This story was originally published June 29, 2017.
Dr. Pimple Popper has seen some shit. From not-so-bad blackheads to cysts so gnarly you can’t believe they even exist in the first place, Sandra Lee, MD, has popped, sliced, and extracted ‘em all, always to the sick fascination (and often horror) of her millions of fans. So when the good doctor herself declares a case to be the craziest she’s ever experienced, you should probably believe her.
Dedicated #popaholics will already know that no part of the body is immune to developing pimples, cysts, and lipomas. For one man, that meant a lump on his left hip so misshapen, it almost looked like a face. “This guy came in, and he actually has had this since he was five or so,” Dr. Lee told Bustle in an interview. It was his daughter, a self-proclaimed popaholic, who brought him in to see her.
At first, Dr. Lee thought the unidentified growth was a lipoma, a benign collection of fatty cells, because the lumpy area was so big and had been on the man’s body for so long without ever being squeezed. But when she opened up the skin, she was surprised to discover that it was, in fact, a cyst that had been building up for years — a case so extreme, even she jumped as a waterfall of gray liquid came spurting out of the incision.
Of course, this wouldn’t be a Dr. Pimple Popper story if there wasn’t a video to go along with it. This one is 37 minutes from the first slice to finally sewing up the drained wound — and it’s definitely not for the faint of heart, or anyone who’s eaten lately, for that matter. It’s not a bad idea to gear up for an especially extreme Dr. Pimple Popper video the same way you’d prep for a medical procedure requiring anesthesia: no food whatsoever for 12 hours beforehand. (You've been warned.)