Hey team! Long time reader, first time poster. I've had HS for about a decade and in the last 2 years it has exploded all over both armpits and around my junk/butt. It has always hurt a little bit all the time, but recently I moved (to start law school! which is going well otherwise) and got a new GP and we've been working on doing battle with this befoulment. She started me on 3 months worth of doxycycline. I had relative success with an antibiotic last year, at least in so far as getting things to heal and stalling any new occurances while I was on it. So far I've been on doxycycline for about 6 weeks and terrible things are happening. While the ones on my butt seem to be deflating, a new one popped up around my pantyline but that's not the bit I want to ask about. Before I started I had a bunch of huge boils under my arms. While on the drug they have popped and now at the six week mark they have turned into, basically, big deep open wounds. A few of them have stopped oozing puss and have started bleeding (deep red blood, the kind I think of as "healthy blood"). They hurt so much. Getting dressed in the morning is actually tear-inducing. I put neosporin on them and then gauze to try and alleviate the peeling-off pain when I change the bandages. They're really huge and deep. I'm open to the possibility that this is just part of the heeling process, but also it hurts so bad it makes sleeping hard and bathing is like torture and I just want it to stop. Is this normal? Should I go back to my doctor and talk to her about it?

Also; Humira: pros, cons? My doctor has kind of accepted that I know more about this disease than she does, which is upsetting but also I'm determined not to have to do law school AND have to deal with this at the level I am.