My botox story!

Introduce yourself and share your personal hyperhidrosis related experiences.
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monkeytine
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 4:45 pm

My botox story!

Post by monkeytine »

(I posted this under the botox section as well)

Just wanted to add my story to this forum, and it's extremely positive!

My entire life since I can remember, I have had sweaty palms and feet. When I was little, I just thought I was normal and everyone sweated like I did. It wasn't until I was about 8-9 years old that I started receiving multiple negative comment a day about my cold, clammy hands or stinky sweaty feet. I remember dreading having to hold hands with my classmates during games or while walking with friends.

When I got older, my self esteem only got worse. I never danced with anyone at school dances for fear of them feeling my sweaty hands, and I hated going to church because of the prayer circle where we all had to hold hands. I even remember one particularly traumatic time when I was about 15 standing next to my crush in the prayer circle, and when he reached out to grab my hand, he immediately pulled his hand back and screamed "Ugh! Gross!" in front of the entire youth group. He then proceeded to gently touch the outside of my pinky, rather than grab my hand again. It was mortifying!

Above are only the emotional ways that hyperhidrosis has effected me. I can't even begin to tell you the ways it effected my school work. I couldn't concentrate because my hands were always slipping on the pencil and my ink or pencil writing would smear. My desk would have my sweaty hand prints all over it and I constantly wondered if anyone else noticed and what they thought of me. I would only wear cotton based clothes so I could "easily" wipe my hands on my clothes if I needed quick relief. I never wore flip flops or owned any sandals because my feet would slip and I hated the feeling of my feet being sweaty and exposed. The shoes I did wear would end up smelling AWFUL and getting ruined over and over again.

I still had no idea that I had a "condition" until I was about 20 years old and my mother noticed how much it was affecting me. I told my doctor and she prescribed me a aluminum chloride, which worked to a certain extent, but not well enough to be worth the hassle of wrapping my hands and feet every night. And the effectiveness was still not enough for me to wear sandals, shake hands or give high fives with confidence.

I slowly learned about more and more treatments for hyperhidrosis including botox and ets surgery. After doing a bit of research, I came across a volunteer seminar where I could get botox treatment for free. The only problem was it was across the country. Still, the cost of the plane ticket was a 1/4 of what the actual treatment would have been, so I decided it was worth the 6 hour flight across the country and back in one day.

To tell you that the botox worked well would be the biggest understatement of my life. Literally, within a week, I was a new person! I couldn't believe how dry my hands were! For about a month I CONSTANTLY felt my hands. I loved shaking hands with others, and tried giving high fives to almost anyone I came across. I even got my first (yes, first) boyfriend that summer! I could hold hands with him all night and not get sweaty once, even in the summer heat. In fact, HIS palms would get sweaty before mine!

So many things in my life changed that would seem so trivial to the average human. I put lotion on my hands for the first time ever, and I attempted pull ups on any metal bar I passed. (Before my hands would just slip off). I even had to lick my finger to turn pages in books! This was seriously a biggie for me, as I had always wondered why people licked their fingers while reading. I typed on my keyboard without having to wipe it down after. I didn't have the fear of falling and not being able to hang on to anything or be pulled up if necessary. (As funny as that sounds, it was actually a fear of mine!) And the list goes on and on and on.

The best part of this story is that the treatment lasted nearly a year and a half for me. The 80+ shots in each hand was well worth it. I cannot wait to have my feet done! I can only hope they will have even half the success that my hands have had. Thank you botox!!!

Bambi
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:04 am

Post by Bambi »

Wow great story. Are you planning to pay yourself for future injections on both your hands and feet? That will be very expensive.

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