Dr. Pimple Popper is back for season 3 and taking on new patients with unusual skin conditions. HollywoodLife has an EXCLUSIVE preview of the Jan. 11 episode that features a young woman named Natalie, who has bumps all over her arms and legs. “I’m so glad that Natalie made her trip from Atlanta. I was able to speak with her via video conference, which gave me some ideas about her condition,” Dr. Sandra Lee explains.
Three months earlier, Natalie had revealed to Dr. Lee that the itching started back in college, mostly at night. Natalie says it was a “deep nonstop” itch and was diagnosed with prurigo nodularis. She has been face-to-face with many dermatologists but nothing has helped.
Dr. Sandra Lee is determined to get to the bottom of what’s wrong with Natalie. “Natalie is right. She does have prurigo nodularis, but that is a very nonspecific skin condition,” Dr. Sandra Lee says. “It’s really a descriptive term. It just really means that you’ve been scratching or picking at some area chronically and causing the skin to thicken in the area.”
Natalie’s had a biopsy done, so Dr. Lee has nearly all the information she needs to make a diagnosis. “The pattern of Natalie’s skin condition, her biopsy results, and also the fact that she’s been itching a lot more at night really give me clues as to her diagnosis,” Dr. Lee notes.
When Dr. Lee takes a closer look, she sees that the bumps are perfectly spaced. “Something that I’m noticing is the distribution of the bumps,” she says. “Why do you not see them on her back, but you see it on her arms and her legs and her torso?”
Dr. Lee believes there’s really only one option left — Natalie’s skin condition might be self-induced. “If you didn’t scratch at these areas, do you think they would not appear?” Dr. Lee asks Natalie. Dr. Pimple Popper airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on TLC.