u/No_Accountant5844

I thought this could possibly be useful for people who have HS symptoms but haven't gotten diagnosed yet. For the past 3 years I've been suffering with repeated boils and abcesses on my thighs, for 2 years the doctors ignored my requests for a referral to a derm, but thankfully this year when I came into the gp with another abcess, she agreed to let me get some labs done and I sent in a sample of my pus which came back as positive for both PVL and MRSA (😭💔) pvl is relitively rare but causes basically the exact same symptoms as HS, like in my case which is repeatetive boils and abcesses that keep coming back even with countless courses of flucloxacillin (which is apparently bc this bacteria is resistant to most penicillin related antibiotics so the doctors have been giving me a useless treatment for three years 🫩).

However the important part is that treatment for PVL is different from HS unlike some cases of hs you can't really manage a pvl infection with lifestyle changes or diet changes, instead I got a 6 week course of doxycycline and antibiotic wash. So if you haven't officially been diagnosed yet with hs or have not gotten lab work done on the pus from your flare ups I highly recommend you do, especially since the symptoms are quite frankly identical, you could possibly have PVL which is very contagious and it's extremely important that you shouldn't get misdiagnosed with the latter in order for you to get the proper treatment to give yourself relief and prevent the spread of pvl if you were to have it.

The official ucas predicted for my school haven't been released yet but my teacher told me it will most likely be a B for chem(since I've been getting a mixture of Cs and Bs through the year), I also take biology which I may get predicted A-A* and art which I may get predicted A-A*. I don't think I can be a contextual applicant as I only fit into one criteria as I am a young carer but I go to a selective grammar school, both my parents have gone to university, I am not elligable for free school meals etc. Am I doomed if I want to apply for medecine or dentistry this year? I really don't want to take a gap year, and I genuinely don't really know how I ended up in this situation for chemistry considering I've done SO much revision for it and I ignored my other subjects for it as well but still I got a C and a B in my most recent mocks.

Edit:idk if this is useful but my gcses are 999999888, I'd hope that could help me somehow but I know it's kind of unlikely due to my chem 😔

​

I'm in year 12 and I'm really struggling to decide which to apply for,  when it comes to passion I know for sure I am much more interested in medicine I love learning about the immunology topics in biology alevel and I have a genuine interest in it and in regards for teeth I simply don't have any passion (not that I hate it but I'm indifferent), unfortunately the main reason stopping me from persuing medicine is the fact I'm scared, I'm scared of placement years I will have to do as a doctor, I'm scared of possibly seeing someone die or seeing things that are deeply upsetting or just disturbing/gross in general(my family which is made up of predominantly doctors do claim that it's just my age and that most 16 year olds would be afraid of seeing anyone die or having such responsibility but I'm not sure wether it's just my personality that's not suited for it or wether it's a maturity thing that will change with age or experience) I've heard many horror stories about medicine and I've also watched the show "this is going to hurt" and I know I shouldn't be basing my opinions on a career just because of a show but I definitely want to take into consideration how brutal and mentally challenging working/learning to work in the NHS as a doctor can be, I also struggle to see myself working in a hospital for so many years, I just find hospitals a mentally draining and gloomy environment which I'd assume I'd hate going into everyday (I'm aware you can specialise to work as gp or certain other pathways that can get you situated in a clinic  but I'm thinking about the placement years and med school process) and I'm attracted to dentistry because of the lifestyle from what I can tell as someone who has obviously worked in neither job sectors dentistry seems to be less stressful, it seems unlikely you'll ever be seeing anyone die or be responsible for anyone's life and dental clinics are much less chaotic than hospitals and obviously you don't have the same grueling long shifts working in a dental clinic as you'd have working in a hospital(however please correct me if I underestimated the dentistry mental stress as I am assuming its lower than medicine). I'd appreciate any advice or maybe experiences of doing medicine placements as I think that's the thing I'm most wary off.

​

I'm in year 12 and I'm really struggling to decide which to apply for,  when it comes to passion I know for sure I am much more interested in medicine I love learning about the immunology topics in biology alevel and I have a genuine interest in it and in regards for teeth I simply don't have any passion (not that I hate it but I'm indifferent), unfortunately the main reason stopping me from persuing medicine is the fact I'm scared, I'm scared of placement years I will have to do as a doctor, I'm scared of possibly seeing someone die or seeing things that are deeply upsetting or just disturbing/gross in general(my family which is made up of predominantly doctors do claim that it's just my age and that most 16 year olds would be afraid of seeing anyone die or having such responsibility but I'm not sure wether it's just my personality that's not suited for it or wether it's a maturity thing that will change with age or experience) I've heard many horror stories about medicine and I've also watched the show "this is going to hurt" and I know I shouldn't be basing my opinions on a career just because of a show but I definitely want to take into consideration how brutal and mentally challenging working/learning to work in the NHS as a doctor can be, I also struggle to see myself working in a hospital for so many years, I just find hospitals a mentally draining and gloomy environment which I'd assume I'd hate going into everyday (I'm aware you can specialise to work as gp or certain other pathways that can get you situated in a clinic  but I'm thinking about the placement years and med school process) and I'm attracted to dentistry because of the lifestyle from what I can tell as someone who has obviously worked in neither job sectors dentistry seems to be less stressful, it seems unlikely you'll ever be seeing anyone die or be responsible for anyone's life and dental clinics are much less chaotic than hospitals and obviously you don't have the same grueling long shifts working in a dental clinic as you'd have working in a hospital(however please correct me if I underestimated the dentistry mental stress as I am assuming its lower than medicine). I'd appreciate any advice or maybe experiences of doing medicine placements as I think that's the thing I'm most wary off.

​

I'm in year 12 and I'm really struggling to decide which to apply for,  when it comes to passion I know for sure I am much more interested in medicine I love learning about the immunology topics in biology alevel and I have a genuine interest in it and in regards for teeth I simply don't have any passion (not that I hate it but I'm indifferent), unfortunately the main reason stopping me from persuing medicine is the fact I'm scared, I'm scared of placement years I will have to do as a doctor, I'm scared of possibly seeing someone die or seeing things that are deeply upsetting or just disturbing/gross in general(my family which is made up of predominantly doctors do claim that it's just my age and that most 16 year olds would be afraid of seeing anyone die or having such responsibility but I'm not sure wether it's just my personality that's not suited for it or wether it's a maturity thing that will change with age or experience) I've heard many horror stories about medicine and I've also watched the show "this is going to hurt" and I know I shouldn't be basing my opinions on a career just because of a show but I definitely want to take into consideration how brutal and mentally challenging working/learning to work in the NHS as a doctor can be, I also struggle to see myself working in a hospital for so many years, I just find hospitals a mentally draining and gloomy environment which I'd assume I'd hate going into everyday (I'm aware you can specialise to work as gp or certain other pathways that can get you situated in a clinic  but I'm thinking about the placement years and med school process) and I'm attracted to dentistry because of the lifestyle from what I can tell as someone who has obviously worked in neither job sectors dentistry seems to be less stressful, it seems unlikely you'll ever be seeing anyone die or be responsible for anyone's life and dental clinics are much less chaotic than hospitals and obviously you don't have the same grueling long shifts working in a dental clinic as you'd have working in a hospital(however please correct me if I underestimated the dentistry mental stress as I am assuming its lower than medicine). I'd appreciate any advice or maybe experiences of doing medicine placements as I think that's the thing I'm most wary off.