
Morbid curiosity got to me. For some reason, I had to check it out and see if this was about popping massive pimples. Which, it turned out not to be. It was (and is) a whole lot more, and something that is actually entertaining, interesting, and dare I say it?: Uplifting.
How a show billed as being about popping pimples can be uplifting to the viewer deserves some explanation. It certainly took a few viewings for me before I began to notice a deeper trend of helping people overcome obstacles in their lives. Doctor Lee, who stars in the show, makes this happen.
With a blend of positive change, diagnosis and action, humor and investigative analysis, Dr. Lee brings the issues of the patients to the fore. They range from removing simple (but sometimes HUGE) cysts, to skin lesions of unknown origin/name which the patients’ previous doctors have been unable to effectively treat.
For example, a recent episode brought a woman to the viewers who had a head crown and multiple large cysts on her scalp. She was embarrassed to go outside and run chores, and her daughter was being harassed by kids at school because of the way the mom looked. It was sad and disheartening, but there was nothing that couldn’t be fixed.
Dr. Lee, with compassion and insight, incised the bumps, cleaned up the woman’s scalp and hair, and delivered the woman’s life back to her. Lee gave her peace and grace.
A second recent case brought to Lee an elderly ex-military man from Wisconsin with a milky white skin scaling covering his legs, arms and face. His toenails were so thick with whatever the syndrome was had turned the toenails white with close to half-an-inch thick crusting. The man had given up on life. His middle-aged son cried for the loss of the father he’d known in his younger days.
It didn’t take much for Dr. Lee to find answers. They weren’t complex. She didn’t promise a full recovery. She pledged there would be progress, and his syndrome would improve.
Applying simple moistened compresses and showing the son how to take care of the treatment himself, she sent them on their way to continue the applications while she delivered samples of the skin in for analysis.
There was nothing that miraculously came back from the lab. But, there was an element of a miracle when the man and his son returned after continuous treatment of his skin. With the father’s arms cleared up, the son said how he could see red in his dad’s skin on his legs for the first time in years. The improvements got the father out of his funk and clearly reduced the depression the son held in his soul.
There are both little and big things we help others with in life. Dr. Pimple Popper may sound like a goofy show with not much to it. You’d be missing the point though if you felt that way by reading the TV guide.
It’s so much more. Redemption. Not giving up. Changing how you see life. Give it a pop. See what you think.