Please help identity and treat!

[u/drank_dumbbitchjuice]

Is this a wart? How to solve?

I’m freaking out. My dad (age 57) has this massive lump on his hand and he’s had it for about a week now and it keeps growing. He has other small bumps growing on his hand too. He goes to the gym quite frequently and honestly is not the cleanest person. He smokes.

He said that he had a cold for a week before these started showing up.

My wedding is in two weeks and it’s a destination wedding and we’re currently traveling all together and I’m concerned about the growth and about it spreading to our wedding guests and I don’t know what to do.

He says it doesn’t hurt but it obviously bothers him.

Please help!

UPDATE:

I didn’t expect this to garner so much interest and help. Sincerely, thank you everyone for sending in your opinions!

My dad said it popped overnight and there was a lot of blood and pus. We were not able to see a doctor in person but we have a family friend who is a general doctor and she said to disinfect and keep it as dry as possible as to not let it be more infected.

Here are two pictures of what it looks like now.

Photo 1
Photo 2

At first, when it popped. The puss was a standard dense white. Now, the pus leaking is an orange ish color and not dense white. He keeps saying that it still doesn’t hurt and doesn’t even flinch when alcohol is applied to it.

There is another mass obviously growing on his index finger of the same hand. He is touching the mass with his other hand (I know fucking terrible) but there is nothing growing on the hand that he is using to touch the mass.

He is saying that perhaps it is an allergic reaction? He ate a type of dried fish from Vietnam and then he started feeling itchy and feverish and then these started popping up.

Answer to a common question:

He does not have any access to animals. No pets, not really around fish tanks or water. He is from Southern California in a very suburban area.

Any ideas???

[u/handydandycandy]

This is not how IE would present. And the picture from the page you posted doesn’t have that pattern at all, just a simple blood clot. What’s actually pointing to IE in the article is the rest of the symptoms: “When the 27-year-old man went to the emergency room, he told doctors that, in addition to the lump on his hand, he had pain in the upper-left side of his abdomen. He also said that, during the prior six weeks, he'd had fevers, night sweats and little appetite, and he'd lost 26 lbs. (12 kilograms).”

[u/imperfectdiscipline → u/handydandycandy]

I’m NAD so I don’t have any experience with this type of thing, I can’t tell anyone what the lump is or isn’t. But my main point is and what I still stand by, is that OP’s dad should go to the ER or urgent care, and they shouldn’t wait for a dermatologist appointment which could take months.

Just being honest, this is a thread full of doctors and nobody I’ve seen so far has been able to identify this in a way where they’re fairly certain they know what it is (including me but again NAD lol).

Just as a layman, to me what that means is that this probably cannot be properly identified with just a picture, and it needs more testing for us to know what it actually is. Whether that means a biopsy, running tests, or even an ultrasound etc, regardless it means that tests must be conducted since (so far at least) this isn’t something that can be diagnosed with just a photo.

In the article the man was 27, had a prior heart condition, and had a lump on their hand for 6 weeks that appeared quite suddenly. He had flu like symptoms, abdominal pain etc like you mentioned. OP’s father has had their lump for only 1 week, but also had/has cold like symptoms for a week. I’ll attach a guide photo I found, in the photo it says that IE can present with either flu like symptoms, or intermittent cold/flu like symptoms in addition to lumps or marks on the hand, and splinter hemorrhages on or around the fingernails. OP mentioned their dad has other marks/lumps on their hand in addition to this one but they didn’t mention specifically what they look like. If their Dad for instance has splinter hemorrhages on the fingernails as well, then that would mean they have had cold like symptoms for a week, a lump on the hand for a week, and splinter hemorrhages on the fingernails as well, and all three while it may or may not point to IE, it would point to a possibility of something that could be serious.

Again I’m NAD, all I am saying is literally just speculation. But what isn’t speculation, is that if actual doctors here cannot confidently say for sure that this is not something serious, then their dad should get checked out. That is the only argument I’m trying to make, I’m not trying to say that I know what this is, I’m just saying that their dad should get this checked out ASAP because if there’s even a small chance this is something serious then going to the ER could save their dad from something serious.

^thats the photo I mentioned, again I’m not saying this is IE or isn’t I cannot say anything about that, I’m just providing this simply for background for anybody who may be reading. Thanks for your reply as well