# What is this Thing on my back? TMI
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 7, 2005, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264 "2005-06-07T06:00:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/1 "2005-06-07T06:00:52Z")
Alright, not too long ago my SO discovers a bump on my back. She asks me about it, I say I have no idea. She decides to squeeze it. Holy Crap.
This thing is one huge pus-pumping machine. When I reached around and felt of it that first time, the bump was HUGE. Now it’s significantly smaller but it can grow large in a fairly short amount of time. The pus is thick (practically solid) and smells like raunchy ass. I you not, it literally smells like an ass. Lady Mung believes it’s most likely an ingrown hair/infection type thing. I’ve never experienced it’s like. Anyone know what the effin’ hell this thing is?
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/2 "2005-06-07T06:05:34Z")
> [@Hung Mung](#):
>
> I you not, it literally smells like an ass.
No shit?
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### Author:  [@Rich\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Mann)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/3 "2005-06-07T06:08:36Z")
Sounds like a sebaceous cyst. They can get infected real easy and real bad. Get it looked at.
They are clogged sweat glands. To avoid them shower thoroughly at least daily to remove skin oil and dirt.
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### Author:  [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/4 "2005-06-07T06:12:47Z")
Hmmmm…is it possible a home-backwaxing could be part of the cause? The good Lady Mung decided a while ago that my body-sweater was a bit out of control. Ingrown hair-turned slight infection-turned cyst?
Scheisse, I don’t want to have my back hollowed out.
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### Author:  [@Rich\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Mann)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/5 "2005-06-07T06:32:36Z")
By the way, I forgot to add IANAD.
I think the waxing might have been the culprit. The first one I had was from thinking antiperspirant was close enough to deodorant. I walked around with my elbow in the air for a week while the thing pulsed with a life of its own in my underarm.
If it gets so bad that medical care is needed they might have to lance, drain, and pack it. Packing means a long thin piece of gauze soaked in antiseptic is stuffed in the hole and left hanging out a bit so it can’t heal up with the gauze inside. Yeah, it feels as bad as it sounds. Worse, even.
My doctor advised me to put a hot pack (about as hot as you can stand) on them as soon as you feel one coming on so they will pop more or less by themselves while still small. This helps to avoid complications.
If you get one in or around your nose, panic!
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### Author:  [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/6 "2005-06-07T06:36:36Z")
Scheisse.
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### Author:  [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/7 "2005-06-07T08:34:53Z")
Where is it? If it’s down in the small of your back/top of your ass area we could be talking pilonidal sinus/cyst. [http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/9746.htm](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/9746.htm)
That is not a fun thing.
Otherwise it’s a sebaeceous cyst.
> **[Epidermoid cyst: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia](https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000842.htm)**
>
> An epidermoid cyst is a closed sac under the skin, or a skin lump, filled with dead skin cells.
The smell isn’t pus, it’s rancid fat from the sebaceous oils that have built up within it.
Anyway, go to a doctor who can advise you on what exactly you’re dealing with and whether it requires any surgical drainage or biopsy.
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### Author:  [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/8 "2005-06-07T08:43:38Z")
> [@Rich Mann](#):
>
> Sounds like a sebaceous cyst. They can get infected real easy and real bad. Get it looked at.
>
> They are clogged sweat glands. To avoid them shower thoroughly at least daily to remove skin oil and dirt.
Yeah I have one on my leg. It has a crater wide enough to fit a match stick in and when sqeeezed it oozes thick white puss that smells like bad cheese.
You can have them surgically removed if it bothers you. In any case have it checked by a doctor just in case its something more sinister.
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### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/9 "2005-06-07T13:03:39Z")
> [@](#):
>
> If it gets so bad that medical care is needed they might have to lance, drain, and pack it. Packing means a long thin piece of gauze soaked in antiseptic is stuffed in the hole and left hanging out a bit so it can’t heal up with the gauze inside. Yeah, it feels as bad as it sounds. Worse, even.
I’ve had wounds packed, and really, the packing didn’t feel bad. I didn’t enjoy it, mind you, but I was mostly bothered by the pain of the infections. The packing felt a bit odd going in, and even odder coming out (I had to have my packing changed several times a day), but I wouldn’t say that it really hurt or felt bad.
My husband and daughter got to change the packing. Neither of them enjoyed it in the slightest.
My husband had a pilonidal cyst once, and I got to change HIS packing a couple of times a day. Those things are nasty.
Personally, I’d start putting warm moist compresses on the lump, and see a doctor. The doc might decide to lance and drain it, or just give you a prescription for an antibiotic. It’s always better to catch these things when they’re small. Don’t wait until they become the size of a grapefruit.
IANAD, etc.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/10 "2005-06-07T13:34:17Z")
I had something like this on my leg a while back. I had to have it lanced and drained. I don’t want to scare you but ‘lanced’ means the doc takes a scaple and cuts you. So it’s like being stabbed. But for me the thing was awful looking and I was glad I got to keep my foot, that is how bad it looked.
Now I have a scar that I’m able to pass off as a bullet wound.
See a doctor.
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### Author:  [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/11 "2005-06-07T13:48:09Z")
Definitely have this taken care of before it gets worse. DeMom had one on her jaw and one on the back of her neck. She’d make me clean them periodically until I got married. Then she blamed DeHusband when they grew to golf ball size. (Evil husband, keeping me away from DeMom’s ooky cyst thingies :rolleyes: ) She had both of them cut out - once they healed, she hasn’t had any problems with them.
Have a doc look at it. What’s the harm?
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### Author:  [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/12 "2005-06-07T13:50:29Z")
This is weird, cause I’ve had one on my back for about 20 years. Every month or so, I’ll give it a squeeze, and a small amount of white, gelid nastiness will come out. Lather, rinse, repeat.
It’s not red or inflamed, and doesn’t get any bigger than your average decent pimple. Maybe I’ll have the doc look at it the next time I’m in, now that I have read the scary links…
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### Author:  [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/13 "2005-06-07T13:53:47Z")
I’ve had it. It’s a sebnacious cyst, infected. I go preemptive now. Whenever I have even the slightest hint of a cyst, I go to the derm and get it cut out. Getting it cut out when it gets infected (And they all eventually will in my experience) results in a pretty big hole and the nasty shoelace gauze shoved inside of the pretty big hole. Getting it cut out before it’s infected is a novacained slice and dice and a couple stitches. Far more pleasant.
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### Author:  [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/14 "2005-06-07T14:32:58Z")
_slowly sets down container of yogurt_
…I lost my appetite.
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### Author:  [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/15 "2005-06-07T14:33:57Z")
> [@Amazon Floozy Goddess](#):
>
> _slowly sets down container of yogurt_
>
> …I lost my appetite.
That’s what you get for buying ass flavored yogurt.
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### Author:  [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/16 "2005-06-07T14:34:27Z")
Not to scare you further, I had an ingrown hair that became cystic. However, it never opened up as a boil; it fermented below the skin under the influence of anaerobic bacteria. Bad Stuff.
Eventually, it blew like a little volcano, and the _stench_! It had all gone necrotic; I’m lucky I didn’t lose my leg, as it was on my upper inner thigh, and fairly deep in. I had to go to the doctor every day for ten days as he cut away dead flesh, bit by bit. Had to rub a very expensive cream with silver in it to keep the wound super-sterile. ☹
Go see a doctor.
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/17 "2005-06-07T14:47:26Z")
Okay, I believe we have a winner in the “Grossest Thread Of The Day” competition. :blegh:
::makes mental note to get his SC lanced while it’s still uninfected::
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/18 "2005-06-07T15:14:07Z")
> [@irishgirl](#):
>
> Where is it? If it’s down in the small of your back/top of your ass area we could be talking pilonidal sinus/cyst. [http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/9746.htm](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/9746.htm)
> That is not a fun thing.
Can a pilonidal cyst be squeezed? I had one most of my young life until I had it removed at the age of 17. Not fun to have surgery on your tailbone - especially when it’s just having a big zit removed and no one cares 🙂
I vote for sebaceous cyst too. Like someone else said, hot packs are recommended (wet a washcloth, put it in the microwave for like 30 seconds, press onto cyst area).
I have had many of those in my life. One had to be surgically removed, it was pretty horrible - painful and smelly. Eeeew!
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### Author:  [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/19 "2005-06-07T16:10:54Z")
Pulling archivist duty:
[Favorite pimple stories (maybe TMI)](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=106449&highlight=Pimple)
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### Author:  [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-on-my-back-tmi/307264/20 "2005-06-07T16:11:23Z")
> [@Malacandra](#):
>
> Okay, I believe we have a winner in the “Grossest Thread Of The Day” competition. :blegh:
I’m so…proud… :dubious:
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