Good morning, and welcome! When I started reading your post I though that they had taken mine and condensed it somehow. I just joined last night and put on a long, rambling post. I've had this about 17-18 years too, and it migrated to one armpit recently. I have not tried the elimination diet, not have I read that book. Please let us know if you find something that helps!! My family practice NP told me yesterday that it takes 6 weeks for our skin to go through a full cycle. So any lesions that surface have likely started 6 weeks ago. I have to disagree with that. Once I ran out of Dial soap and used Dove for a few days. I came down with 2 new lesions before I could make it to the store for more Dial. I can, however, see it taking 6 weeks for a diet change to show any results since we are what we eat. Good luck :)

A number of people claim to have been helped by following Tara Grant's guidelines and I'm sure I've heard enough worse suggestions that it's certainly worth a try if it might help, although not all of us may be able to expect as much from it as people who might be identifying serious food sensitivities or allergies with an elimination diet.

A good number of HS patients report improvement by observing a diet free of nightshades (tomatos, potatos, eggplant etc - some people include tobacco on their list but no one actually eats it much) but again not all of us may be able to expect benefit from this approach either, and this is one that really don't seem to benefit my HS any. I've also heard people report improvement by avoiding gluten, but that too may not benefit everyone.

It may be that we can't realistically expect HS to show major improvement in less that 6 weeks, I can't really think of much for reports of it happening sooner. It is very frustrating since trial and error can be slow enough, and trying to give different adjustments enough time to work can only slow things down more, but I don't much of much evidence that improvement can happen much faster.

I've had a lot of that with what's left of my HS-related pilonidal cyst that won't completely go away, it can get (and often has) twice as bad overnight but has almost never taken less than 6 weeks to calm back down to where it was prior to the particular flare-up.

kheekis, what kind of dial do you use? I have been using Dove sensitive. I have certainly noticed some changes but not to the degree I would like. My armpit now has one golf ball sized boil which is so extremely sensitive. I can't do much with my left arm. Holding my 15month old son is excruciating. This has caused me to be incredibly emotional and discouraged.

I have read this support group for about 2 months but have not once seen Tara Grants name. She does mention that this way of life starts with scientific experiments on yourself trying to find out triggers such as night shades. Hence the elimination diet. I just don't feel like I can stop yet bec of my most recent flare up.
Chronic99, I think you are right about who this may benefit. But I have listened to podcasts about other autoimmune diseases where change in diet have helped. I know it's not a cure but I rather that than meds. I have gone gluten and dairy free plus no night shades or processed foods. It's hard bec our society is all about processed foods but I'm trying anything to rid this pain from my life. I went to an informational clinic about Humira and was scared of side effects it may cause. Plus it's a bandaid. It seems as though nothing will take this away. But to keep it calm so I can run with my kids or feel somewhat comfortable in a bathing suit is what I wish for. To wake up pain free is something I yearn for. This dibilitating life I have been living has made it very hard to see the positive outcome but I'm hoping to now.

You are absolutely right about giving it time. I am so sorry about the pilonidal cyst. What have you both done for comfort when you have a flare up?

The only thing that helps my flare ups is...nothing. I cover them with bandages until they break and stop weeping. I couldn't cover the constant weeping one in my armpit crease though. Since I use anti septic soap, I started thinking that this summer's flare up was yeast/fungal, so I stayed putting anti fungal powder on twice a day. Can't say that it's helped a ton since I got one below my armpit right on my bra line. But the other weeping ones slowed down, but I wonder if the goo just made its way to below my armpit where I've had them before. I haven't been without a lesion in a long time. One seems to stop and another comes. I've noticed over the last decade, that I seem to get one about a week or two before my period, possibly when I'm ovulating. I feel completely run down during that time, both physically and mentally. If I ever got sick or pulled a muscle at work, it was during that time. The summer is the worst for my flare ups too, because I sweat like crazy! I used to call my doctor for antibiotics almost everytime, and by then I've waited so long that after just one or two doses, it would pop. So I started waiting longer, until my lymph nodes on both sides of my groin would hurt, the erythema would get puffy, they'd feel like they're reaching the size of a baseball under my skin, then I'd get drunk and go to the ER where it would usually break as I sat on the gurney. I was almost admitted for sepsis one time. They landed it and gave me IV antibiotics and sent me home with scripts for oral abx. So, I really haven't found anything that helps. Ibuprofen takes the edge of the deep pain, but the surface sensitivity stays, that's why I cover them, not because they're draining, but because a breeze would hurt! And also for protection in case it would break, I wouldn't ruin my work clothes and smell foul the rest of the day.. I tried "natural" remedies to try and boat my immune system. I took vitamin c, zinc, and l-lysine everyday, sometimes twice a day. Can't say that helped either. I really should try to eliminate things from my diet, I've never heard the term "night shades" before, I'll have to look into it. Just this week I started taking massive amounts of probiotics, thinking that maybe I have an overgrowth of candida in my body. I had one coming on my neck and the ones weeping in my skills when I started, and I started abx yesterday for the one on my neck, as well as an attempt at Metformin. They've also told me to take vitamin a. I have to admit, I give up really easy. If I don't notice something helping in a few days, I stop it. So kudos on the diet change! I quit drinking in February, after finally admitting that I'm an alcoholic. I started drinking more when these started (I was a late bloomer I guess, not getting my first one fill I was 18-20). So maybe I drank too cope, I don't know, but I sure wish I still drank because being sauced really helped the pain, I would find myself moving more normally, not babying the area, causing them to break. But I was probably feeding them by consuming so many sugars. And I made a crappy switch from those sugars to candy sugars and Java Monster sugars. I'm assuming to cut out Java monsters, they have a ton of sugar in them, and I'll see if that helps.

Oh, and I use liquid Dial, either the purple one or blue, as long as its antibacterial.

I pretty much do the same thing as far as bandaging the open sores. I feel like I've been supporting Johnson&Johnson. Also look up leaky gut-- it makes sense to me now. I totally hear you about alcohol helping with the pain. Medicinal marijuana may be in the near future for HS patients. Or me at least.