26yo with lifelong HH

Introduce yourself and share your personal hyperhidrosis related experiences.
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CapnMoose
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 9:48 am

26yo with lifelong HH

Post by CapnMoose »

Hello,
I'm sad that it took me so long to find this online community of fellow suffers of HH! I'm 26 years old and have had severe hand and feet sweating since I can remember and my mother tells me it's been going on since I was an infant. I've gotten real good at hiding it, like most people with HH, which is probably why I've never known anyone with it and had no idea there were so many people like me. I'm very excited to try some/all of the treatments/remedies listed in this forum and hopefully something will work for me. I've tried Drysol a few times.. when I was 10, 16, and 23 and had no luck with any of those attempts, but it's the only thing I was ever told about by my doctors. I just recently switched to a new Doc and she seems very interested and willing to help, she of course hasn't seen many cases of HH either and Drysol was the first thing she suggested. She is willing to refer me to a surgeon in Seattle that does ETS, but when I researched it I found this forum and am definitely trying to avoid it unless nothing else works for me. I feel like I have lived with this long enough and it has kept me from doing a lot of things I've been interested in, i.e. playing guitar (rusty strings), art/drawing (soggy paper), a career in electronics (obvious reasons), etc.

So there's my back story, I'm hoping I can get some suggestions of what to try in order since I am new to treatments for HH. I'm planning on trying the chamomile tea thing I read on here and adding some sage extracts first, because it seems like it would have the least potential side effects, plus drinking tea everyday sounds awesome to me. What should I try and get a prescription of? I read about Tranxene and Robinul. Is there one that would be better to try first? or any others I haven't read about yet.

Thanks for any help! I dream of a day I can wear flip flops, shake people's hands with confidence, and not have to buy new shoes every few months..

Tranxene
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2013 12:02 pm

Re: 26yo with lifelong HH

Post by Tranxene »

Have u tried iontophoresis?

CapnMoose
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 9:48 am

Re: 26yo with lifelong HH

Post by CapnMoose »

I haven't. Is it worth trying a homemade version or should I just try to get a real version. Has anyone had any luck getting your insurance to cover part or all of the cost of a machine?

superyou
Posts: 68
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 8:03 am

Re: 26yo with lifelong HH

Post by superyou »

Be confident that there is, one way or another, something that will help you. Below are my experiences with various remedies. I suffered with hyperhidrosis of the hands and feet.

I first was prescribed some kind of antiperspirant. Probably something like Drysol though I don't remember as it was 20 years ago. All I know is that this was unsuccessful for me. Awkward to apply, no apparent effect.

Then I took Robinul Forte tablets. These worked fairly well. I don't remember exactly how dry I was but I took these for a few years. There are side effects that can be a little bothersome (dry mouth) and I personally didn't like the idea of taking a regular medication.

I then had the ETS surgery. This fixed my hands successfully. I am very happy about this. However I do suffer from some compensatory sweating of my back, belly and butt - places I'd never sweated before. This affects me mostly in warmer weather or during exertion but I consider this a small price to pay compared to the hell of wet palms.

Still suffering from sweating feet I tried Secure Wipes. These work, but are expensive and a bit of a pain to apply. Perhaps if I stuck with them it might have become an easy habit but still I wasn't happy with the cost.

Finally I purchased a Fisher iontophoresis device for my feet. I wrote about it here:

http://www.no-ets.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=89

This works wonderfully for me. I've been using this for seven years now and feel it has repaid its cost many times over. I did not try to get reimbursed from my insurance company.

I am very interested in hearing if chamomile tea has any effect. If you try this please document your efforts and results here. There are too many posts here where someone reports their miracle cure but fail in explaining details and then we never hear from them again after two posts.

-Robert

CapnMoose
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 9:48 am

Re: 26yo with lifelong HH

Post by CapnMoose »

Thanks for the info, Robert. I will definitely post my results on here with the chamomile, I may try the magnesium supplements as well as sage and iron. I think the iontophoresis will be my next treatment attempt before medication or ets if I don't get good results with the herbal tea and supplements. After seven years of use with your machine, how often do you have to use it? Is it just as easy to use on hands as feet?

Thanks again!
Kasey

superyou
Posts: 68
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 8:03 am

Re: 26yo with lifelong HH

Post by superyou »

Once dryness is achieved with the iontophoresis device, maintaining the effect depends upon your level of sweatyness. The instructions imply the possibility of being able to maintain with treatments every two weeks. There is no way that would work for me. Currently twice a week does work. When the weather is warmer I may need to go up to three times, as has been usual in the past.

As long as it takes for the effect to work, it takes just as long to wear off. So missing a treatment won't hurt, and in fact I've gone on vacation for a couple of weeks with no loss of effect providing I return to my regular treatment schedule upon returning.

Seeing as I only treat my feet I can't tell you how using it for hands is, but I can't imagine it being any more difficult. Treatments will take twice as long however. For my feet, each foot is placed in one of the two trays, then treated for ten minutes on each polarity for a total of 20 minutes. Doing hands as well means a foot in one tray and a hand in the other, doing the 20 minutes of treatment, then switching to the opposite foot/hand for a total of 40 minutes.

Anyone here using iontophoresis for both hands and feet that can tell us their experience?

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