Dr. Pimple Popper

I have a lump right above my clavicle.

It is growing, there could be health concerns to look into.

It makes me angry that you haven't done anything about it.

People die all the time from surgeries.

I'm just trying to be very gentle cos little veins want to look at me.

I'm not trying to play with them.

I have something wrong with my feet.

Have you been to the doctor? Is there anything that can be done?

They don't know what it is. I'm just frustrated.

It's not always so easy to just say, "This is what it is."

I just thought I'd leave here and it'd be perfect.

I'm just worried now it's not gonna happen.

I have several hundred tumours of various sizes.

That's why I'm having a hard time maintaining a dating life.

The most hurtful thing somebody said to me was,

"You'd be a lot more attractive if you didn't have that on your face."

That hurt me hard cos I knew they were right.

I'm trying to set him up. What's your type?

I don't have a type. You don't? No.

Breathing?

Yeah, breathing!

Let's do three and then we'll just keep going.

We can fill it in as we go.

My name is Gabe, I'm 45, and I'm from Mesa, Arizona.

And this is my friend.

My friend sits right above my clavicle or on my clavicle.

I've had my bump for about nine years.

I work for a nursery.

The first time I noticed it, I was at work, stacking some pallets.

It just appeared.

The very next day, I went ahead and got it looked at.

It was diagnosed as a lipoma.

The doctor said she would want me to see a surgeon for it.

Surgery freaks me out.

I do not want to be put under.

Anaesthesia is something that scares me.

It's the fear of what a doctor could do, I guess.

You all right?

The most pain that I usually get is a radiating pain,

where I hit it and it kind of shocks,

and sometimes it does cause me to drop things.

I can get some of it but it gets heavy.

It's cos you got that massive balloon sticking out your neck.

I still have a family to provide for.

If I'm unable to provide and do my job...

I mean, that could be detrimental.

Driving is a big part of what I do on a daily basis.

One thing that happens to me is when I'm driving,

when I get into the vehicle, I have to really be careful what I'm doing.

So, coming in...

I always have to duck under.

Because if I don't...

then I tend to hit this and that causes pain in my arm.

So I'm always having to make sure that I'm underneath when I drive.

So I'm always driving with my left, looking over.

My blind side on my right side could be very restricted and more blind.

So it's definitely caused a hindrance on my driving,

which is a big part of what I do.

I'm having to overdo it so I can feel comfortable in what I'm seeing.

Eventually it could hinder my driving.

And that would not be good.

In the past nine years living with it,

I've had to do things differently.

I have difficulty sometimes reaching up into the higher ends,

just because I'm unable to reach in over my head.

I grab my stool in here.

And I place it in.

So then I'm able to reach, not even the higher shelves,

but just the shelves that are arm level with me to get my bowl,

to get my soup.

Not being able to do those things the way I used to be able to do them

sometimes it makes me feel a little bit less than.

I'm not confident any more.

I've definitely lost confidence.

So dressing can be difficult,

because of what I have.

Living in Arizona, having a tank top on,

obviously it pops out.

Obviously, I can't do that because I want to try to hide it.

I don't take my shirt off around friends, I don't go swimming.

When I go to the beach, I leave my shirt on,

because of embarrassment.

I put my undershirt on.

Then I'll grab my button-up.

When I wear a button-up,

my shoulders offset it, so the buttons don't always line up.

I try to button all the way to the top to make sure it doesn't come out

I can't button this top one because it's very restrictive,

just based on the stretchiness of it.

It comes out of whack constantly

and then I constantly have to pull it up.

It's definitely prevented me from being able to lift weights.

I can't really do, like, a push-up or a pull-up.

My body has kind of physically fallen apart

more so than I would like it to.

That's how I dress.

I myself know that if I saw somebody that had a growth like that,

I'd have to stare.

I just don't want to freak people out,

I don't want them to kind of look at me as a freak as well.

Can I do one heater?

Oh, shoot!

That was faster than I was expecting!

Mason is my grandson.

From day one that he was born...

..we've had a connection.

He comes over after school.

We just have a bond that is almost a father-son bond.

Ready to take a break? My arm's starting to get a little tired.

Having this as it grows, there'll be less things I can do with him.

And I do not want to miss out on any part of his life.

I was thinking of moving the chair over there.

Brenda's my girlfriend. We've been together for 12 years.

She's a great partner.

So do you think you can help me pick it up?

We can't slide it? No.

I don't want to drag it so I want us to lift it up.

You can't?

No.

My hand kind of feels different.

Like, I don't want to drop the thing on you. I mean...

I really think we need to have a talk about your thing.

It makes me angry that you haven't done anything about it.

It's not as scary as what you think it is.

There's doctors out there that can help you.

And seeing a doctor is not bad.

Yeah, everybody says it'll be OK,

but people die all the time from surgeries.

That's why you sign releases.

I work in a hospital. I don't see any deaths in surgery.

Being a nurse, I'm around doctors all the time.

I help doctors.

I wish he would understand surgery isn't as bad as he thinks it is.

And I try to explain to him it isn't bad,

but he just does not want to hear about it.

Something needs to get done.

Cos I'm worried the bump is gonna eventually affect his wellbeing

and his health.

I'm just getting nervous that something's gonna happen to you.

I'm worried that you're gonna stop breathing.

Yeah. And I get scared.

Can we please start looking for someone?

I've come to a cross-point with my family.

I don't want to let them down.

But I'm scared of the unknown.

But the main fear I have right now is just...

using anaesthesia.

That's what freaks me out.

I'm nervous that Dr Lee's gonna tell me that I need to be put under,

so that's very nerve-racking right now for me.

I would be scared beyond shitless if I do need to be put under.

I mean, I had an anxiety attack just going through to get my MRI done.

The level of fear is probably above a 10, on a scale of 1 to 10.

Well, hello! Hi, pleased to meet you.

How are you? You're so nice. Nice to meet you.

Welcome. I'm Dr Lee. Thank you.

I can see you've got something right there ready to meet us as well.

Yeah, it's ready to go.

Are you Gabriel? I am Gabriel. You can call me Gabe.

Nice to meet you, Gabe. Yeah.

OK, so, obviously you have this growth right here.

And that must really cramp your style.

100 per cent, yes.

All of a sudden, it appeared one day when I was at work.

So I went and got everything looked at, got a scan and everything. OK.

It came back that it was a lipoma.

It looks like it does say it's a fat-containing mass, lipoma.

Kind of kissing up to multiple different muscles, there.

So have you ever talked to anybody about getting it removed?

I did go to a dermatologist, and her fear was...

where it was at.

So she thought surgery would be more of a way to go.

And I have a complete fear of being put under.

Oh, really?

I've never been put under but I have a fear of doctors, period.

But being put under-You're handling it pretty well right now.

But I'm far away. But I feel it inside. I'm sorry.

No, it's fine. I get it.

Some people feel like it's a little loss of control.

Do you mind if I take a look at it? No, definitely.

I understand the fear you can have going under general anaesthesia.

A lot of people don't like the idea of being not there

when you're having a big surgery.

I do hope I can do this under local anaesthesia,

but I am concerned about the CT scan which shows

that this growth is butting up right against the muscle.

That's nice and wobbly. That's well demarcated.

Let me feel how much it extends. Feel like it extends back here?

No. It kinds of just blubs up like a perfect little ball.

You can't hide this from people. No.

It's not uncommon to see little dilated veins over these.

I'm really hoping this lipoma is not intercalated in the muscle,

just, like, woven into it.

And that would be something that I don't want to mess with

and something that I really can't do like this, under local anaesthesia.

OK, that does indeed feel like a lipoma.

It's deceivingly large, it's bigger than it looks like from your shirt.

So I think that it would be very nice to get rid of that.

I understand your reasons for not having it done,

being under general, not knowing what's going on or anything.