By the way, doctor: Will quitting aspirin help get rid of these splotches on my arms?

Q. I am a 92-year-old man. For some time I have been getting purplish-red splotches on my arms. I take a baby aspirin for heart disease. One doctor told me to stop because the aspirin could be causing the red splotches. But another said stopping could be dangerous. What do you say?

A. It sounds like you have senile purpura, a very common and harmless condition. In this case senile means nothing more than old age, and purpura is Latin for purple, the color of the splotches.

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