My story, many years after ETS

Introduce yourself and share your personal hyperhidrosis related experiences.
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ruby247
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 4:10 pm

My story, many years after ETS

Post by ruby247 »

I am a woman who suffered from severe hyperhidrosis of the hands and feet from a young age. I remember many embarrassing incidents from pre-teen years of having to hold hands or go barefoot in gym or drama classes and physical difficulty doing certain activities that I might have enjoyed otherwise, like sewing and playing guitar or piano. I remember having to keep a hand towel with me when I was writing homework and constantly wiping my sweaty palms in class. As I got older, obviously it caused me a great deal of embarrassment when having to shake hands, try on shoes or during intimate contact. I tried many methods that didn't work, spending a great deal of time and money (talcum powders, Drysol, soaking my hands in Formaldehyde, Valium). When I was 29, I had ETS surgery. At first it completely stopped my hands from sweating. My armpit sweating has been minimized. It didn't do anything for my feet, however; I'd been warned about this). I didn't have any serious complications from the surgery, like a collapsed lung. I did begin to have (and still have) compensatory sweating on my chest, back, groin and legs. Within less than 10 years though, my hand sweating started to come back. Not dripping or severe, but more than average hand sweating, exacerbated by social anxiety or hot, humid conditions. In my 40s now, My feet sweating is worse than ever. I'm on a tight budget right now, so Botox every 6 months is not an option. The Iontopheris (not sure if I spelled that right) machine is also expensive and seems like a hassle-if I travel or stay at someone else's home. My physician agreed to prescribe me Oxybutinin, an oral medication. I have been taking 2.5 mg before certain social situations - manicures/pedicures, dating, social events, dancing - and it seems to be effective. I don't feel like it gave me dry mouth or affected my alertness or coordination- I tried another drug years before, after the surgery, that did have all this side effects, so I stopped using it. The only side effect was a bad leg cramp in the night, probably due to dehydration because I had several alcoholic drinks on that particular night. However, I don't want to take this every day and am concerned about the side effects on my internal organs with long term use.

Today, frustrated with my feet sweating, I bought an ebook called Sweat Miracle by Miles Dawson. A former hyperhidrosis-sufferer himself, he claims he was cured using a holistic approach: avoiding a long list of foods and increasing consumption of others, performing juice cleanses and practicing relaxation techniques. He also lists a variety of natural remedies including drinking sage tea. I hope I have not wasted my money on this book. I can try to reduce my intake of dairy, sugar, coffee and spicy foods, but I fear I won't be able to cut them altogether - I have been drinking coffee since university (my hyperhidrosis started before that) and I like to travel. I find that completely eliminating certain foods from your diet can be difficult when traveling and socially-isolating.

I am interested to talk to people who've had ETS surgery, but still sweat and find out how they're coping. I'm particularly interested to hear from people who've had success in reducing sweating by cutting one type of food from their diet, i.e. Dairy or caffeine (rather than many types of food-too difficult!

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

Re: My story, many years after ETS

Post by slovenec »

As a former HH sufferer (I suffered from a really bad variant of a simultaneous hand+feet dripping from the moment that I woke up to the moment when I went to bed) I think that living a healthy life (diet+exercise+avoiding stress) can improve your heath, but unfortunately, it will probably not considerably decrease your sweating. Before ETS+ELS I tried almost everything with limited or no success. A combination of antiperspirants and iontopheresis heavily decreased the sweating, but the results were never reliable and to be honest I got sick and tired of using my "personal electric chair" and ruining all my bedding with heavy chemicals (the only think that helped was a 30% solution of AlCl). For some time I also stopped drinking coffee (I am a huge fan, I drink at least 5 cups of strong coffee a day), but the improvement was minimal.
Do try everything before the surgical solution which can be a huge hazard. In my case ETS(1997 T2)+ELS (2013 L3) worked like a miracle and the side effects are easy to handle.

For feet sweating I recommend an AlCl solution in salicilic acid (its a rather expensive, but very efficient Canadian product) and 30% AlCl solution (from Austria). It is mandatory that you use the antiperspirants every night before sleep and that you apply the antiperspirant on dry skin (yes, I know, sometimes my feet were dripping wet even before sleeping - I woke up in the middle of the night to apply the antiperspirant).

If the palm sweating becomes terrible again, there are some solutions with extended thoracic sympathectomy (like adding T3 to T2 or vice versa), but they can have devastating effects on your CS.

bennet
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2015 5:51 am

Re: My story, many years after ETS

Post by bennet »

I am an aged 24 guy from China, and had ETS(cut T2) when I was 17 years old. For the first 3 years after the surgery, I did not experience CS and was quite satisfied with the situation. I went travelling during summer times, and did not sweat significantly like being unusual.

However, from the 4th year after ETS, I started to sweat a lot once stayed outdoors where temperature is high. And similarly, most of the sweat comes out from my chest and back and groin( luckily my palms remain dry). I don't know how this would happen, but the situation is really annoying, and is getting worse these years. Honestly I seldom go outdoors during this summer except for office.

I heard Oxybutinin can help, but do not know much about it. It is really lucky for me to learn that you have some experience using this medicine and call it effective. Could you introduce more of your experience about it? Thank you so much!

ale22heat
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:33 am

Re: My story, many years after ETS

Post by ale22heat »

Guys I know how frustrating this condition can be I am a 20 year old in college with Palmer and plantar Hyperhidrosis. Personally I believe that Hyperhidrosis is affected by the brain or nervous system sending signals to The sweat glands to sweat. That is why when people get the surgery they have compensatory sweating because the body is still sending the signals to sweat except now it's for somewhere else because the hands are blocked. hyperhidrosis is a problem that affects people worldwide. I have either read or talked to people from India, Jamaica, the United States where I live, China, Cuba, England, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Africa, Ecuador, etc. that have hyperhidrosis, meaning that anybody from any race and any country can have this condition it's not someone from a particular race like it's not just colored people and is not just Asian people it's anybody. Guys in order to solve this terrible condition we must come together as one. My email address is alexsafc@gmail.com I have a post under "tell your story" ale22heat is my username, please read and watch the videos done on the link, YouTube videos,

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