Hidradenitis Suppurativa

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, if you purchase something I may earn a commission!

Not many know about HS and the painful ugly scars that it can leave. Scars that make it hard to want to wear shorts or tank tops for fear of wandering eyes and plaguing questions. To answer some questions people might have: No, HS is not contagious. Yes, it is painful to walk, sit, stand, wave your arms, or do anything with the affected area. No, there is no cure.

HS is an autoimmune condition. Which means that your immune system is attacking healthy cells. Basically your body is attacking itself. It is characterized by black heads, painful fluid filled lumps under the skin, inflammation of the skin, and extreme pain. HS is also known as acne inversa.

There isn’t a whole hell of a lot known about this condition. Which really sucks because that means there really isn’t an effective treatment. There are different things people can do to help ease their symptoms but, until there is a cure… We just live with it, making due and manage what we can.

Smoking, drinking, unhealthy eating habits, being overweight or having a hormone problem can make HS worse. Some people say that losing weight helped them, but that hasn’t helped others. Others went on a gluten free diet and that helped them. Some are on an autoimmune protocol or AIP for short. There is also surgery for cases that are beyond pills or changing your diet. taking supplements such as turmeric, zinc and vitamin D3 can be helpful. Just as each and everyone of us is unique, the treatment methods are unique.

The areas of the body that HS can be are; the groin, the arm pits, under the breasts, the inner thighs, even the buttocks can be affected. Anywhere that skin rubs together or pores can get clogged. It is said that wearing baggy clothing and going commando can ease the pain.

How am I such an expert? I am an HS warrior. We say warrior because of the battle we endure everyday. Usually I don’t talk about this because of the questions and the weird looks. But I’ve decided what the hell? What can it hurt. I’ve even started wearing shorts again! I’ve lived with this for about 9 1/2 years. That’s right, a long dang time! At first I had no idea what it was, I thought maybe it was an in-grown hair or something. All I knew was that it hurt like a son of a bitch. It was on my stomach, but soon they started appearing on my thighs.

I can remember my senior year of high school finding a few black heads on my thighs and thinking that was the weirdest thing ever. The angry reddish purple bumps appeared when I was a little older. I remember crying in the bathroom of my first apartment, trying to get them to pop so the pain would go away.

Shelby-lynn and Emory would ask me “mommy why are you crying” and I would just tell them I didn’t feel good, and carry on with the day. Flares would show up whenever they damn well pleased and stick around for a month sometimes! Eventually this stuff creeped up into my armpits and my groin region. One of the extra shitty things about HS is that you think it’s healed, there is a scar there, but then all of the sudden a lump starts forming under the scar, and it starts all over again.

In one of my desperate attempts to find something to help, since the doctors didn’t know what was going on. I googled everything I could and every symptom that I had. The grand search brought me to HS. I almost cried reading about it. There’s no cure? Turmeric? What’s that? Don’t pop them? What the hell? I had an extra painful bump under my arm where my bra hit. I decided to try a turmeric hot pack(using this Turmeric Powder), let me tell you the relief I felt was intense!

I’ve been using this Youtheory Turmeric every day since. It doesn’t keep everything down, but what I’ve got going on now is vastly better than it was before! I start each day by also taking a Zinc Supplement, this Vitamin D3 and this Probiotic. If I forget a few days in a row, it’s inevitable that I will have those angry bumps again. Even with the turmeric I still get extremely bad flare ups depending on what I eat or what my hormones are doing.

About year ago when I was pregnant with Willow, I had an extra big one, because my hormones were out of whack. It had to be packed for five days, let me tell you what, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. It hurts more than child birth and the sensation of felling what they do to pack it is hard to explain.

I’ve stopped eating so much taco Bell and try to make as healthy food as possible. We’ve also started taking morning walks around our loop, to get our blood flowing and get some exercise in. I am overweight, so starting small is at least starting somewhere! HS for me is hormone related, every month around my period I will have a flare up. Along with the supplements, I will take an Epsom salt bath with lavender, peppermint and rosemary oils. It definitely helps ease the pain of the big ones. I take a bath once every week or two. For the extra painful ones I will make a turmeric hot pack and yell all sorts of profanities while I put it on, but it helps so I do it.

Until there is a cure, this is what my life will be like! I’m not complaining at all, because aside from the one time, I haven’t had to have surgery, and I am truly thankful for that. We need to find a way to bring awareness to HS as there are many that have suffered multiple surgeries or those of us who are unable to get out of bed due to this condition.