Pimple or cold sore?

[lipline]

A week ago (Tuesday) I suffered a flu and was fairly out of it until Friday. By Sunday it had been reduced to a mild cough. Sunday night I noticed that on the lower near-corner of my lip, there was a white bump that had become reasonably large. There was no pimple head, but I took it as a pimple or ingrown hair (I am prone to them from shaving). Being me, I went ahead and attempted to pop it. It took a little work, but eventually I got a bunch of white junk to come out, what I thought was pimple junk.

I woke up the next morning (Monday) and after the shower I squeezed a little more material out of it, more white stuff. Went to work, came home and I squeezed what seemed to be the remainder out of it. Not much was left once I was done squeezing, just an empty hole where it looked like something has been.

It is now Tuesday and the whatever-it-is has remained with a bit of a clear/yellow/red scab over it and has continued to get smaller. I gather it will be gone in 1-2 days. It is virtually painless, the only time I noticed any pain was after I popped it, and even then the pain was minimal.

Now, as I'm typing this, I can only help but think it was either a pimple or an ingrown hair because there was never any sort of blistering or oozing of clear puss or anything that would indicate to me that it is a cold sore. Nevertheless, is it possible that what I just described is a cold sore?

[lipline]

Thanks for the reply.

I woke up this morning and after my shower I actually went ahead and attempted to remove the scab. It came off extremely easily and the skin is fine underneath. There is a slight bit of a redness but still no pain.

I too believe it was possibly a hair follicle, but either way, I now doubt it was a cold sore.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
The symptoms are suggestive of nfected hair follicle and not cold sore. Please keep the area clean and apply some topical antiseptics. Avoid any kind of cosmetics. Topical antibiotics such as mupirocin or neomycin containing ointment are also useful. In case the symptoms persist then oral antibiotics may be needed. Please consult a dermatologist in that case.

I hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted in case you have any additional doubts. Kind regards.