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Hanna Smith first started noticing painful lumps on her groin when she was only 10-years-old.
Too embarrassed to say anything, she kept it a secret from her mother.
God & Man
Told she just had a shaving rash, Hanna went home feeling dismayed.
She suffers from scarring, tunneling, and a lot of pain.
I dont believe people see how painful it can be, she says.
I once had an open wound in my groin for 9 months.
Living with HS is a very unique challenge, she explains.
The pain changes from stabbing to aching to itching to throbbing, it can be severe.
Im on nerve pain killers, highest dosage possible and it makes the pain bearable.
This disease is not rare, its just unrecorded.
Hanna explains that early intervention is absolutely essential to long-term care, because the disease is progressive.
Do not wait until it is more painful, spread to other areas and scarring your skin.
Just go get it seen and start on a low dose treatment, she said.
The worse it gets the more painful and harder to treat.
The most important things people should know about HS is that this is a non-curable disease, she said.
