My way of life with hyperhidrosis

[wenfein]

Hello, I am a 29 years old, female with hyperhidrosis (Sweaty Palms, Feet and Armpits). I've had it forever and it is affecting my life so much that sometimes I feel like cutting my hands and feet! Most days, I cannot take it anymore living with this condition. At the moment...I am sweating and my keyboard is super wet. I haven't stopped sweating ALL day.

I've taken Drysol and Robinul for more than 13+ years combined and they do NOT work. Some days they do work (Robinul) but only if I haven't taken it for a few days. I remember at one point, I took 4 tablets of Robinul (1mg each) and it seemed like I was resisting the drug and only my eyes, mouth, nose and ears were dry. Plus it has given me bad stomach pains over the course of taking it.

Hyperhidrosis has affected my:
LIFE
-social anxiety; meeting new people and shaking hands is a NO NO
-going to interviews scares me! (need a new job right now)
-cannot wear nice clothes or they will have underarm sweat marks; open shoes like flip flops, sandals or pumps cuz I literally slip out of them.( I always have socks on to absorb the sweat even on summer season and I always wear black clothes to hide the sweat marks!
-during my school days it was not good (you know the sweaty hands & writing part; taking tests while holding paper towels underneath the pencil, paper getting stuck on you hands, etc.)
-no confidence (hiding because of what people might think of my embarrassing condition)

Since I can no longer live with this condition, I have contemplated on getting the ETS surgery. I am approved by my insurance (Blue Cross PPO) already. I am going on my doc consultation on Monday (Dr. Reisfeld in LA). However, going through the many forums and researches about the ETS surgery, I am very torn! With all the negative side effects the ETS surgery will have, I am definitely scared of the outcome.

Please! Anyone who has gone through the ETS surgery, let me know:
1. What are the SHORT TERM and LONG TERM effects?
2. Is going through the ETS surgery worth it? -given the compensatory sweating and other side effects that are life changing.
3. Do you regret ETS?
Thanks guys!

[admin]

Hey wenfein,

How did your appointment with Dr. Reisfeld go?

The purpose of this forum (and site) was to be an in-between venue of discussion since the two extremes (surgeon sites, and the "patients with side effects" site) give very biased viewpoints. When I had my surgery in 1998 (you can see my story on the main site), so many surgeons did not even recommend iontophoresis. Even today, some surgeons will not have you try iontophoresis before surgery!

If you see Dr. Reisfeld again, ask him what kind of results he is seeing for feet sweating reduction when someone gets the newer (T3/T4) surgery to cure hand sweating. I did not get that lucky after my T-2 ETS and my feet sweating actually became worse. Anyway, hand sweating was a lot more problematic in comparison to feet sweating for me so I am still moderately happy with the surgical outcome.

Hope you post again and let us know about your current status.

[chocolate-milk]

Are you sure you want to try it? I can completely understand if it is a last resort and you feel like you have tried everything already, but you really should try the product I'm using first! No homemade remedies have ever worked for me & I have been living with hyperhydrosis for 15 years now. I have tried most of the products on the market & a lot of them make my skin itchy and raw, some even made me bleed! For me surgery has never been an option but I really admire those who go through with it! So I have now been using the same product for over 2 months & I have to say it's the best one I've tried so far, it's called AHC sensitive & it's a miracle in a bottle. I use it once a day, in the morning before i put my deodorant on & I'm pretty much dry all day! I tend to put a second dose on if I'm going out in the evening but that's it. On top of how pleased I am with the results, it's also one of the cheaper products I've tried. I would highly recommend this one before trying anything else! You can get it off of a website called scrubsuk good luck