ETS Solution to Raynauds

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dave1
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Dec 04, 2013 3:52 am

ETS Solution to Raynauds

Post by dave1 »

Hi All,

Around this time last year I started to get sores on my hands and fingers for what I believed to be from frostbite I may have gotten from running in the cold weather. I have always suffered from having cold hands but never thought anything about it, bad circulation maybe. So as the weeks went on I was referred to a cardiovascular surgeon as I questioned why I was getting splinter haemorrhages in my finger nails to my GP. My hands at this stage were getting quiet sore and my GP said "you've got Raynaud's but the Splinter haemorrhages are what is worrying me so off you go to cardiovascular surgeon".

Sitting down with the surgeon was frightening as my hands had gotten to the stage that medication was not going to stop the "Cold Hands / Raynauds" as my fingers were getting to close to gangrene and the length of time it would have taken to the pills to work was to much of a risk.

After a long discussion I was told I have a "Overactive Sympathetic Nervous System" which was causing the Raynauds and reflecting on my personal history I have had it most of my life. So, I had one option which was to go for ETS T4. I had sweating problems but nothing that bothered me on my hands or underarms.

So life after the sympathectomy. The blisters disappeared within a week and my hands are now free of the crippling pain, cold and splinter haemorrhages caused by the Raynauds but only 50% in my right hand and fully in my left. Compensatory sweating takes a good bit of getting used to though. I no longer sweat from my nipple line up resulting in heavy sweating on my back, stomach and legs (the shins particularly at night in bed).

When eating spicy foods (my favourite) I get sensations up the right side of my neck and head along with sweating in the same location. Nothing on the right side though. A very weird feeling.

The signals in my body get so confused when in the Sauna that I get the "shivers" like goose bumps without the bumps, when sitting in it. I can only describe that feeling as weird and sometimes unbearable. I'm happy I live in Ireland and not somewhere hot but i'm not sure how the next time I go on holidays to a hot country how ill get on but that's for another day.

Hope this helps people in someway understand the consequences that this procedure has on the body and from what I have read online the different effects it has on each individual.

Kind regards,

Dave.

slovenec
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2013 2:19 am

Re: ETS Solution to Raynauds

Post by slovenec »

I do hope that your surgeons made the right choice. A simpathectomy definitely increases the inflow of blood into extremities. I had ELS this April and my feet were very hot for about 3 weeks and they are still unusually warm 7 months after the surgery. Before the onset of vein surgeries a simpathectomy was the only option to treat severe cases. Unfortunately the veins in our hands and feet have an autonomic ability to constrict and in most cases the positive results of a sympathectomy last only a few years. I hope that your results will last longer. Afterwards there are still many possibilities where the veins are addressed directly.

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