I'm sorry, but if your 13 year old has HS, it's going to be hell for him. No one is researching this seriously and no "celebrities" has spoken up about it. Take your baby to a dermatologist.

We tried homeschool. We had a terrible time getting a teacher to come out, even though he qualified for homebound instruction. The school district (Robbinsdale) just couldn't get it together. I would recommend MN Virtual Highschool. I think they have middle school courses too now. It's all internet based and a person can "attend" full or part time and even go to the regular school for part of the day do part online.

Thanks mammax3, I have been researching online homeschool programs and we have a few in our state(idaho)but they are all closed for enrollment until the next school year so my problem is what do I do for the rest of this school year?

Four recommendations:
1. Oral antibiotics should provide temporary relief. A penacillin based antibiotic should work, if not, Ciproxin is a powerful one that should work. A two or three month course should clear the lesions up. If it does not, I doubt that this is HS.
2. Then I would apply Bactroban - read my other posts about it.
3. Get him drinking at litre of water before 12 noon every day. Often kids do not drink enough water, and I happen to believe that this is a long-term contributing cause.
4. If you can, see a good Chinese herbalist.

I'd suggest that he goes to school and leads a normal life. HS does not have to be a debilitating, life reducing illness - you can lead a normal life with HS, and manage it. I've been there, I know. I also think that it's easier to get HS into remission if you do these things at a young age.

If you want to follow these ideas, I'm interested to hear how you get along, please let me know. Thanks.

Just to add - I was on Accutane for a year, you're right to avoid it. Although it put my HS in remission, it did cause depression and when I stopped the medication, the HS returned within days.

Thanks for the suggestions SteveGVA. I would prefer to have him in regular public school but at this point I can't even get him out of bed. I think we need to deal with his health issues right now. I want to pull him out of school for the rest of the year and hopefully have him start back next school year. I just feel he is depressed. I'm in the process of finding him a good dr who knows about hs. Like I said the derm is only offering accutane as a treatment. I told him that he is already showing signs of depression and I have a family history of suicide(3 suicides plus many suicide attemps in my family). He said if it was his son he would put him on the accutane....
Also he has been on antibiotics for months and was having alot of stomach upset- diarrhea and vomiting. Also headaches. He just felt sick all the time. Right now he is only on vitamin E and I am going to try the turmeric. I am going to try to get his dr to have his hormones and androgens checked or see if she will refer us out. On another support group it was suggested that he see a urologist because he has only one testicle and I was wondering if that would affect his hormone levels....

I've had it since I was 13 too. Buy some oil free acne wash (like equate) & baby powder & tell him while in the shower to wash the effected area with the soap & then when completly dry put on the baby powder. Ever since I started this regime I don't get them anymore. You have to do it every day though. Good luck!

I know how your son feels. I've had hs since i was at least 8 or 9, something like that, and I'm 15 and a half now. I've had times when I felt like not going to school as well, but I had to suck it up and go. the only times I stay home is when I can't walk because of the ones i get in my groin area and upper inner theighs it makes it impossible to walk with out being in tears. I havent found anything that helped me with this god forsaken diesese and I eventully gave up on doctors help with meds.I haven't been to the doctor for it for a couple years now, but my mom is talking about taking me to a surgeon snd talk about getting them removed. My mom had to have surgey on her armpits for it before as well. I just pray to god that this will go away someday so i can live my life more normaly and not be afriad to go swimming with a bunch of friends without having to wear shorts to cover my swimsuit bottims, let alone raise my hand in class.

First...... I am in stage three HS and have been so for a while.......When i have flair ups my Dr. has me on a good regiment of meds! Erythromycin- 333 mg three times a day. It gets you a whole day of antibiotics and it's good not to upset the ol' stomach. A good antibacterial wash is also good. I use pHisoHex ( prescription only) and Hibiclens which is behind the counter, at least in Kansas. With the sores at bay hopefuly your son will be somewhat pain free to go to school. Kids will be mean but who wasn't picked on in school...... I am a firefighter/paramedic I go to work everyday in pain so basically I have adapt and over come.

As for the one testicle..... I have a similar problem one of mine is smaller than the other. I had my free testosterone checked recently and I was WAY low. but there is a downside to taking testosterone and that is that it could cause more flair ups/sores. I don't have an answer for this problem. I just deal with the low testosterone. I am hoping that seeing a specialist. But when I was on the testosterone therapy my depression wasn't as bad and honestly I felt pretty good.

Lastly don't make your son take accutane!! It will clear his regular acne but not the HS. The risks to your liver are high, and if it were just plain ol' acne the risk would be worth it, but unfortunately he has HS

I'm sorry to hear what you are going through Allisonn...my son did not do well last school year. He is getting ready to go back to school and I'm a little nervous about how he will do this year. He also has it in his groin which was pretty painful. He also has it on his backside and armpits. He missed alot of school because it was painful to walk and even to sit down at times....Hopefully this year will be better for him and you too.

thanks FireMedic, for your comments. Actually he is doing alot better. He hasn't had any problems for quite a while now. I don't know why...but we are happy about it. I will not ever do the accutane. I refused it because I have not ever read anything good about it online from people with hs.

Some counties have online public schools. You take the classes online and show up in person to take the ocassional test. Your county mayhave that. And since it is a public school, he can switch any time.

Shannon...

Hey there, Have not heard from you in a while. Hope all is well.

You are right to avoid the Accutane. In all of the case reports we have seen, Accutane has virtually no effect on HS as such. The side effects are very powerful and have caused some serious problems.

Think about it, any drug where the mfgr, and the doctor want you to sign a document that says you will not sue them for using it, should give you cause for concern.

Rick H.

I totally agree Rick H. The derm said he would put his own child on Accutane but I still refused. It's just not worth the risk and his case is in the mild stages. Every doctor we have been to acts like it's no big deal to put them on Accutane...
As far as school goes...he had a really bad year last year and even had to do summer school to make up and be able to go on to the 8th grade. This is a kid in advanced classes! But we are trying to have a more positive attitude and I will be very proActive in his school issues and keeping an eye on things. Hopefully it will be a better year for him.

I have taken accutane twice, and I never experienced any problems with it, though I have heard horror stories from people who have had troubles. If it's any consolation, I didn't have any improvement on my HS by taking the accutane. I have a 14 year old daughter and I tell you, I'm worried sick that she's going to inherit this disease.