When I first started noticing boils in my underarms, groin area, inner thighs, etc. I wasn’t immediately alarmed because they would only show up periodically.  They didn’t occur often enough for me to suspect that I had a disease or anything serious going on.  But I slowly started noticing several things changing over time that now require me to clean my underarms every 12 hours with carefully cleaned clean hands and wear and change bandages twice a day to keep lesions from forming.  As I mentioned, I always knew I had sensitive underarms.  Every once in a while I would get a lump after putting on strong deodorants or even eating chocolate, but after a few days deodorant and chocolate-free, the lumps eventually went down.  Somewhere around the same time that the MS presented itself (where it could no longer be misdiagnosed), I had a very severe underarm reaction one day after using my deodorant.  The lump was so large and painful that I had to have it cut to relieve the pressure.  Afterward, with a few lifestyle changes (continuing on my diet, deodorant-free, chocolate-free, shaving-free), everything seemed ok.  All of a sudden, I noticed that the boils began forming again.  I knew by this time that is was no longer my diet, it was no longer deodorant, it was no longer reactions from shaving anymore so I kept asking myself what it could be.  I tried changing washing detergent, no longer used fabric softeners and changed soaps.  I eventually discovered that I was no longer able to use soap under my arms and had to use a solution of baking soda and water to clean them to keep the boils from forming.  I couldn’t even put a washcloth on the skin under my arms to clean them without having a reaction within 12 hours.  In the end, I eventually began using gauze and alcohol pads to keep them clean in addition to the shower baking soda wash.  Peroxide was a little too harsh for daily use on my skin so alcohol worked well every few days to keep my arms clean.  Amazingly enough, when I would take a bath, my underarms would swell within 12 hours or so from sitting in the bath water.  From initial presentation (intense and repeated swelling) to now has been about 8 years.  I now wear a gauze bandage that I create and tape under my arms to keep them protected.  I use a soft, flexible cloth tape to keep the skin from ripping from twice daily bandage changes.  The thing that discouraged me initially was the periods where it seemed the disease was completely under control and then it would morph again.  I am thankfully in a period where I have very well controlled the boils over the last 3 years as long as I follow my daily TIME-SENSITIVE routine and make no mistakes.  It seems like a lot, but it has served me well compared to facing the scalpel again.