Pimples? and Rash?

[Ted]

Dear Docter,





I guess I would never have even bothered to think twice about this if I didn't get so scared in a previous situation.  After taking a drink out of pop from another that had some sort of a red growth on the lip I noticed some white bumps that occured on my lip.  I asked the doctor about them and some other bumps that looked somewhat similar on my penis and he said they were nothing but tiny cysts.  Now when I went to the doctor I also had these sort of white bumps under the skin on my sack.  I didn't think nothing of them, because I thought they were just cysts.  I remeber having these last summer too, but I could have had them in the winter and just not noticed.  I had two last summer and two currently.  So anyway, now that I know a little more about herpes I'm sort of wondering if maybe this is herpes.  I've had one for about 2 weeks, and I didn't mess with this one.  But the another one I picked at trying to get it to pop until it bleed.  It didn't pop until about 4 days later when I gently sqeezed on it and it burst out this thick yellowish puss.  It then kind of cratered and there was yellow puss in the middle and now it's just a pink spot where you can still see the crater it left.  I'm 18 and a virgin.  Can cysts pop like this? or is just a pimple?  Also, I noticed that if I held the bump between my fingers it felt very hard.  The area around the one I havn't touched doesn't hurt and doesn't appear to be red.  



Also, I have this really tender area of skin that is between my adomin and my thigh.  It's a pink area that in some spots has blood.  I noticed another pink spot next to this area also. It appears to be flaking when I scratch it, because you can see tiny bites of white flakes coming up. Is this caused by friction?  





Thanks Alot!

Ted

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Chill, Ted!  These are cysts, and they do indeed pop, but only if you pop them.  They can occur on the lip too.  The tender area must have irritated or squeezed.



Herpes causes blisters which scab over and go away in a week or 10 days.  



If you're still worried, show your doctor again.  But if you leave these cysts alone, they won't trouble you.



Best.



Dr. Rockoff