8:02 AM — I hate my skin I have a skin condition called hidradenitis suppurativa, or HS. I rarely spell it right on the first time. If you use Google to look it up, be aware that some of the pictures that come up can be nasty, but I'm not usually as bad as what you see online. They're Stage III usually, and I'm only I or II. I'm probably at Stage III, but milder than most stories I hear about it. HS can most easily be described as super acne of the sweat glands. (Reminds me of "Eternal Cupcakes of the Spotted Kind." Yeah, I'm uncomfortable talking about it. But I'm also irritable and sleep deprived!) At least it's not contagious.

On a normal day, this just means that my skin where I sweat the most has lots of cm-sized nodules; underarms are the worst. It's embarassing during bikini season. However, if I am stressed, or wear shirts with tight armpits, or shave my armpits, I'm likely to have a flare up. A flare up results in one of those cysts becoming inflamed, reaching anywhere from the size of a marble, to the size of a golf ball softball, and proportionally painful.

Last night there was exactly one position I could sleep in (left arm raised above my head), and a stab of pain woke me every time I inadvertantly moved out of it. I move a lot during the night. After a while I'd manage to doze back off with my arm above my head, but I was never really comfortable. And today's my birthday too. :(

I just haven't been having a good week. Ask me about the frozen drain sometime. And my broken down car. And the no snow day today. :-P  ¶ permalink | 0 musings