Hidradenitis Wound Care at Home: What to Log

Updated 29 Oct 2026

Wound care is daily, repetitive work, and after a few weeks the days run together. When a wound is slow to close, it is hard to say since when.

This guide explains what to log about hidradenitis wound care at home: the plan you were given, each wound by name, warm compresses and pain, the changes to report, and how to bring the record to your dermatologist.

Why log hidradenitis wound care

The AAD advises that if you have a wound-care treatment plan, you follow it, noting that the plan can help heal wounds and prevent infection, and that wounds can be difficult to treat (AAD).

The AAD also advises telling your dermatologist if any wound fails to heal, opens up after healing, or becomes more painful (AAD). Each of those is a change over time, and a change over time is hard to describe without dates.

A short daily note makes it clear when a wound started, when it improved, and when it stalled. It also shows whether the plan was followed on the days it was meant to be, which is the first thing a dermatologist will want to know.

In Hidradenitis Journey, the Flare Tracker keeps each flare with its date and body area.

How to write down your wound-care plan

Write the plan in your own words on the day you get it: which wounds it covers, the steps, how often, and the date. Add who gave it and how to contact them.

If a step is unclear, write the question down and ask at the next contact rather than guessing. A plan you understand is easier to follow on a tired day.

When the plan changes, write the new version with its date rather than editing the old one. That way, the log shows which plan was in use during each week.

Keep a short list of supplies too, with the date you started each one, so a change in dressing or wash is easy to line up with how the wounds responded.

In Hidradenitis Journey, the Daily Journal holds the plan, and My Care Team keeps your clinicians' details.

How to log each wound

Give each open wound a short name based on its place, such as left underarm or right groin. Use the same name every time, so its history reads as one line.

Each day you do care, note for each wound whether it was dressed as planned, whether it drained, and how it looked in plain words, such as smaller, the same, or larger. Add any smell or color change you noticed in plain words, without guessing at the cause.

If a wound closes, write the date. If it opens again later, write that date too, under the same name. Those two dates are what the AAD advice to report a wound that opens up after healing is about.

For drainage days, see what to note on drainage days.

In Hidradenitis Journey, the Daily check-in keeps the same fields every day.

How to log warm compresses and pain

The AAD recommends treating a painful lump at home with heat, using a warm water compress: a clean washcloth under warm running water, wrung out and left on the lump for 10 minutes, repeated several times during the day to reduce pain (AAD). It notes the compress can also help drain painful hidradenitis suppurativa (AAD).

Log each compress: the time, which lump, and a pain score from 0 to 10 before and after. Note if it drained.

Over a few days, the before and after scores show how much the compress helps for you. If it stops helping, that is worth reporting.

The AAD also advises not squeezing or popping nodules, abscesses, or tunnels (AAD). If one opened on its own, write that down with the time.

In Hidradenitis Journey, the Daily Journal holds each compress and its scores.

Which wound changes to report

The AAD lists three changes to tell your dermatologist about: a wound that fails to heal, opens up after healing, or becomes more painful (AAD).

Make each one easy to spot in the log. Add a clear flag, such as not healing, reopened, or more painful, on the day you notice it, with a line on what you saw.

Do not wait for the next routine visit if something worries you. Contact your care team, and bring the log to the conversation. Write down what you were told, with the date, so the advice sits in the same record as the wound.

Note any new medicines or changes to doses on the same date, so the timeline shows them beside the wounds.

In Hidradenitis Journey, My Meds keeps medicines and dates beside the flare record.

How to bring the log to your dermatologist

The AAD notes that hidradenitis suppurativa may affect your skin in different ways, and that working one-on-one with a board-certified dermatologist helps you find what works best for you (AAD).

Prepare one page: each wound by name, its start date, its current state, any reopenings, how often care was done, and pain scores by week. Put your main question at the top.

Keep it factual and short. A list of wounds with dates is faster to read than a description. Leave space to note any change to the plan during the visit, then copy it into the log the same day.

For short appointments, see what to bring to a short hidradenitis visit, and if you are still waiting, what to track in the queue.

In Hidradenitis Journey, the Doctor Report builds a dated summary for a saved doctor.

How Hidradenitis Journey can help

A notebook can hold wound notes. The harder part is keeping each wound, its care, pain, and medicines in one dated record, so changes are clear when you need to report them.

Hidradenitis Journey is a personal hidradenitis suppurativa tracker from Health Journey Labs on the App Store and Google Play. It records flares, pain, medicines, and appointments in one dated history. Below is what you can use and how each part helps:

• Daily check-in — A short guided pass across symptoms, mood, nutrition, sleep, exercise, meds, and external factors, including nodule pain, drainage, and skin-fold flares, so links you would not remember on your own show up side by side.
• Daily Journal — Freer notes, including voice when typing hurts, such as dressing counts, photo notes, and visit debriefs, that add detail a score alone cannot show.
• Flare Tracker — Mark a day clearly worse than your usual, with onset, sites, and intensity, so you can tell a one-off spike from a repeating pattern.
• My Meds — Medicine names and timing, so you can line up a start date or dose change with lump counts, pain, and sleep.
• My Labs — Result dates for swabs, blood work, imaging, and other tests, compared with how you felt in the weeks before and after.
• Weekly Goals — Set one small aim, such as a daily wash routine or looser clothing on long days, and see whether it held and whether flares changed.
• Learn — Short education topics on HS themes such as flares, sleep, pacing, and visit preparation.
• AI companions — Clara and specialist companions already see your logged history, which helps with visit wording or questions after a new diagnosis.
• My Care Team — A profile for each clinician, plus upcoming appointments and notes for each visit, used before, during, and after appointments.
• Doctor Report — Two views: the Appointment Planning Report helps you prepare what to ask, and Generate Report, opened from a saved doctor, builds a dated summary of your recent progress for that doctor.
• My Assessments — Structured check-ins that add context about you across weeks.
• Food Tracker — Meal and drink lines when food is something you and your clinician are watching alongside flares.
• Period Tracker — Cycle dates, so you can see whether new lumps cluster at a certain point in the cycle.
• Weight Tracker — Weight entries when weight is part of what you and your clinician are watching.

Everything you log builds one history. Guided forms include the key questions, and you can add custom symptoms when you need your own labels. Hidradenitis Journey is free to download.

Sources

• American Academy of Dermatology — Hidradenitis suppurativa: Tips dermatologists give their patients

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