'Dr Pimple Popper' Season 8: Dr Sandra Lee helps Chanel deal with HS, a non-curable condition
In the July 27 episode of 'Dr Pimple Popper' Season 8, Dr Sandra Lee meets a patient with a non-curable condition, known as hidradenitis suppurativa. Even though she cannot help her get rid of it permanently, she tries everything she can to alleviate her agony and, most importantly, restore her trust in doctors.
Chanel, 30, from Nashville, Tennessee, has hidradenitis suppurativa, often known as HS, which is characterized by large boils or cysts beneath the skin. The agony is unbearable. It drains normal blood or pus, as well as clear liquid fluids of various hues and odors. She has to clean it off with hot water, since the steam relieves the irritation and makes her feel much better. This prevents her from leaving her house for more than six hours. If she can't drain them herself, she needs to go to the ER, where she has had a nasty experience in the past.
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Chanel claims that her condition began five-six years ago as a little pea-sized bulge under her right underarms. She went to see a dermatologist, who informed her that she had HS and that there is no treatment. Deborah, her mother, is the one who continues lifting her spirits and convincing her to see a doctor. Chanel chooses to give Dr Lee a chance after being turned down by so many doctors in the past. She hopes to find a means to treat or control her condition.
After examining Chanel, Dr Lee discovers that HS occurs in the intertriginous portion of a person's body -- spots where the skin folds. She reveals that in order for her to treat HS, she must first assess the patient's condition to see how severe it is and whether it is treatable. Dr Lee sees that because Chanel has scarred in her underarms, the tissue has formed a bridge, allowing fluid to escape. The left underarm fared somewhat better than the right.
Dr Lee informed Chanel that her HS is a follicular hyperkeratosis disease, which means that the hair follicles seem to be built up with keratin or thickened, causing pores to get clogged. The good news about HS is that it is not life-threatening, but the bad news is that it is incurable; nonetheless, Dr Lee promises her that she can regulate it and especially enhance some areas. She recommends Adalimumab, a self-administered injectable. Deroofing is another procedure she wants to attempt on some of her blemishes. Dr Lee will open some tunnels under the skin where they exist. Dr Lee intends to address the regions that appear to be particularly large, as she is concerned about those places. Dr Lee proposes two major therapy choices for Chanel: one, a biologic medicine to help calm her own immune system by precisely inhabiting particular cells and finding some pretty good results. Another therapy she suggests is Deroofing, a novel surgical method that involves filleting the region open so that it is exposed and allowing it to recover in an open posture so that no tunnel reforms.
Chanel's HS is more severe on her right armpit, but she has scarring, bridges, and adhesions on the surface of the skin on both sides, so Dr Lee starts by treating a lot of the scarring and opening things up so that they don't strain on Chanel's arm and impede her movement. She also works on her left side's tiny pocket. She goes on to say that if it looks fine at the end of the procedure and Chanel can handle it, she would try to tackle the larger one in the next session.
Dr Lee removes all of the little skin bridges from Chanel's right armpit before moving on to the smaller tunnels in her left armpit. Pus is really accumulated beneath the skin in those tunnels, and the pressure caused by this is what produces the discomfort. Dr Lee thus utilizes a tool to open up specific locations, relieving pressure and discomfort and preventing the tunnels from developing again. She effectively deroofed the tunnels on her left armpit and does not stitch it up to allow it to heal in an open posture, thus the tunnel is no longer there.
Dr Lee puts Chanel on biological medication before they meet for the second time. Once her sores healed up nicely, Dr Lee brought her back again to Deroof the much bigger inflammation that she has under her arm. A month later, that is healing a little slow since it was much larger, but she is certain that it will look great soon. She adds that it will always appear scarred, but she has managed to remove all the agonizing tunnels beneath her skin that were making Chanel's life so difficult.
'Dr Pimple Popper' Season 8 airs on TLC every Wednesday at 9 pm.