Fresh off saving a man from testicular cancer, President Obama’s favorite website, Reddit, is off on another adventure in crowdsourced medical advice. The beneficiary this time? Some guy suffering from the world’s most horrific pimple ever.
It all begins at the site’s r/popping forum, where pimple and cyst aficionados gather to share videos of swollen pustules and papules and revel in the sight of percolating pus. It is not exactly a work-friendly subreddit. The sidebar warns users to “turn the volume down while watching some of the videos. A lot of screaming and puke noises.” It goes without saying that you should ready that gag reflex if you click through.
On Tuesday, the day most Americans were headed to the polls, redditor GokkunMilkshake (don’t Google that name, just don’t, please) took to r/popping to show off his prize.
“So, do you think my infection is ready to pop yet?” he wrote, attaching a photograph of what can only be described as the biggest pimple ever, the kind of thing you can only imagine needs to eat and absorb other pimples to sustain its growth rate.
Thankfully, as much as the readers of r/popping take pleasure in the in pus-filled explosions, they also take care of their own. Some pimples are apparently so bad they can pretty much kill you.
“Get to a doctor!” redditor Wraithex implored. “That looks like a major infection. I am sure you need antibiotics ASAP.”
GokkunMilkshake explained that he’d already been to the doctor once, but r/popping was not impressed. Perhaps he should go back, he wondered?
“Um. Yes. Unquestionably,” redditor FlintGreasewood replied. “Request a culture of the wound itself. Don’t leave until they do it. You may need to have it drained and packed, too.”
It sounds like GokkunMilkshake heeded that advice, and got himself to an emergency room stat. Three days later, he returned to Reddit with an update:
Okay, so I just got out of the hospital after being on vancomycin IV 2x a day, and they drained 4ccs of pus out of my lip tuesday.
about to get a script for clindamycin, and follow up with the surgeon who drained my lip and the infectious disease doctor next week
And that was the last we heard from him. But it sounds like, for the time being, the horror pimple has been stopped in its tracks (Vancomycin is a powerful antibiotic but only used as a “last resort” when other antibiotics fail, according to an article in Science Daily).
Good luck and godspeed, GokkunMilkshake. And thank you for not sharing a photograph of those 4ccs of pus.
Photo via GokkunMilkshake/Imgur