About Me

My name is Tracy. I am a 22 year old female. I am not going to take the time to explain Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) to you, because if you are looking at this page it most likely means you were searching for it and already know what it is. However, I have added some links at the bottom of the page to help explain what it is if you don't know. I have had HS for seven years now. It started out as a bump here and there, but it would go away quickly. From there, it has progressively gotten worse. Over the last year and a half, it became more of an issue to deal with as the lumps would rise and become incredibly painful - some of which would break open. Doctors treating me put me on antibiotics to try and help control the lumps... however, none were effective for me. So we scheduled surgery to remove the affected tissue on my left axilla.
In this picture you can see the purple scars where there used to be lumps, also there is a huge lump in the middle of the armpit that you can't see due to the angle of the camera. At this point I had not been able to raise my arm up higher than my shoulder.

From Hidradenitis Suppurativa

The next morning, February 19th, 2010, I went in to have the lump excised from my armpit. The surgeon wound up having to go in a lot farther than she though she would because the lump went all the way past my lymph nodes. When I woke up, I was told that I had a drain in my arm that would have to come out in seven to ten days and the stitches would come out in fourteen days. There was also a very massive band-aid that covered my entire armpit. It went up half of the front of my shoulder and matched the height on the other side. After three days, I was allowed to take this off. This was very painful and it tore off some of the skin that was on my shoulder, taking us about a half hour to get the whole thing off. It took another half hour to get most of the adhesive off of my skin. Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of this or of the drain that I had. Post-op Day Five, I started leaking a massive amount of green/yellow fluid from the drain. I called the surgeon and went in to get checked out. She said I had nothing to worry about and that it was just lymph fluid. She decided at that time that she would take out the drain out which was only a couple days early, but what shocked me was she decided to take the stitches out too. I went home and worked on physical therapy exercises on my arm to regain my lost range of motion as I was instructed at this visit. Post-op Day Seven, I noticed that my incision was starting to open.

From Hidradenitis Suppurativa

It was only a small hole so I just left it alone for a few more days and next thing I knew it looked like this.

From Hidradenitis Suppurativa

So back to the surgeon I went again. They told me that it was fine and it would heal from the inside out and to just leave it open. The wound just kept getting deeper and deeper and more painful. I couldn't wear regular shirts because my shirt would get stuck inside the hole and I would have to rip it out. Then it finally started to look better and close. I thought I was almost done with it until the next day. It was all the way open again. I just didn't get it. I went to the surgeon again and she said it'll close in time and to just let it heal on its own. I would go through this cycle where it would start to close then open up. Some days it would look great, but some day it would look like I just had surgery on it.

It is now July 17th, 2010 and this is how my left armpit looks almost 5 months post-op.

From Hidradenitis Suppurativa