This wasn't a hardened zit core, it was (i presume) a nose hair that had ingrown so bad that it erupted back through the exterior of my nostral! OMG!!!! When I finally got that thing out of there it was like someone sliced open an over inflated tire. It bled for a few minutes, then it was all ok.

My wife gets honorable mention. I frequently get ingrown hairs on my ass from my compressions pants that I wear while exercising or officiating.

Speaking of those Biori (sp?) strips. She kind of became addicted to those things for a while. She has always had blackheads on her nose (tiny ones, but she didn't think so, as she as nearly perfect skin. I don't think she's ever had a face pimple) Anyway, she was using those Biori strips like every day for a while. Finally it dried her skin up, and then she really freaked out when it became red, dried up and flaky.

E3

[OpalCat]

About 3 days ago I went to scratch my leg and I found a HUGE bump like the size of a pea down about 6 inches above my ankle. WTF I thought... but I was in the middle of something so I decided to wait for the perfect moment to pop it.

Finally I squoze it but was really unsatisfied. Just a little bit of clear plasma stuff and some mostly-liquid pus... then nothing. It is still there, but mostly flattened out and red, nothing to pop anymore (don't you *hate* that?)

So I'm hoping that it gets re-infected so I can pop something. How twisted is that?

[Tiburon]

Jesus. Uggghhhh, I seriously feel sick! I can't believe I read this entire thread!

Don't get me wrong...I can enjoy a small zit or two, etc. But it is seriously so far beyond me to imagine popping someone else's zit or puss filled wound, etc. God, my stomach is rolling! How the hell do you people do it??

Tibs.

[OpalCat]

it's fun! and addictive!

[Muffin]

it's healthy! and nutritious!

[liirogue]

Hehe... a new diet for Dopers! Read this thread, and lose your appetite! A lot less expensive then those diet drugs, and with the same results!!
:D

[OpalCat]

Book compilation by the dopers as a whole:

"Popping Zits for Fun and Profit"

[medstar]

I look for zits on myself to pop so that the infection can clear up quickly. I don't think I'm fascinated with them enough to stalk members of my own family in order to overpower them and squeeze their zits against their will. That goes double for strangers.

[LucChiq]

I have been reading threads on this website for some time with out registering but after reading this specific thread I just had to register to comment. I have never laughed so hard in my life and I must say I did not feel grossed out at all even though I read the whole thread in one seating. I just have to say I found my new home with you all. You guys are the greatest!! :)
BTW I know other people have said this but Broomstick, I must say you are a great story teller and hope you never go through this again.

[LucChiq]

I have been reading threads on this website for some time with out registering but after reading this specific thread I just had to register to comment. I have never laughed so hard in my life and I must say I did not feel grossed out at all even though I read the whole thread in one seating. :D I just have to say I found my new home with you all. You guys are the greatest!! :)
BTW I know other people have said this but Broomstick, I must say you are a great story teller and hope you never go through this again.

[Jervoise]

:: shudder ::

I think I'm becoming more wussy in my old age. I read The TMI Thread giggling, but this one is makin' me queasy. But I still read it all... :)

Ok, to share.

I'm lucky not to get zits on my face. (Actually I every now and then I get one on my scalp, but it'll be covered by my hair). However, once I had one big pus-ey fucker explode a' right offa my shoulder blade.

Thing is, I previously thought it was a mole. You know how you can never remember how long you've had a particular sun spot or blemish? Well this once was around for so long, I assumed I was born with it. Kinda like a birth mark, all benign like.

One evening in the shower I noticed this "mole" was itchy. Unthinking, I scritched it. It was still annoying me, so I shrugged my shoulder so the "mole" was closer to the hot spray. It felt kinda lumpy under my hand. I rubbed it with my wash cloth -- hard!

pop!

Immediately, I felt hot goo run down my back. I yelped in pain and surprise and clutched behind my shoulder. Unseeing, I grabbed a handful of pus of my back. Shrieking now (how embarassing :o), I flicked my hand at the shower screen.

splat!

Yellow runny pus dripped down the steamy glass, leaving in its wake a ball of hard goop. Dazed, I scraped it up. It was hard, but rubbery. (Kinda like those knuckle bones you get in your mouth knawing on the end of a chicken leg, but smaller.) It was dark like a mole, and slippery.

Once I got over the shock, I was almost in awe at my achievement. Like a broody chicken, I even considered keeping it. But I didn't. I washed my Ball of Hard Goop down the drain hole and sprayed the pus off my back. The hole where Ball of Hard Goop emerged healed up. Where I once had a mole (or so I thought), my skin is now baby smooth.

[Baker]

Welcome, LucChiq!. You are going to love it here. Now that you have posted for the first time it will get easier and easier, and soon you will be like the rest of us, chained to your computer and the SDMB.

[OpalCat]

Narrad... I'm so jealous!!!!

[Nichol_storm]

Ahhh! I love zits. Doesn't everyone?

Unfortunately, I don't have many good zit stories of my own. The oddest zit, however, I got below my eyebrow, on that soft, thin skin above your eyeball. I caught it gently between my thumb nails, then squeezed delicately. This...yellow ball thing... squirted out. I looked so much like ant pupae I actually wondered if an insect of some kind had laid an egg on my face.

But for a true MonsterZIT story, I shall have to relate to the SDMB the tale of the monstrosity that erupted on my brother's back a couple of summers back. I was sitting in my room, watching TV, when bro strolls in, shirtless. He tells me something, then turns around to leave, at which point I spy what can only be described as a volcanoe on his back, right below his shoulder blade. I shriek, leap forward, and pinch the end, which splatters everywhere. Bro yelps, then feels the spot tenderly, a puzzled look on his face as he examines the spot from whence the monstrosity came.

Though I pinched off about half of it, the MonsterZIT was still huge. I'm talking a zit so big it had an attitude -- it looked you in the face and almost said, "Hey buddy! Whatcha think yer gonna do about me, huh? You think you gonna pop me? I'd like to see you try, sucka!"

I drug bro into the living room where we enlisted the help of our Mom. Despite my fingernails and her pin, we still can't get that fiend to pop. It's now standing half an inch off his back, and it's so big it should have a moon orbiting it. Finally Mom straps on a jumbo-sized bandaid and lets bro go. The next day, we tenderly peel the bandaid off to reveal what looks like a warzone on his back. The thing popped, oozed pus everywhere, bled in a variety of strange colors, you name it.

*sigh* I love a good family get-together zit pop.

.:Nichol:.

[renigademaster]

You guys make me proud. This thread went farther then I ever thought it would. I am lovin it.
Ben

[liirogue]

Narrad Could you provide a link for "The TMI Thread" you mentioned? My curiosity is getting the bes of me ;)

[Jervoise]

Search for these key words:

TMI
Toothbrush
Oldscratch
SPOOFE

;)

But don't say I didn't warn you...

[GrizzRich]

have you people NOTHING BETTER TO DO?!?!

Yeesh!

[lee]

There is nothing better to do! Except sex, and sex rubs you raw if you don't take breaks every so often.

So how many of you have special tools you use to pop pimples?

[Daowajan]

Bobby pins (the closed end). Got the idea after a dermatologist cleaned out my face with a tool that looked very similar. Great on blackheads too.

Anyone else?

[GopherGod72]

Originally posted by Nichol_storm


I drug bro into the living room where we enlisted the help of our Mom. Despite my fingernails and her pin, we still can't get that fiend to pop. It's now standing half an inch off his back, and it's so big it should have a moon orbiting it. Finally Mom straps on a jumbo-sized bandaid and lets bro go. The next day, we tenderly peel the bandaid off to reveal what looks like a warzone on his back. The thing popped, oozed pus everywhere, bled in a variety of strange colors, you name it.

*sigh* I love a good family get-together zit pop.

.:Nichol:. [/B]

... will..... will you marry me?!?!

[liirogue]

Okay Narrad... all I could come up with is something about Survivor... My curiosity is getting to the point where it is consuming my life ;)

Btw, do you have any more stories for us Broomstick??

[Sengkelat]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm hoping Broomstick develops more painful medical problems. They're fascinating!

My household has a zit-popping implement, it's a small piece of metal with a large hole (2mm) and a small hole at the other end. We call it simply "The tool."

Long ago, I crashed my bike, and skidded to a stop on my shoulder on the dirt/gravel side of the road. My shoulder was fairly bloody, so I went home and scrubbed it out (but not too hard...scrubbing open wounds doesn't feel that good) and bandaged it up and let it heal. It healed over within a few weeks...but every now and then after it healed, I'd get a pimple on my shoulder. Each one, when I popped it, contained both a little bit of pus and a grain of sand.

[jjimm]

I was going to post my oh-so-funny story about nearly getting into a fight for bursting a huge one on my friend's parents' hall mirror, and calling him in to admire it, but having read Broomstick's post, nothing can compare.

Broomstick, you have a rare gift, and not just for oozing pus.

[Lute Skywatcher]

[url="http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44749&highlight=toothbrush"]link for liirogue[/quote]

[jjimm]

Originally posted by lee
So how many of you have special tools you use to pop pimples? My father used to tell the story of his schoolfriend's family, who had a teaspoon with a hole drilled in it, that they used to call the izzy wizzy spoon. Place teaspoon over blackhead, push, and out comes a worm of sebum. One day the mayor came over tea, and after a few minutes the family all realised realised with horror that somehow the unwashed izzy wizzy spoon had got into the rest of the cutlery, and the mayor was stirring his tea with it.

[Wonko The Sane]

ERRRMMMmmmmm.

Izzy Wizzy Spoon in my tea....

[Muffin]

Izzy Wizzy was a hair,
Izzy Wizzy grew down where?
If Izzy Wizzy wuzzint there,
then where was Izzy Wizzy?

[Wonko The Sane]

In my tea!

[Nichol_storm]

Originally posted by GopherGod72


... will..... will you marry me?!?!

Hey, that's the second marriage proposal I've gotten on the SDMB!

*adds GopherGod to her harem*

.:Nichol:.

[medstar]

I used to just use my fingers but it was hard to position them just at the right angle with the right amount of pressure. Plus, you had to worry about infection if you scratched yourself. Now, I use one of those instruments mentioned earlier in this thread. It works a lot better and is easy to clean. It also does a good job in popping blackheads on my nose.

[liirogue]

Hmmm... And just where can one go about finding these little instruments of blackhead annihilation? Are they expensive, or better yet, easy to make? I tried a straight pin, and gave up... It just didn't work right

[medstar]

Go to a Sally's Beauty Supply store. They sell to the general public and these implements cost between $10.00 and $15.00. A little pricey, but they're made for this express purpose and they don't hurt the skin around the zit, something that I've done before I got this blackhead remover. They're also easy to sterilize, a must if you don't want to be permanently scarred.

[Muffin]

Originally posted by liirogue
Hmmm... And just where can one go about finding these little instruments of blackhead annihilation?

I take it that you are not a tea drinker.

[Jervoise]

Originally posted by liirogue
Okay Narrad... all I could come up with is something about Survivor... My curiosity is getting to the point where it is consuming my life ;)I'm not sure if you caught Jeff's link above (it was a little mangled). Here 'tis again:

The TMI Thread (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44749&highlight=toothbrush)

Be very afraid. :)

[Enola Straight]

Zit pickin' instruments?

Try a bobby pin...not a hair pin, as they are too flimsy.

Place the eye over thezit and squeeze down...oooooooh.

[lee]

I use blackhead removers by tweezerman and revlon. Tweezers by tweezerman and 10/13 beading needles. A loupe or linen tester is also a big help.

[GrizzRich]

Originally posted by jjimm
My father used to tell the story of his schoolfriend's family, who had a teaspoon with a hole drilled in it, that they used to call the izzy wizzy spoon. Place teaspoon over blackhead, push, and out comes a worm of sebum. One day the mayor came over tea, and after a few minutes the family all realised realised with horror that somehow the unwashed izzy wizzy spoon had got into the rest of the cutlery, and the mayor was stirring his tea with it.

<imagining the mayor politely drinking his tea thinking that the floaters in the cup are caused by the milk having gone bad>


I.........I.........I......think......I'm......going......to......vomit.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I currently have a persistant zit amongst the pubes just above my groin. I've been squeezing once a day since Sunday and it's still there. Squeezings Sunday and Monday both yielded a tiny, hard, white ball. Tuesday's squeeze yielded yet another ball and a bit of blood. I don't seem to be getting much of anything out of it today but at least it's not as sore and seems to be a bit smaller.

[Belrix]

Originally posted by Jeff Olsen
I... both yielded a tiny, hard, white ball. Tuesday's squeeze yielded yet another ball and a bit of blood. ...

Squeezing and getting balls?

Are you sure you're not squeezing too low?

:)

[Wonko The Sane]

I have a mole under my nose. Back in college, it got more and more sensitive over a number of weeks. It got to the point where if I touched it, or rubbed under my nose, I was in some serious pain. I tried hot washcloths, squeezing and to no avail I couldn't even see anything with the mole in the way and it hurt like a MoFo. I finally got a very thin string of white oil to inch out, and it was really painful, so I stopped. Very little came out. The next go round, a bit more came out -very- slowly, and then BLAM!! faster than I could see, a bunch of runny pus, and a randomly shaped hard core blurped out. After a bit of much less painful white runny ooze, it was followed by some very dark blood. That mole felt much better though, and I never had any more pain from it. And the mole lived happily ever after.

Oh, and Jeff- Belrix has a point. Is the pitch of your voice rising at all?

If I grossed you out- well too bad.
Keep them stories coming!

[Edwardina]

I would just like to proudly announce that I just read this entire thread while eating chicken lo mein.

[Larry Mudd]

Okay, I can't say that I can think of any particularly entertaining pimple stories...

Okay, I have a pore on a sensitive part of my anatomy that produces something that looks like a partly translucent birdseed every six months, like old faithful.

Now that I've payed the token price of admission, I just want to say that I've entertained myself for the past hour by loading the nice linear "printable" (on one page) version of this thread into into a text-to-speech reader.

I laughed my ass off. These stories are wonderful in print, but in an impassive voice that sounds halfway between Marvin the Paranoid Android and Jack Handy, they rocked my world.

[benson]

I would just like to thank lee, who had the good sense to resurrect my favorite thread.

I wish I had a good zit-poppin' story to share with you all but alas, I do not. I don't really know whether to be grateful for that or not.

More stories!!!

[medstar]

I generally don't get zits on my face where it's easy to squeeze. The zits that give me the most bang for the buck are usually on my back which is unreachable, or my shoulders where I really have to reach. One time, the zit on my shoulder exploded on to my bathroom mirror. I actually heard a splat sound and the core exploded into pieces. The zit bled for a while, but the next day, it had disappeared.

By the way, isn't it awful when the zit pops when it is inconvenient to squeeze? I've had it happen at work and I know that when I come home, I'll have to peel the sleeve off of my shoulder where it has become stuck.

[KarlGrenze]

I hate getting small zits on my cleavage area. It usually happens the days were I actually use something with cleavage....*sigh*

[Geek Mecha]

Hell, I read through this whole thread while eating a pepperoni pizza pocket.

Only someone who ate runny eggs with ketchup can beat that.

[Wonko The Sane]

Audrey- what about tapioca pudding?

[Enright3]

I had to resurrect this thread because of this: http://www.goregasm.com/upload/23Sep2002/bigzitdswe[1].wmv

e3

[booklover]

Oh GOD! Why, Enright3, why? I'm going to puke and then die.

[Judith Prietht]

Should I be disappointed or happy I couldn't read that at all?

[Caffeine.addict]

Should I be disappointed or happy I couldn't read that at all?

You should be very happy. It is a vdeo file of someone popping a very large zit. I think I am going to be very sick.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I'm glad this thread was bumped, now I don't have to search for it.

Would somebody please come pop the giant zit that has taken up residence on my right thigh?

[Jeep's Phoenix]

That is the most interesting video I have ever seen.

[KarlGrenze]

Yep, it was truly interesting...

[Enola Straight]

Oh, man, that was...(sniff)...Beautiful!

[Berkut]

I somehow feel relieved after watching that.

[Gazelle]

Hi, my name is Gazelle from Hell and I love to squeeze my husband's zits. He has one that I've named Old Faithful. I get to do a zit search about once per month, only on his back. (I'd squeeze others if he'd let me.) If I don't find any nice zits or blackheads to squeeze, I go right for Old Faithful. I think it's a pore that scarred and is so deep that it regularly collects a lot of gunk. I'm talking a full half-inch of gunk.

There is nothing more satisfying than squeezing a blackhead and getting a ton of gunk.

The funniest thing: After I'd been married about five years (and squeezing El Hubbo's zits for about as long), my parents came to visit... At one point, my father was lying on the floor taking a nap. My mother sits on his back, pulls up his shirt and starts squeezing zits. Turns out he has an Old Faithful too!

(Suddenly I'm grossed out. Why does story that sound incestuous to me?)

[Gazelle]

BTW, there are a lot of people who like pimple stories. This thread has a poreful of views!

[GopherGod72]

Enright... thank you.

Beleive it or not I found that video months ago either on a website or Kazaa however a formatted hard drive later I lost it. I have searched "Pimples and zits" on kazaa numerous times but never found it.

[Enright3]

Originally posted by GopherGod72
Enright... thank you.

Beleive it or not I found that video months ago either on a website or Kazaa however a formatted hard drive later I lost it. I have searched "Pimples and zits" on kazaa numerous times but never found it.

Hey... I'm here for YOU!
(tapping fist on chest and then pointing at you)

[Gazelle]

Jeff, be careful. If it looks like a giant zit, it could be a boil. If you squeeze those mothers too soon, you may end up with an impacted boil that has to be lanced by a doctor.

Do the hot compress thing - wet a hand towel and throw it in the microwave, then put it on the boil until it's not hot anymore. Do this over and over. Of course, you want to make sure that you can handle the heat of the towel. Don't burn yourself! Anyway, the hot compresses will either bring the gunk to the surface so you can squeeze it with impugnity, or it will dissolve on its own. I had a nasty boil on my inner thigh that just went away after a two-hour session of hot compresses.

[Lute Skywatcher]

That might not have been a zit (or a boil) after all. It had been like having a golf ball in my leg but now has pretty much disappeared. I'm thinking something bit me.

[OpalCat]

I feel vaguely queasy after seeing that video, but man, I'm also jealous. I'd love to have something like that on me!

[Coldfire]

Oh, Enright3, you evil mothah...

You are SO on my shitlist for that.

EWWWWWW

Gah. Freaks, the lot of you. I think I'm going to hurl now.

[lee]

So, Coldy, how many times did you watch that video?

[Enright3]

Originally posted by Coldfire
Oh, Enright3, you evil mothah...


...and yet another quote I can use!

Thank you, thank you very much

[Hometownboy]

What a total hoot! So now I have to step forward with a confession that, well,

I Married A Squeezer

Unfortunately, not for the FBI, which would be a much more interesting story. No, there's no Kim Philby here, just a guy whose lady likes, enjoys, perhaps even needs, to harvest her hubby's various zits, pimples and ingrown hairs.

If I understand the nomenclature correctly, that would make me a "bottom" to her "top."

She attacks her job with real zeal (and the occasional cry of "Good one!" as she systematically examines me. It's actually quite relaxing (except for the occasional jab of pain). Must be some sort of grooming reflex.

While she has beautiful, fine-grained skin, my pores exude enough oil to set up a small Persian gulf principality, so she has plenty of material to work with. She has a few favorite pores and returns to them each time.

Strange, but we like it.

[Annie-Xmas]

So I have a major zit right on the corner of my jawbone. I squeeze it once and a bunch of pus comes out. Okay.

It starts itching two weeks later, when I'm at work. I scratch and blamm......a bunch of pus, followed by a river of blood. I bleed like a hemophilac anyway, but this is good, even for me. I go into the kitchen and get some wet paper towels. I've already covered two with blood and am using the third when our accountant walks in. He looks at me and says: Were you shot or stabbed?

[GrizzRich]

I ABSOLUTELY cannot believe that this thread has lasted SIX MONTHS.

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go dig my brains out through my ears with rusty knitting needles because I CAN'T GET RID OF THESE MENTAL IMAGES!

[Judith Prietht]

Do not underestimate the love of a Doper for a good zit-popping tale.

[Dolores Reborn]

Ok - I've got one.

But first, let me say, with a weird mix of shame and pride, that I am a Squeezer. My husband will let me work on his back, but he doesn't have that many. He does, however, have an Old Faithful. But I have the richest field available to a Squeezer - I have an 18-yr-old son! And he lets me work on his face. Heaven. I know, I'm sick...

Anyway, my story.

Like every woman should, I examine my breasts every month or so, usually in the shower. Well, I came across a tiny lump a while back. Rolled it between my thumb and finger, looked at it in the mirror, had hubby check it out, and finally decided to go to the doctor.

While I was waiting, I played with it (it was underneath my right breast, and i couldn't see it.) Finally I got up to look at it in the mirror again, and squeezed it. POP! All over the mirror! Ewww...

At least it wasn't cancer! (I decided not to tell the doctor, and I did clean the mirror with a tissue...)

[medstar]

These are wonderful stories and I believe that Coldfire and GrizzRich are secretly acting outraged and upset. In reality they enjoy these accounts but are afraid other people will think they are weird. In my opinion, nothing beats a good behind the ear eruption. In the meantime, keep those stories coming!!

[Fornit]

Originally posted by brainychick
Loved Broomstick's saga -- full of pathos, conflict, laughter and a happy ending. Sounds like the makings of an independent film.

I wonder if we could get John Hurt to star.....:D

[lee]

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_714316.html?menu=news.weirdworld.badtaste
Imagine getting that from a good squeeze?

[MemoryGongs]

And to think.....on the What Is Your Odd Habit? thread I was embarrassed to admit i liked popping zits on other people....shit.......i feel sane now, thanks.

BTW, I am sickened and beyond grody by these horrible tales.

Please continue.:eek:

[MemoryGongs]

Originally posted by Enright3
I had to resurrect this thread because of this: http://www.goregasm.com/upload/23Sep2002/bigzitdswe[1].wmv

e3


OMG I have to see this. can someone please repost it. i tried to dl but it said could not be found. this thread is the sickest shit ever. im gone for a few weeks in rehab and i get back to this magnificent post. i want to buy all you deranged lunatics a pepsi.

My zit story is so-so. My dad's family has hideous skin dating back from their franco-canadian heritage of living in dirt and squalor with like 17 kids in a bed. anyway, lucky me, i had not-bad skin growing up.

but my personal zit story is probably the time i felt a little lump on my ear right next to my hoop, thought it was nothing more than a little ingrown hair ( no head, no redness nothing) and i would see nothing but some pencil-lead thin string of zit-pit. all of a sudden i got a burst of somthing that i can only describe as reminding me of wathcing a kernel of corn turn into popcorn, an explosion of thick pasty pus that sorta just shot out and hung off my lobe. i remember staring into the mirror awestruck as if i had just pulled a rubber chicken out my nostril. i was so not expecting it.

my second runner up was an ex-gf who had a huge, ripe just-aching-to-be-squeezed zit on her right flank just above her hip but in that love-handle area thats really sensitive. I simply HAD TO get at this thing and after about 10 minutes of squeezing so hard i was about to stand up and wedge my foot against the table for support, i got a mild stream of blood and some of that milky pus that forms at the very cratar. altogether disappointing. getting back to business i squeezed and squeezed ( i was actually sweating, lying there, a cigarette dangling out my mouth with a look on my face of such stern concentration i must have looked like a cross between a surgeon and someone sizing up a real Minnesota Fats-like pool shot) and suddenly

WHAM!!!!!!!

out comes this jet of pus that looked like those solar flares of flame you see coming off the sun. it splattered my arm and my cheek and hit the wall beside us. my gf was almost crying at this point so i stopped but i was shaking. i was so disgusted and fascinated and repulsed at once i could only star in dumb animal wonder at this mess.


awesome.


time to go do a full body scan for something to pick.

ps: for me the best part of zits is inspecting the cratar afterwards. for some reason big holes in skin really fascinate me. my ex-gf of the above story got a hole from this one i could have hid valuables in.

[medstar]

Hope you washed your hands. Keep up the good work, everyone, I love these threads.

[Enola Straight]

Last time I looked, the links for the brain zit and the "Old Faithful" zit was GONE!!!
:eek:

[booklover]

Originally posted by MemoryGongs

i remember staring into the mirror awestruck as if i had just pulled a rubber chicken out my nostril.

Oh my lord, I think I have just found my sig quote.

[Nichol_storm]

MemoryGongs, I had tears of mirth in my eyes as I read your post. No joke.

As for my zit story, today I was checking my face in the mirror, on the lookout for any new pimples. I usually can count on a few interesting gushers under my nostrils, so I was examining that area closely when I glanced down to see two white bumps on the sides of my upper lip.

As I had ignored this area for so long, these zits had been given ample time to marinate. Pressing my thumbnails against the first, I squeezed and was rewarded by a small jet of green-white goo. Not satisfied, I squeezed again and the bump coughed up what can only be described as half of my upper lip. Astonished by the sheer capacity that the first bump had held, I switched my focus to the second. It eagerly yielded a looooong thin string of green-white gunk.

Ah! I feel cleansed now.

.:Nichol:.

[medstar]

See, this is the kind of descriptive writing that America needs more of! Seriously, there are lots of hair follicles around the mouth, which means plenty of opportunities for clogged pores. Check this area carefully and report back.

[Coldfire]

:eek: Of all the threads on these boards, you had to resurrect this one??

Sadistic bastard.

[RawkStah]

My additions:

1) I've had, on two seperate occasions, LARGE pimples on the shaft of my penis. Those hurt like a sumbitch to pop, but, pop they must.

2) I had a pimple on my cheek that just would NOT go away. Pop, return. Pop, return. One day I noticed a black dot in the middle of said pimple, post-pop. Now, I'm a very hairy guy, so I know about extracting ingrown hairs. However, the ones I extract are not usually 3/4" long.

3) Once, I had this... thing on my right temple. It was there for a long, long time. Looked like some sort of pimple, but it never burst. Never hurt. It was just annoying. I decided "Enough of you, Mr. Pseudo-zit. I'm gonna take care of you." Apparently, all I did was get it infected. Two days or so go by, and this thing swells up to the point that it hits the right wing of my sunglasses and reading glasses. And it hurts like a B.I. Itch. I go to the ER (since I don't have a regular physician, even though I do have insurance), and tell the receptionist that I want this thing gone. I get admitted, and the Doc looks at it.

"Well, I can reccommend a plastic surgeon..."

"Huh?"

"Or, we can prescribe some antibiotics."

"Let's do that."

So, the Doctor puts me on an antibiotic calledErythromycin, both in a topical solution and in a 200mg (iirc) tablet. It works, but it works too well. It kills bacteria that I need, like in my GI tract. I'm pooping like 4 times a day, but it's not the nice kind. Nope. Runny and yellow. I poop so much that it gives me hemmorrhoids.

Enough of that nonsense, I think. I stick with the topical solution, tho. Man, did that thing burst. I still have a scar that collects stuff and needs to be discharged every now and then.

And, for number 4...

[RawkStah]

I woke up one night in BLINDING pain. OMFG pain. Burning, itching, pain.

I got up and went into the bathroom. I have no idea what could be causing this. I drew a bath with epsom salts and soaked my ass for awhile. Pain went away. Went back to bed.

Woke up an hour later, same pain as before. The burning, the itching, the cursing. Go back into the bathroom and decide to check things out. I hop up on the counter, spread the cheeks and... well, things look mostly normal.

I figure that it must be a hemmorrhoid flare-up, so I use the Tucks pads. Seems to work. Go back to bed. Wake up when the alarm goes off, and, well, soo-prize, soo-prize, soo-prize -- ass pain. Walking is an ordeal. Sitting and then standing is painful.

This goes on for a day or two (waking up twice a night, painful days, etc.) After applying every salve I can think of (Preperation H, Neosporin, Cortaid) and noticing that things are really NOT RIGHT BACK THERE (a boil around 2" long and a red ass ALL OVER), I go to the ER.

Doc looks at it and says "Yup, that's infected. Good thing you came in when you did, otherwise we'd put you on an IV antibiotic. I'm gonna give you a prescription for augmentin and Tylenol-3 (that's the kind with codiene). If it doesn't clear up in a week or so, come back in and we'll operate."

That weekend, I go to visit some friends. After sharing the story of my ass (one of my friends had a severe anal fissure once), we go to see "Gangs of New York". It took about an hour to find a way to sit that didn't hurt. When the movie was over, my ass felt more moist than it really should.

I got to do laundry at my friend's house, and wear a towel most of the night, due to the ass bleeding and pus-draining.

Turns out that it was a staph infection. It's been in the news lately, notably in prison populations. But, mine wasn't from butt sex, nor was it drug resistant.

[Enright3]

I would have sworn you were getting ready to delight us with a story of a pylonidal cyst. The wife had one, as did my teenage daughter.

May God have mercy on their souls! :o It's a miracle they're still alive after witnessing the that gaping wound on their backside!

My apologies for sparing any good photos... I looked and couldn't find one. Perhaps someone else can find one online?

E3

[medstar]

You know, I'm all for a good, juicy zit squeeze like everyone else, but doncha think those pylonidal cysts are just way too much of a good thing? Maybe a little too disgusting and graphic?










Good, neither did I.

[moc.liamtoh@rorrim]

ok this one JUST HAPPENED.

Inspired by this thread i went up to my bathroom to get rid of a little bugger that had been annoying me for a few days. I have to do it in the bathroom cos i love watching it..
It was just below my left nostril, below and to the left.
I squeezed and squeezed and POP it shot up onto the egde of my nostril.. then the blood came and i washed it away and that was that. It still has a little bit of a sore feeling.. might still be some stuff left in there (which i like to call "Pimple Cream" kind of a pun..)

[GorillaGirl]

Because nothing posted on the internet ever really goes away...

Case of the Brain Zit (http://web.archive.org/web/19991006195343/http://www.epidermoidbraintumor.org/fink.htm)

Pimple video (http://www.lynxxx.nl/downloads/archive3/) - select bigzitdswe[1].wmv

[ratty]

Holy shit. That video was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Did you see the force on that explosion? Christ! And the beginning part, before it erupted, you could actually see the contents moving beneath the skin, straining against the walls of the pore. It was like this person gave birth to something. My God. The miracle that is the human body, no?

I am an experienced Pore Miner myself, and find the job unspeakably delightful. I've taken to working out a classification system for various zits. I'd apprecaite any input from my colleagues in the field.

First off, I classify a zit as either Wet or Dry. Wet Eruptions are obviously those that exude a liquid, and are often the swollen, reddened ones. Sometimes they simply ooze and are no more. Other times, they have a small core particle, which must be removed to insure zit destruction. Dry eruptions are those generally found on the back- no liquid, but a solid core of waxy material. Dry ones usually have no redness, but offer a satisfying burst, and can be counted on to leave a hole. Hybrids offer both. I'm currently trying to classify the core material, but have only managed to study the Dry ones in detail, especially those harvested from the scratch by mere scratching.

Your thoughts, fellow Miners?

[Nichol_storm]

Word, ratty, word. I've never had a zit that exited my body with that sort of awe-inspiring force, but I've had a few zonkers when I was younger than threatened to give me whiplash. I had few where there was an actual recoil -- I had to take a couple of steps back and blink in amazement for a moment.

Also, the goo that pimples exude seem to come in a variety of types, or as I like to refer to them, "flavors". There's the long snaky dry flavor, usually gleaned from zits from below my nostrils and around my mouth. There is the thick chunky yellow goopy flavor, usually extracted from monster zits on my cheeks. Their smaller, less impressive cousins can be found on my forehead and eyebrows. There's the clear-liquid-with-solid-core flavor, which I tend to find on my shoulderblades. I'm certain there are many more flavors that I have yet to discover.

.:Nichol:.

[MercyStreet]

Regarding this excerpt from "Brain Zit" passage, I'm trying to decide which word is the most unsettling:

"Following the total removal of the MASS, a GENEAROUS CRANIECTOMY of all the ABNORMAL-APPEARING BONE was done (using RONGEURS), and the RESULTANT DEFECT measured 10 cm in diameter."

Mr. Mercy Street cultivates a fingerful of bright green funk once a year or so. The first squeeze I witnessed has become a point of reference in the romance. (He came out of the bathroom once after a shower and said, "Hey, you really have to see this! My finger is about to explode!" He pointed out an area of swelling and a distinct shade of shamrock green next to the nailbed. Top o' the mornin' to us! We sat on the porch, in strong sunlight, and let 'er rip. Out came about a half-thimble of goo, followed by two cheesy chunks.) ... Every now and then one of us will relivel that wonderful moment: "Hey, remember the time when your finger..." ... got all swollen and the pus shot out?..." "... Yeah, and then I told you to squeeze it some more, and..." "... the chunks started coming? ..." "... Yeah. ..." "... Yeah. That was so cool!..." "... Well, maybe you can go stick your finger in some dirt or something. Get the infection cooking again. ..." "...You know what would really work? If I wrapped it in a hunk of raw chicken! ..."

Unprovoked by either dirt or a slab of formerly living animal, The Finger made a return appearance this week. Each day Mr. Mercy Street unleashed about a pinhead of goo. He saved the explosion for my arrival on the weekend. In truth it didn't approach that first shared spoogefest -- no excessive leakage, and no chunks, yet the goo was a delightful lemon-lime.

Next up: An ingrown hair surrounded by a dimesize swelling. He swears that next week I can nail it. Of course, I will post a full report.

[Wikkit]

Originally posted by Nichol_storm
I'm certain there are many more flavors that I have yet to discover.But what do they taste like?

[Baker]

Originally posted by ratty


I am an experienced Pore Miner

[Baker]

Damn, hit reply instead of Preview! Meant to add the following:

"Pore Miners" Somebody has to say it-----BAND NAME!

[Tiburon]

re: big zit video.

Why. Why did I watch. Jesus, that was sick.

I need to go shower again.

[Jeep's Phoenix]

Originally posted by MercyStreet
Next up: An ingrown hair surrounded by a dimesize swelling. He swears that next week I can nail it. Of course, I will post a full report.

I think those are my favorites, even over sebaceous cysts (like the one in the video). You know you're going to get something out of an ingrown hair zit, but the form always surprises you. Sometimes the hair emerges encased in a waxy substance, and sometimes it comes out with a spurt of cheesy white stuff. If you let the hair-zit form a head, there's always a good deal of pus.

(Ingrown hair zits shouldn't be confused with plain ol' ingrown hairs, which snake along just beneath the surface and are easily eliminated with a sterilized safety pin. That's fun too, but in a different way.)

[Wonko The Sane]

I had an itchy right ear, and after a bout of sticking my pinkie in there and wiggling to relieve the itch, I got nowhere. Along with that, I had trouble hearing out of my right ear when wearing my motorcycle helmet, as my ear canal would close if I closed my mouth.

Then, I felt the bump.

It was at the bottom of my aural (?) canal. I pressed against it with my pinkie nail (almost the most useful nail for ear things), and got a wee string of semi-solid, semi-transparent gink, followed by some yellowish-white thick runny pus.

Not much after that.

That night and the next day, I got some more thick whitish glop, followed by a general crusting over. (this during a first date with a nice young lady from Wisconsin... but she's very nice) I tried sitting on her right side so she wouldn't see it. I couldn't see it at all, but I bet it looked really awful.

The next day, more thick whitish-pink pus (with yellow sticky solid-esque chunks), and I figured it was over...

I was so wrong.

It was Sunday, after a long warm motorcycle ride, and a few hours at church (still trying to stay to the right of the rather attractive Wisconsian). I was at home, surfing the web and my finger wandered into that fateful ear. First, some chunky pus, and then; without warning a sudden "ft." sound. (even inside my ear, it was kinda quiet). I gave birth to a squarish chunk of sebum, with the consistency of a curd from cottage cheese. It was the color of cheesecake. (now that I think about it, I don't think I like cheesecake anymore)

Since then, I'm clean, and my right ear can hear while wearing my helmet. Whooo!

[MercyStreet]

... and the Wisconsonite ...?

[Wonko The Sane]

She can hear just fine too, I imagine, and we did hang out this Sunday, so I guess she either didn't notice The Ear Of Deformity, or she has a strong stomach.

[Wikkit]

... or she's into that sort of thing. Guard your un-popped pimples with your life.

[juji_mojo]

Wow I love this thread. It proves that I am not the sickest person I know. (Despite what my husband thinks when I tell him about work. See the "Green Plug" thread for details)

This doesn't come close to matching Broomstick or anything, but I removed a calcified whitehead type thing from a resident's forhead. It was about the size of an eraser on the end of a pencil, waxy, malleable. It left a large crater in her forhead.
But *sadly* no drainage or any kind of wet messy sero-sanguino-purulent goop.

[Nichol_storm]

Okay, not zit related but definitely TMI...

A few weeks ago, while doing laundry in my dorm's communal washroom, I discovered a strange pair of blue panties had somehow made their way into my dryer. Having no way to find their owner, I elected to keep them. I have no idea who (or what) wore them last, but they fit great.

When I clean out from under my toenails, I get this gunk that has an odd peanut-buttery smell. Dead skin, maybe? It doesn't collect under my fingernails, only my toes.

My OT TMI.

.:Nichol:.

[Avarie537]

WHY, OH WHY MUST I READ EVERY POST?!?!?!

[Unauthorized Cinnamon]

I can't believe no one has mentioned tonsilloliths (http://www.drgreene.com/21_568.html)!

Children with large tonsils and deep crypts often do get food particles trapped in there. Because saliva contains digestive enzymes, trapped food begins to break down. Particularly, the starch or carbohydrate part of the food melts away, leaving firmer, harder remains of food in the tonsils. . . .

The tonsils also trap other mouth debris such as bacteria and old cells from the surface of the mouth's lining. Some of these cells contain small amounts of keratin, the same substance found in fingernails and rhinoceros horns. Whatever the nature of the debris, it is then attacked by white blood cells. The aftermath of this battle leaves the crevices of the tonsil strewn with hardened remains. . . .

Microscopic studies of these tonsilloliths have shown them to contain a combination of food particles, bacteria, oral debris, and white blood cells in a concentrically laminated pattern -- rather like a pearl. Usually they are small gritty particles found in the center of soft, cheesy flecks. Sometimes, however, they become quite large, appearing as rough, yellow or gray, round stones.


They involve much of the fascinating grossness of zits and cysts, but with added challenges! You've got to keep your tongue out of the way, maintain proper lighting on the tonsil, and wield a Q-tip or toothbrush simultaneously, with only two hands. And of course, during the careful mining process, you have to overcome the gag reflex and also avoid swallowing the nasties, because then fascinating gross just becomes disgusting, vomit-inducing gross. (Did I mention they smell like old gym socks?)

[Wikkit]

Old gym socks are a big understatement.

Tonsilloliths usually have threads of their own, they're so special.

To get the thread back on pimples, I get these great pimple/cyst things on my sides fairly often. They're usually deep under the skin, and hurt like hell when squeezed, and will go away on their own if I let them.

But that's no fun. If they're close to a hair follicle, I squeeze them out. Lovely explosions of off-white gunk followed by gunky blood.

Mmm, pustule.

[Muffin]

Originally posted by Nichol_storm
When I clean out from under my toenails, I get this gunk that has an odd peanut-buttery smell. Dead skin, maybe? It doesn't collect under my fingernails, only my toes.

Probably just a little goo left over by some fetishist who eats peanut-butter and [toe]jam sandwiches by day, and has his way with your feet at night when you are asleep.

[Nichol_storm]

Originally posted by Muffin
Probably just a little goo left over by some fetishist who eats peanut-butter and [toe]jam sandwiches by day, and has his way with your feet at night when you are asleep.

*Looks suspicious*

Muffin, is that a confession? Because I could have sworn I saw you sneak through my bedroom window last night...

.:Nichol:.

[Mr. Excellent]

Originally posted by Coldfire
Well, so much for lunch.

Anyone interested in being an MPSIMS moderator for a day? Ugh.

Me!!! Pick me!!! Over here! <waves arms frantically>

[GargoyleWB]

Well, I just recently discovered that my fiance is a shameless zit hunter. I was scratching at an annoying painful one on my back that I couldn't quite get leverage on. She noticed, immediately pinned me down, squeezed with me writhing and screaming in pain until the sucker popped. She then ran laps through the house with the gunk on the tip of her finger, cackling with glee like she'd just animated Frankenstein.

Weird.

[DeVena]

I was raised to be a pore miner. I believe it's the only reason my parents had kids. Sure enough, my sister pimples well, but I? I have flair. Since I was old enough to operate the alcohol-cotton ball-sterilyed needle tools of the trade, I have been the official Nit-picker/Pimpler of my childhood home. (Hey, we were poor! Other kids got to play baseball, but NO not us!) My brother is the official splinter remover - we all had our jobs to do.

Several really interesting ones but generally small, quick ones - I was good at my job. No one got anything REALLY nasty while I was on watch. But my mom had a couple of Old Faithfuls - on her jaw, on the back of her neck, and on her side. The one on her side is dry and just has to be dug out from time to time. But the ones on her face and neck had to be worked on at least once a month. That was fine until I went to college. I was only home once every 6 months or so... Then they started getting deeper.

Then when I got married, whoa boy! BIG, REALLY BIG. So big that Mom's jaw would have a visible lump. I would come in and work on them a little - wait a few hours (for them to ripen) and then ewwww. The smell was unbelievable. I mean really foul. Fetid. It truly did smell like rotting meat. The pimples would be squiggly and spurty - I'd have to cover myself in towels to work on them. Totally disgusting - but strangely facinating.

She finally went to the surgeon last year and had them removed. I had been keeping them cleaned for 30 years. The doctor was amazed that she had let them go that long - you shouldn't mess with inflamed sebaceous cysts. So they were cut out and then stitched up. And you can barely see the scars.

But ya know? I kinda miss them.

[Crystal Task]

I never get spots, so I guess i'm lucky.
But on the other hand I do get rashes and blisters because i'm allergic to alot of things.
so I guess we're kinda even huh?

[Caricci]

I only recently found out the copiously icky bumps on my husband's shoulder are sebaceous cysts, thanks to SDMB. They are pretty darn malodorous, but I love to operate on them. He's more offended by the stink than I am.

[medstar]

Caricci says:

I only recently found out the copiously icky bumps on my husband's shoulder are sebaceous cysts, thanks to SDMB

This is the reason I'm addicted to the SDMB. The education you get here on the boards is second to none. I wonder if there are any institutions of higher learning who grant degrees for pore mining?