Dr. Joel Aronowitz — Plastic Surgeon Reacts to DIY Cyst Removal
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Okay, so by popular demand, I’m going to watch a do-it-yourself surgery video and react to it while I watch it. I haven’t seen this before, so hopefully it’ll be good. We’ll see what happens. Hopefully nobody gets hurt in the whole thing, so stay tuned.”
Video: “So on this mobile edition of High on Spirit, we’re going to be exploring home medicine in a new fashion. So what about, you know, when you have something going on?” Video: “Most people would go to the doctor, but I’m not necessarily trying to go through all that when I’ve got, you know, a perfectly competent dude right behind me who’s willing to…”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “I love this because I love it when people take control of their own health and educate themselves. I’m not sure if I’ll agree with him taking the knife to himself. But you feel like, you know, I could probably take care of this myself.”
Video: “…into me. And I also have another friend right here behind who’s willing to film the thing and commentate on it during the whole process. So you know, have no fear. Don’t worry. There’s, you know… I got clean syringes, right? I bought these right off of Amazon. So don’t worry. This is totally… This is totally safe. That’s sterile. That’s about as sterile as you can get.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Unless the dude behind him has a little mask on, a non-medical mask and goggles, I’m not sure how much help he’s going to be unless they’re going to do this in the pool.”
Video: “Right there. I’m not going to get more sterile than that. I got some syringe and needle just to, you know, flush it afterwards with some colloidal silver.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Number 10. Blades, not syringes. I think he’s got his equipment, terminology, he’s got his… But let’s not hold that against him.”
Video: “Yeah, you know what? What’s the variety? Well, it’s from our sponsor. It’s from our sponsor, MedPride, you know? And they are a quality instrument. If this surgery is a success, you know, we’re definitely going to report that and you’ll see it here live. And you know, you will get to know that MedPride is the way to go when it comes to syringes. Number 10. That’s the one you want. So, all right. Now, the thing is, here’s what we’re going to do. Go ahead and can you show the viewers for those that can…”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “I don’t know. This is the number 10. It’s just… I’m not going to flush it with colloidal silver. They’re going to flush it with normal saline, but again, I’m not going to hold that against him that his terminology is a little off. Let’s follow along and see how to do this.”
Video: “…full years now. And, you know, we’ve tried acupuncture. We’ve tried plenty of plant medicine. I’ve tried rubbing crystals on it. You’ve tried CBD?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “I think they should have premedicated the viewers with an anti-emetic because I’m getting nauseous watching them move the camera around.
Video: “Well, no, I haven’t adjusted plenty of CBD. But no, directly on it.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “He hasn’t tried the CBD yet.”
Video: “I think it’s deeper. We’re going to have to do that afterwards. Afterwards, for sure. We’re also going to use colloidal.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “No, but I don’t know how an acupuncture needle would make a cyst go away or putting any topical product would make a cyst go away. This is basically a pore. The skin goes down the pore. If skin gets, as the skin grows, the skin cells exfoliate off just like they do on the surface. But inside the pore, if they don’t come out of the pore, then they’ll collect and form a cyst eventually. And that’s what’s happened here. So nothing is going to make that go away except removing it. It’s like the world’s largest blackhead sort of thing. I think it’s deeper.”
Video: “So those are light duty, single use. You sure you don’t want heavy duty ones?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Here’s the fatal flaw with this whole plan is that the fellow who has the YouTube channel is the smart one. And everybody else is his buddy. And I don’t think he’s quite as adept as he is. And this thing is not on the front where he can see it. It’s on the back. So when push comes to shove, it’s not going to be him doing the surgery. It’s going to be somebody else because he’s not going to be able to reach back like this and do it. Yeah, let’s get down to business.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “All right, fine. So he’s putting on gloves that are non-sterile gloves. The only thing that’s going to do is protect the…I’m watching the…I’m watching… I’m doing a reaction video. They’re doing… It’s like these poor guys in rural Maine doing surgery on themselves.”
Bridget: “They’re doing surgery on themselves?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Yeah. I would not let this guy near me with a finger like that.”
Bridget: “What are they going to do?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “He’s got a sebaceous cyst on the back of his neck.”
Bridget: “These are mine-”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “I thought you were going to say these are your ex-boyfriends. Okay, all right. He’s… It’s you. There we go. We’re all set. They’ve got peroxide. They’ve got number 10 sterile blades. I’m squeamish on these kinds of things. I’m willing. I think they should have taken up dentistry, self-dentistry. I’m sorry to say.”
Bridget: “Oh my gosh. I want them to do it.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “He’s dying for him to try it with…”
Bridget: “Is it on his neck?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “No, it’s on the fellow with the camera. This is a red hat procedure. Hold on. Hold on.”
Bridget: “This guy knows what he’s doing.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “You want to bet? I think it’s going to be a success. He’s got one in the hair.”
Bridget: “The hairline is throwing me off.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “It’s like…”
Bridget: “Oh, come on. Can you fast forward?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “What is this torch for? What is the torch for?”
Bridget: “I don’t know. Can you fast forward to the good part?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “The whole part? Oh. Do you see it? He’s going to do it on the floor. No, he’s going to sit on the floor. These guys may not be professional, but they are certainly entertaining.”
Bridget: “Holy cow!”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz” “There are all these things they could be doing, like redoing their wooden floors, fixing the place up. But no, he’s going to get down on the floor where he’s got the doggy bed. Come on, do it. I also would point out that this sofa looks like you picked it up on the side of the road.”
Bridget: “Okay. Well, we’re not here for interior design.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz “Uh-oh. No, they didn’t even wipe it with alcohol. Yes, that would be a good idea. That was a good idea.”
Bridget: “What are they saying at the bottom? The patient has become the doctor.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “But actually, he’s the doctor. He’s committing a crime, which is practicing medicine without a license. He’s only committing the crime of stupidity.”
Video: “I was wondering that at the dentist, too. I’m like, so you guys use oxygen therapy. Why didn’t you put the oxygen right before you put the repair in the mouth there? They repair the cavity. They do the oxygen therapy on the teeth. Why didn’t you do the oxygen right before?”
Bridget: “I’m committing a crime to let you keep stopping this. This is so good.”
Bridget: “Look at this guy intently listening. Can you fast-forward?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “No way. You’re going to miss it if you fast-forward. I think they’re stalling because they’re having second thoughts.”
Bridget: “No way. Haven’t you ever done this at home?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “I have.”
Bridget: “Safety is a little loose.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Of course.”
Bridget: “You never drained a cyst.”
Video: “No, that’s not what I did. Stay away from the lungs.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “I don’t get cysts. He’s putting acupuncture needles in it!”
Video: “I was going to cut a really fine line and then just slightly go deeper until it’s clear. I knew it was up to you. I’m not a professional.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “I underestimated the guy with the black hair.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “He knows he’s not a professional.”
Bridget: “Let’s just watch. He knows he’s not a professional. At least they have a clean blade.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “It’s not clean anymore. He’s holding it with gloves that are non-sterile gloves. He knows it’s going to bleed. He’s holding it.”
Bridget: “I knew he was going slow.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “He is going in the right direction. In the middle and in the back, you want to go up and down.”
Bridget: “He just needs to push a little harder.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “If he pushes harder, it’s going to pop into his goggles. He’s not getting anywhere because he’s not going deep enough.”
Bridget: “We’ll be here all day at this rate. Just push it in.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “It’s better he goes slow. I didn’t even see any blood.”
Bridget: “Is he touching it?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “I don’t know.”
Bridget: “There we go.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “It’s kind of funny that he’s using goggles. He’s protecting himself and not his patient. I don’t know how he can see anything. Because you’re in the skin. You don’t want to really pop the cyst. What you want to do is dissect the cyst. You think he’s going to do that?”
Video: “I’ve been drinking a little. That’s probably a good idea. Do they mean the patient or the doctor? He’s going upside down with the knife. In general, you want to cut toward yourself, not away from yourself. We do have a little blood at least now. Thank you.”
Bridget: “You think he’s got the…”
Video: “What would you hit before you got to the spinal cord? I was just going to say, where do you want me to…Oh my God, we just…We’re losing him by the moment. Hold on, it’s going to squirt out. You hit the guy in the goggles here in a second.”
Bridget: “Thank you, cameraman. If you kept going, what would you hit? All the way to the ground?”
Bridget: “Why can’t he get it? Why is he being so delicate?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Well…”
Video: “The cyst wall just consists of… I wish we got like a…”
Bridget: “Come on. Now he’s getting some of the cyst contents out.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Oh, they zoomed in.”
Bridget: “Now, if you were actually doing this properly, what you would do…”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “I just want to explain. So if these guys watch this video, what you did wrong was, once you make the skin incision, the skin is very thin, you want to elevate the skin on either side of the cyst, so you see that glistening white shiny cyst wall, and dissect that down, it’s roughly an orb, a sphere, and dissect around that so that the whole thing will pop out like a little tiny robin egg. You should send them double hooks, you know?”
Bridget: “I don’t want to abet the crying here.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Okay, I guess we lost Bridget. She just couldn’t take any more, but let’s finish this out. So, to be clear, what he’s doing now is he’s made an incision through the skin, and then you have this big cyst like this, and there’s a thin layer of skin on top of it, so he’s made an incision through the skin, and he’s squeezing on the cyst until the cyst just pops open and the contents of the cyst come out, and that’s really not the right approach. The right approach would be to dissect between the skin and the cyst so that the whole cyst comes out with the wall of the cyst and the contents of the cyst. That way, the contents of the cyst don’t spill out into the wound you’ve created. You don’t create as much inflammation and bleeding, and you basically solve the problem. This way, he’ll take out the contents of the cyst. It’ll go down, even if it doesn’t get infected. The cyst wall is still there, so it’ll continue to form sebaceous material and reform. Now, that’s not pus, so what’s coming out?”
Bridget: “Did you continue watching without me?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “All right, come back. So, he’s referring to the contents of the cyst. He’s rubbing his hands on the floor and then going back at it. You know, and here… You know, listen, he took his time.”
Video: “That is the cyst wall, Dr. Roberts.”
Bridget: “Don’t you wish he had even like tweezers?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “I don’t think that’s… Is that the cyst wall? Yes, it’s the end. It’s the end. It’s like the bottom part. I’m not convinced that this is the cyst wall, but you might be right. See, there’s still stuff coming out, so… Well, he couldn’t break it up under there. It’s not like he’s going to…”
Bridget: “But it’s not the wall of the cyst. So what I’m concerned about is what they’re going to do now. Put a band-aid on it?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “I suspect they’ll just leave it open. See, he’s still getting… he’s still getting sebaceous material out. The sebaceous material is keratin and cerumen, the proteins of the outer layer of the skin, in case you’re wondering.”
Bridget: “Listen.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “So now what did he… what happened? He got some stuff to clean. I mean, this man is not terrible. No, he’s not terrible. He probably could work here. You know, he’s trainable. He needs a little training and he needs to trim the beard. Are they going to irrigate now? They have. They said they had some colloidal silver.”
Bridget: “They’re using a needle now? They didn’t think to maybe start with the needle instead of the scalpel before?”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Well, they’re not injecting his skin. All they’re doing is… Maybe he’ll get the cyst wall out. Oh, now he’s injecting it. That’s not smart.”
Bridget: “I gotta go.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Bridget, come back.”
Bridget: “I’m going to see if we have patience.”
Video: “MedPride? Yes! Our sponsors, our crowd of sponsors at MedPride. Making those badass number 10 syringes for us.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “You can go to YouTube surgery school. These are very spiritual guys, the consciousness of the organism. What they don’t understand is there’s nothing living here. The sebaceous material is just dead skin cells. We’re just a few… Watch out for the knife! He’s twisting around. The knife is on the floor and that knife is still pretty sharp. And now we’re examining the sebaceous material and I don’t really see a cyst wall. I doubt that they got the cyst wall out, but can’t really tell for sure.”
Video: “Your ass. The scalpel. The syringe is… Yeah, the syringes were good.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Number 10 blades. The badass syringes are probably made by somebody else.”
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “They finally caught on. They finally caught on. I think the two guys, the surgeon and the assistant, are the ones who aren’t drunk and the patient is the one who is drunk. But this does not qualify as self-surgery. It’s still not do-it-yourself surgery. It’s more like amateur surgery. About squeezing out pus. About how wonderful it all is. And it’s not pus. There may be pus there in a few more days. Well, I would give these guys an A plus for entertaining. I would give them an A plus for putting their money where their mouth is. This guy put his own body on the line to let his friends practice surgery on him. For the sake of YouTube probably and the sake of saving a few bucks by going to the clinic. Hopefully he healed up without getting any infection. I think he’ll unfortunately have to eventually go to the doctor because I think that he didn’t get the cyst wall out so it will reform. As long as he heals up okay without any infection, no harm, no foul. I think that if they want a little advice on how to do this with a little less risk and a little more effectiveness, next time around give me a call and I’ll be happy to give you some pointers if you’re going to do it anyway. It’s better that you do it and not have a complication. Hold off on the appendectomies and the liver biopsies in the meantime until you get a little bit further along in your training. I hope you guys enjoyed that video. I certainly did. I thought that was great. I hope you visit their YouTube channel and subscribe to them because they seem like three really nice guys with a really good sense of humor who are just trying to have a little fun and solve a problem. Good for you guys. See you all later from Aronowitzland.”
Originally published at https://drjoelaronowitzmd.blogspot.com on December 6, 2023.
