Alarmed about a piece of me that just fell off.

July 27, 2012 9:10 PM

A few days ago I was in the shower, and I noticed a tiny lump in the front of my armpit. Initially I thought it was a zit, so I poked it with a needle. It hurt and thus it was apparently not a zit. As I examined it closer, I saw that it was more... fleshy.

Cancer runs in my family, so I was concerned that maybe this was the beginning of a tumor. Then I remembered that a girl I had been seeing recently had a mole near her hairline that seemed kind of fleshy. And this spot on my armpit was almost the exact spot where her head always used to rest when we slept together. A wart, then?

I called a dermatologist and made an appointment to have this fleshy thing removed and biopsied, but the earliest slot that the doctor had open was next month. That just left the question of what to do in the meantime. I read online that warts can be spread by contact, so if this was indeed a wart, then having it on the inside of my armpit might result in it spreading as the side of my arm rubbed against it. I decided to err on the side of caution by treating it as if it was a wart and putting a salicylic acid bandage over it.

Two days later, I took off the bandage and noticed that the fleshy thing had changed color. Instead of being skin colored, it was now a dark red. Taking care not to contact it with bare skin, I tugged experimentally at it and it fell right off, leaving only a tiny spot of blood where it had been. At this point I confess that I freaked out a little, tossed the thing in the toilet, and took a long shower.

The question is, what do I do now? There is absolutely no trace of the fleshy thing since I didn't have the presence of mind to hang on to it, and by the time I see my dermatologist I probably won't even be able to remember the exact spot where it was. So now I'm concerned that if it was a cancerous tumor, I may have removed the doctor's ability to diagnose me. Even if it was just a wart, I'd really like to have medical verification so that I can provide full disclosure and make sure anybody I get involved with in the future can receive the necessary vaccination. On the other hand, I recognize that no matter how common such things are, there's still a stigma attached, and I don't want to "overdisclose" if it could simply have been an inflamed hair follicle or something like that.

So my question is: will a dermatologist be able to identify what that thing was, even in the absence of any physical evidence? And how alarmed should I be?

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (18 answers total)

IANAD, but that sounds a bit like a sebacious cyst, which is a fairly common armpit situation.
posted by hot soup girl at 9:16 PM on July 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

Even if it was just a wart, I'd really like to have medical verification so that I can provide full disclosure and make sure anybody I get involved with in the future can receive the necessary vaccination.

There's no such thing as a wart vaccine (as anyone who has had a stubborn wart sadly knows), and no reason to talk about it as long as you aren't covered in them.
posted by Forktine at 9:16 PM on July 27, 2012

what do I do now?

Take a photo of the place where your probably-wart fell off. Relax for a month. Then take the photo with you to the dermatologist.
posted by flabdablet at 9:17 PM on July 27, 2012

Could it be a skin tag? Those are common in the armpits. And are completely harmless. Honestly, you sound kind of a lot worried about something that's probably nothing.
posted by MadamM at 9:19 PM on July 27, 2012 [17 favorites]

Are you assuming that all warts are caused by the strains of HPV for which we can now vaccinate? I'm not a wart scientist, but I've gotten warts since I was a child, and no dermatologist has ever told me that I had to tell anyone about said warts. I had one removed from my index finger a few weeks ago, and the only thing the dermatologist said was, "Let's get this off your finger because there is a very low chance you could spread this around your body, and then have to have more warts removed later."

I have had skin tag in my armpits before, and it was the first thing I thought of when I read your post here.
posted by Coatlicue at 9:21 PM on July 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also: for what it's worth, my GP told me that fleshy lumps that hurt and are attached to the underneath of your skin are almost never cancer.
posted by hot soup girl at 9:22 PM on July 27, 2012

It sounds like a skin tag. They are benign non-cancerous tumors. Cause is not known but they are not all that different from moluskum, which is known to be viral in origin.

I have had skin tags dry up and fall off similar to what you described. It is a little weird but basically harmless.
posted by Michele in California at 9:22 PM on July 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Skin tag.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:42 PM on July 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Can you make an appointment with a non-dermatologist between now and your other appointment to at least have someone give it the once-over and tell you whether or not you should be worried?
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 9:42 PM on July 27, 2012

Hot soup girl - your links both go to the main Google page.

Anon -- this sounds like a skin tag, which would be totally harmless.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:55 PM on July 27, 2012

Yeah, skin tag. 98% certainty.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 9:58 PM on July 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

Are you assuming that all warts are caused by the strains of HPV for which we can now vaccinate? I'm not a wart scientist, but I've gotten warts since I was a child, and no dermatologist has ever told me that I had to tell anyone about said warts.

Yeah, the strains of HPV which live on your genitals and the ones which live on normal non-genital skin are entirely distinct. The vaccine targets a few of the common genital strains.

So the bad news is, there's no vaccine against body warts. But the good news is, if you did have a wart in your armpit, the relevant viruses are not gonna give anyone genital warts or cervical cancer. Which means there's no need to get all There's Something I Need To Tell You with future sex partners over it.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:10 PM on July 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

If cancerous tumours just fell off, many people would have many fewer problems.

But keep an eye on the site--take a picture, maybe, to remind you where it was--and watch for changes there over the next six months/year/however long you remember. If there is a problem, you will catch it, and if there isn't a problem, keeping tabs on it should help to reassure you.
posted by snorkmaiden at 10:34 PM on July 27, 2012

Yeah, that sounds very much like a skin tag that's gotten twisted around and cut itself off. It happens.
posted by hades at 10:53 PM on July 27, 2012

It sounds like this thing got red and angry after you put acid on it. No surprise there, you inflamed it enough that it fell off.

Here's a little skin cancer 101 for you. The warning signs for skin cancer can be summarized in the acronym ABCDE:
A - asymmetry
B - border (as in, irregular border)
C - color (irregular color)
D - diameter (larger than a pencil eraser)
E - elevation

I'm willing to bet that this little thing you had was symmetric, shape was approximately round, and it was a uniform skin color, smaller than a pencil eraser (small enough you thought it was a zit). It does sound like it was elevated from the skin, but so are skin tags. So likelihood of skin cancer sounds low here. Hope that is reassuring. I do not think you should be alarmed. The dermatologist probably won't be able to tell you what it was with 100% certainty, but they can probably take a good guess based on the history. Next time, take a picture before you start poking with needles and using acid treatments. (Please don't use needles to pierce your skin at home, that's how infections start)
posted by treehorn+bunny at 11:24 PM on July 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

This actually sounds exactly like a skin tag to me. Armpits and breasts are the primary spots for them.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:18 AM on July 28, 2012

nthing what treehorn+bunny says with emphasis on the 'stop poking yourself with needles'.

You DO NOT want an infected anything.
You DO NOT want an infected something in your underarm area.
You especially don't want to live with the disaster that comes from infection + underarm + mining expedition* + drainage thingy. Not fun for anyone.

*it was an outpatient procedure under local anesthesia but dear god, it felt like they were digging for gold in there.
posted by jaimystery at 6:34 AM on July 28, 2012

This actually sounds exactly like a skin tag to me. Armpits and breasts are the primary spots for them.

I have a skin tag (diagnosed by a doctor) on my inner thigh quite close to my crotch. They do seem to grow in, ah, personal places.

My skin tag sounds exactly like you described. I never had an urge to put acid on it or poke it with a needle, though. Some things are better left alone You are quite lucky you didn't get it infected. I have also had, BTW, a sebaceous cyst which had to be surgically removed, and it was NOTHING like you described.
posted by RRgal at 7:19 AM on July 28, 2012