Skin cancer, blood blister?????

[distressed29]

A few days ago I was taking a shower and felt a bump on the back of my upper thigh (close to my buttocks). It was blue/black circular raised bump(like a pimple). Of course, I picked at it and it did bleed. A day later there was just a scab with a little red irritation around it. I picked off the scab and put neosporin on it. Now it is just a white circle with a litte bit of the red irritation still around it (which was there after I picked it the first time) The blue/black is gone. However, when I touch it, I seem to feel a knot under the area that I picked. Could this of been a result of the irritation?   Could this be skin cancer? If it was skin cancer, would the blue/black area of disappeared like it did after I picked it. My plan was to watch it for a week.  It seems to be healing with the ointment.  If it does not heal, then I was going to consult my derm.

[distressed29]

I just wanted to update you on the lesion I had on my leg after 1 month.  It looks very different.  The redness has faded (just a little red now).  Now it looks like a brown dot in the middle (small about the size of a few pin heads) with a white circle around that with some discoloration of the skin around the white circle. Also, the bump seems to have gone down but not completely.  Is that just the way the skin healed?  Is it a scar?  Could this be melanoma?

[distressed29]

I'm sorry ...I just have one more question.  The bump before I picked it was blue/black.  Can a hair follicle be that color?  I guess I was concerned with the color when I first saw the bump.

[distressed29]

Thank you for the reply!  If it heals, can I be reassured and move on or do you think I need to consult the derm.?  

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

It sounds like a picked follicle.  It does not sound like a skin cancer.  Your plan to apply ointment and wait sounds absolutely right.  The knot may stay palpable for weeks or longer.  If you're still troubled by it in 1 month--and you haven't been picking or squeezing--you should show it to a doctor then.

Take care.

Dr. Rockoff