success stories  :  nutrition

Hello, my name is Barbara Collins, now most of you in the HS community know me, as I have been around for a good while, an elder in the HS realm you may say. For those of you who don’t know me let me tell you my story, how it began, and the end results of my HS journey.

April of 1994, on a Sunday morning I noticed a lump forming in my right armpit. By mid day it had grown larger and was red and very painful, at that point I could no longer lift my arm to look at it. I could feel the lump with my arm down and knew that it was a large size. I had no idea what the lump was, and as everyone would do, I assumed that I was either bitten by a spider, or that the lump was some type of cancer etc, all sorts of things run in your mind when a painful lump appears as you all know. When my husband arrived home from work, I was at that point lying on the couch, with a fever and rather nauseated. I had him look at the lump lifting my arm up as much as I could so he could see it. His expression was you have a huge red lump there and it doesn’t look good. At that point I felt ill enough to say off to the ER to get this thing checked.

Upon arriving at the ER, my temperature was taken to confirm a fever, can’t remember the temperature, but it was high. Now was my turn to go back to see a doctor. The first doctor was female. She examined the lump and said you have an abscess, a very large one, too large for me, and so I need to call a surgeon for this one. An hour later, finally, the surgeon come in the room and said yes this is big, not only is there one abscess but 3 and so I will have to cut it open and lance it. In the meantime blood was taken to the lab and checked for cancer, I was told by the surgeon that it was routine to do so when a lump is present. And so he confirmed that it was an abscess and non-cancerous. To make a long story short, the surgeon lanced the abscess, and told me the amount of drainage was enormous. He then proceeded to stuff the incision, what a nightmare that was needless to say as the locals he gave me were not working and I felt everything and was screaming so loud my mother heard me in the waiting room. After I was finished being tortured, I was then released with a prescription of an antibiotic and pain meds. And at that point was told it was multiple abscesses and I needed to come back the following day to the clinic to have the hole he left in me re-stuffed.

This was the beginning of HS for me, seeing several doctors, which consisted of the clinic doctors, the surgeon, and then my family doctor, who I asked each of them how I got this and what could be done about it. Each of them shrugging their shoulders, one of them saying "we don’t know why people get these they just do!", and more or less being told by another that I would get more and they would most likely spread. Since the doctors I saw did not know of HS, is was written down on paper as "recurring abscesses". And that is what happened over the years; 7 years that is, the HS took off until I was in stage 3 and I was crawling on the floor in pain. I had HS in every glandular part of my body to the point where I was sure there was no more room for one more lesion to appear.

At this point I basically wanted to die rather than live this way. I was getting 2 or 3 new lesions a day and was at my breaking point, I could not stay awake and had to take naps just to do the dishes, some laundry, or cook. To comb my hair become a task that some days I just could not do because of the severe pain of lifting my arms. Yes I wanted to die, as I had not a life.

It was at that point in my life that I had asked God to please take me or to please heal me, as I was sure I could not take it any longer. And it was on that day when I was given the knowledge of how to heal from HS. And I thank God for my healing every day. And I thank him for the knowledge he gave me so that I can help others, which I do on an everyday basis. I am the owner of the Yahoo forum HS healing with God given nutrients. Not only have I healed from HS but also I have helped and watched others do the same.

Healing naturally takes time; and not only does it take time but you must be willing to make changes in your life. Rule of thumb, it takes one month for every year you have HS or a chronic illness for the body to heal the condition. You did not develop HS over-night nor will you heal over-night. The body can and will heal itself if you don’t block it from doing so.

Lifestyle Changes

Foods to avoid: Red meat, cow dairy, white flour products, refined sugar, hydrogenated oils. I do not drink anything but purified water. On occasion will drink herbal tea or 100% fruit juice.

Foods to eat: 
* Fish (tuna, salmon), and chicken instead of red meats.
* Soy-, rice-, almond-, and goat-milk instead of cow milk/ dairy.
* Whole grain breads and -pasta instead of white flour.
* Honey, barley malt, brown rice syrup, blackstrap molasses, date sugar, maple and Stevia instead of refined sugars.
* Sunflower-, peanut-, flax-, safflower-, soy- and olive-oil (just to name a few) instead of hydrogenated fats. Also butter instead of margarine.
* Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables which should be the staple of your diet.

Herbs to take:
Along with the food changes I also took herbs to help heal and balance my body.
I used: 7 herb formula:
* Burdock Root,
* Sheep Sorrel,
* Siberian Ginseng,
* Cat’s Claw,
* Slippery Elm,
* Watercress
* Turkey Rhubarb Root.

GDU-Natural Proteolytic Enzymes.
Acidophilus-probiotic: replaces the good bacteria belonging in the gastrointestinal tract IG Factors: supports the gastrointestinal tract and immune system.

Other things that helped during my healing:
* Tee Tree Oil applied directly to the lesions.
* Hot water soaks with Epsom salt, peroxide and baking soda.

And so my journey with HS has lead me to natural healing with lifestyle and diet changes and healing herbs. I have been HS free for over 2 years. I have since written two articles about natural healing that have been published and recognized and have won awards at Holistic Junction. I have also recently written a book called “A Naturally Slim Reflection” that is available at the web site True Natural Weight Loss (for profit). Because not only was I able to heal from HS, but I also lost 70 pounds using the lifestyle changes I write about in my book.

Can anyone do this and heal?  I think most can. Certain problems can be helped using specific herbs, and this is where I work one on one with these people. But it is up to each individual to decide. I decided to take my health in my own hands, as I was not getting anywhere with doctors, and I was not waiting around for a cure from people in lab coats. I knew I had to do something for myself and fast as I was in degeneration.

Much Love and healing to all,

Barbara Collins