I am so very sorry to hear that your 'singular' bumps have turned into multiples....which sounds like you've moved into stage 2 or 3. I've cut/pasted from Derm Net NZ (New Zealand)...>>

The extent and severity of the disorder varies widely between individuals. Initially a firm pea-sized nodule (0.5-1.5 cm diameter) resembling acne may appear on one site. These lesions may resolve spontaneously or within hours to days rupture and ooze a pus-like discharge. These may heal without treatment but at a later time new lesions recur in the adjacent area. If uncontrolled, this leads to development of larger lesions (golf ball size), sinus tract formation, and involvement of multiple sites. Three distinct clinical stages have been defined for the condition.

Stage 1 solitary or multiple, isolated abscess formation without scarring or sinus tracts
Stage 2 recurrent abscesses, single or multiple widely separated lesions, with sinus tract formation
Stage 3 diffuse or broad involvement, with multiple interconnected sinus tracts and abscesses.
Disease may spread to involve less commonly associated sites including the nape of the neck, waistband and inner thighs. Anogenital involvement most commonly affects the groin, mons pubis, vulva, sides of the scrotum, perineum, buttocks and perianal folds. The abscesses and sinus tracts can be painful.

Back to me: Stage 2 seems to have been exacerbated by itching and irritation...which promptly kick-started Stage 3. Now that they've developed into Sinus Tracts...unfortunately, they will remain so. One "long-connected cyst" that will never heal.
Everyday are stages of cyst 'coming or going'.
If you cannot manage the double-barrels...they will merge into one long sinus tract.
Best of care to you.

Yes. I have one now on my outer labia with a two barrel bump. It is extremely annoying, and painful. And it always seems to burst in the wrong direction leaving it even more difficult to heal and close. I slather that thing to oblivion with Neosporin, and I am usually able to get it to shrink before it gets larger.

Your disease process sounds very typical of HS..... when there is irritation and inflammation and cysts they usually come in pairs or even more..... Do you use warm epsom salts on a warm compress to help with them? That helps bring them to drain better. As far as topical stuff goes...... there is somuch stuff that people use to try and get these things to drain....... I use manuka honey, bactroban, zinc oxide, and aloe vera gel when they are bad and it helps them drain and come to a close faster...... My daughters derm does not use staging...... ( arent doctors fun)....so we just stopped going to our derm doctor cause she wanted my daughter on antibiotics 24/7 and I said no way...... we get clyndamycin gel from her pediatrician...... if we run into trouble we go to the pedi office instead of downtown houston to a derm doctor who virtually did nothing but want to put my daughter on toxic antibiotics all the time..... soooooooooooooooooooooo, treat your bobos and if they get real bad then go to the doctor for help ..... God bless, tangerinebear xo ...

I have had the double barrell ones for some time but was just wondering how many others do. This isn't new on me personally. I have large hardened tracs from one to anohter and from surgeries in between. I do use epsom salts, heat pads, compresses, tea tree oils ect.. but typically the reoccur and persist. I have times where they are less active though those times are not the hot summer months.

I def have gotten the double barrells as well. It is definitely uncomfortable to say the least lol.

Amber

I know what you mean... I have them too all the time.

I get the double barrel baddies too.
I guess by reading what cherries got from the Derm Net..I would actually be stage 3 now..I have multiple interconnected sinus tracts and multiple (some connected some not) abscesses. The sinus tracts to me feel like a hardened vein or something along those lines.

And I get those deep feeling ones..the ones that feel like they started at the bone and worked their way up through the layers so I feel ya. (especially when it comes to the "long hot summer months" lol)

These things suck. I agree with OP, sounds like you are in stage 2/3.

I have one spot on my inner thigh/bikini zone that was a double and oficially marked advancement into stage 2 for me also. I don't know how, but after 6 months of going through infammation then draining when it was at its smallet i squeezed it..(which i know is bad) but i think it worked! It is the only spot that hasn't come back, has completely dried up. It didn't leave a purple scar either, but the sinus track is still visable. I guess it was close to the top of the skin, it looks like a giant open pore now but with two openings.

The nastiest part about this stage is that i've gone to squeeze one and it would ooze out of a completely different hole than where i was expecting it too.

I have one on my left thigh in the 'kini zone that has been there almost a year now. It has never healed shut and drains clumpy oily puss every day.

So far i have it in my arm pits, a few inches below my arm pits, on both buttcheeks and occasionally in the crack or right on my you know what :/ I have them the worst on both inner thighs, everywhere around my bikini zone including both labia and also in my *inbetween* spot... then yesterday i woke up with one a few inches above my butt, almost at my waistline!!! It's VERY painful as the skin is very tight there :(

I am lucky enough not to get them around my breasts.. (yet) and also that i have not had any huge ones yet. The biggest ive had so far was the size of a large marble.

I take nothing for this condition.. my doctor prescribed me some type of antibiotic but i can't take it because it causes a gnarley yeast infection down below which is not good!! the dr told me there was nothing else i could do besides the medicine but said people usually grow out of it by their 30s.. which i know is NOT true. There is not enough information about this disease to contend with her though.

So far the only places I get them is in both armpits, which have started this slow, but sure expansion down my sides. I have them on the inside crease next to the lady parts, the mound, the vulva..and now the INSIDE of the opening to the lady part. And on the insides of my butt cheeks.

@jlapinska-You don't take anything? How do you deal with the pain?! If it wasn't for my god send of a dr. I wouldn't be able to deal with the pain without my pain meds..When it's not too bad I can hang half assed with some ibuprofen. You must have a high pain tolerance..either that or I have a low one. And yeah..that is utter BS she tried to feed you there..I'm 35 and have had this since I was 19! I might would rethink (if you can, not sure how your insurance is, or lack thereof, as some of us can't afford/don't have it at the moment) continuing seeing your current dr. My doc didn't really know a whole lot about HS, at least not that I could tell, but I think she may have been either looking on this site (which I directed her to) or if she's been doing her own research, but she has been very open with me, and so willing to work with me. Sad that I had to go through so much hell to finally get a good, caring doc, but if I can keep her as my dr. then it was all worth it. I say if I can keep her, since I'm not sure if she will be staying with the practice she's in now or if she will eventually move on to her own or partnering up with someone else in their's.

Unfortunately for me, i suffer from multiple problems. Thyroid disease and fibromyalgia which is a chronic pain disease. I am also red headed and have no skin pigment so i suffer with severe vitamin d deficiency (skin with no melanin can't get vitamin d from the sun) and that ALSO causes more pain. I went to a rheumatologist last december who informed me that on top of my fibro, i was feeling the sensation of my bones literally withering away on the inside. Needless to say these events have lead me to have a super high pain tolerance. Sometimes the intense muscle and bone pain i have greatly overshadows the pain of my HS.


This is the second GP i have had in the last year.. my first one jumped ship on me and didn't leave any of my medical records ... so my new GP pretty much doesn't know anything about me. She isn't very nice so i am scared to ask her for pain management of any sort. Because of my overlapping conditions, frequent dr visits..i am also unable to afford a new dr at this time. Maybe in a couple more years. :/

@ jlapinska- How did you doc take off with your medical records? Those records legally belong to you and are your property. If he did that he is liable for a major lawsuit. Under HIPPA laws the fines for things like that are very high.The feds take a very dim view of behavior like that.

Did the doc sell the practice? If so, maybe your record went to whoever bought the practice. You can contact them and have them sent to your new person. That's terrible what happened. I'd track that dr.'s butt down and threaten him within an inch of his life.

Have one at the base of my spine. Its like the size of a grapefruit overall. But if you feel on it is a little series of lumps that drain from different locations. Really sucks

Nightmare illness this is

Peace
Dus

mycatpi- i am not sure. all i know is at the beginning of this yr i called to make an appointment and was told that my doctor had left to a private practice and was informed of which doctor would be taking over his patients which meant me. i forget exactly when i found out that the clinic i go to told me they did not have any copies of my medical records and could not find the file. i just know that when i called to have my inhaler refilled she said they had no documents on me having asthma. they made me wait two weeks for a new appt so the new gp could examine me and decide wether or not i was asthmatic!! it was very frustrating.especially when i know the old doctor is the one who made almost all of my diagnoses himself and it has been documented by my insurance.

@jlapinska- That is terrible. I would call the clinic back and ask to speak with the office manager. They have to know where he went. He didn't just fall off the earth. I would explain the situation is life threatening because of the inhaler issue. If they refuse to help there are ways to trace him through the state board. Everytime a doc or nurse changes jobs in the profession they have to inform the state board as to their whereabouts. I guarantee you the clinic knows where he is and they should refer you. If he left on bad terms that's no reason for you to suffer.

About the skin and Vit D thing. Being fair complected means it is easier for you to absorb sun rays not the other way around. What blocks sun absorption in the skin is melanin. The lighter you are the less you have. Melanin is what makes people tan. It is always present there but becomes active when exposed to sun light as a form of skin protection. People like you and me where born with little melanin which means we will never be able to really tan. That does not mean we can't make Vit D. Tanning and Vit D production are not the same.

If you have little melanin it means that sunlight is absorbed more directly. When it comes to Vit D it only takes about 5 minutes a day in sunlight to make an adequate supply. If you were very dark complected it would take a lot longer.

The reason I mention this is you say you feel as if your bones are crumbling. Have you been tested for Rickets? That comes from lack of Vit D and is easy to treat. Also, lack of Vit D can really aggravate fibro. It could be you are not absorbing your oral Vit D supplements. Its an easy blood test to measure the amount of Vit D in the blood.

Oh ok well i explained it backwards then. For some reason no matter how much time i spend in the sun or how much vitamin D supplements i take, my vitamin D is not going up. It has taken 8 months for it to get to 23 when it was at a 10 the first time they checked it. Its going up, but super slow. I take 10,000iu of vitamin D per day after i was told to take only 2,000 and still after 7 months it has only risen 13 and my doctor told me to double my dose.. he doesn't know i'm already taking 10,000. Sometimes when i know i'm too busy, i will take 5 days worth at once. I take alot of pills so it is easy to forget!

Yes i know it's the adult version of rickets even though that's not what the doctor told me. Im not sure why it isn't going up. Maybe my body is using it up before it can be absorbed or something i don't know. I do know that since i started taking the supplements that my fibro flare ups are less and less. When i was first tested for vitamin d deficiency, i initially went to the doctor and was tested for all sorts of things from cancer to lupus, because i was so ill i couldn't even work. That flare up lasted more than 6 weeks before it went away.

As for my old GP, i could try to track him down, but honestly i'm not going to bother. They already made me come in for a whole new exam just to get an inhaler. The new GP i have i don't like her. The last time she examined me, she checked my ears, and yanked yard on my ear piercings even after i told her one of them was brand new and very painful. I plan on getting a new GP before i ever go back to that clinic, and then i'm going to ask for a referral to see a fibro specialist so that hopefully i can get onto some type of pain management for it. My current GP said all a fibro specialist will do is put me on anti depressants. I think my GP has no idea what she's talking about. Between the HS and fibro i am always in some type of pain. Im only 26 and i feel like if i can't get help soon then the next person i see will be a psychotherapist!