A lady who had a ‘third arm’ growing out of her back had surgery to remove it, but it came back more painful.
Dr. Pimple Popper’s latest patient on this season of the TLC reality show is seeking treatment for a bothersome bump on her back.
Dr Sandra Lee is a cosmetic surgeon and dermatologist who has seen a woman who went to a wizard for help with a ‘third breast’ developing on her shoulder and a lady with maggots in her toes.
She has also helped a man with 400 tumours all over his body and another with a ‘evil twin’ cyst behind his skull.
But this patient has already sought treatment, only to have her bulge grow back.
‘It just kind of hangs there, it’s about four inches, and kind of feels spongy,’ she adds in a teaser clip.
‘At times it does feel like there may be a third arm coming out of my back.’
As the clip goes on to show the growth protruding and hanging from her skin, she goes on to explain: ‘Shortly after I was born, I was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes bumps to grow inside and outside of the body.
‘When I first noticed the bump at around 17 years old, it was not nearly as big as what it was now, and I had surgery to get it removed.’
However, just ‘a few years later,’ the growth was back.
She says: ‘When the growth came back this time, it started causing more pain than it did before, so I started making appointments with my neurologist.
‘I really just wanted the pain to be gone, and he said, well there’s no guarantee that removing this will remove the pain, and he just didn’t want to do it.
‘So over the next 10 years, I kept going to doctor after doctor.’
She was given ‘the same excuses’ each time, and heartbreakingly admits she got ‘absolutely nowhere’.
This comes after the patient was told she might not be able to have it removed since she can “feel” the growth.
In a previous teaser, she explained: ‘I have a really painful bump on my back.
‘It’s almost like there’s a third arm. It makes me feel really insecure.’
She continued: ‘It makes me feel like I’m not a person at all.’
Dr Lee then explained how ‘serious’ the ‘plexiform’ is, which is a tumour that forms in the tissue covering nerves.
According to the NHS, surgeries to remove these types of tumours can be ‘more challenging’.
As Dr Lee inspects the ‘third arm’, she warns her patient: ‘I’ve only removed part of one before.
‘If you can feel anything, we can’t remove it.’
As the video continues to depict the procedure, the patient reveals that she can feel Dr Lee touching her growth.
‘This growth is just not cooperating,’ Dr Lee admits. ‘I’m only seeing the tip of the iceberg.’
While the patient refers to her development as a “third arm,” viewers were taken aback at first sight, comparing it to a completely different body part.
‘I can’t be the only one that thought that was testicles on their feed as they scrolled through,’ one wrote.
Another penned: ‘I thought that was scrotum.’
‘Glad to know I wasn’t the only one thinking this was something else,’ someone else laughed.
Dr Pimple Popper airs on TLC in America.
