[Hyper Hidrosis Day By Day Diary And Story]

[billyb]

Hello I'm Billy a 16 year old boy from luton just off of london.
I have suffered from hyperhidrosis since i was 6 that's 10 years.
Half a year ago i search the internet looking at various sites reading
various stories about people with the condition i have. Like most people
my hands sweat really bad along with my feet making my feet smell really bad.
I have been to a doctors and after trying driclor for 2 months my doctor has
considered i look into surgery. My doctor refered me to the hospital on May 11th 06.
A month later i got a letter from the hospital saying to come in and speak to a consultant
June 3rd 06 i went in. They observed me carefully and agreed with the fact that i have HH.
I then spoke with another surgeon who suggested i should go away and think for two months and discuss
it with my family. Although im so for getting this surgery done i did as he said and thought about it.
I discovered stories that i had never seen before of how bad the surgery has went for people and how it
has ruined there life. But i am still determined to get this surgery done. I went back on July 10th 06 which is
today he explained the procedure they are to let down my lungs and cut my nerve which controls the sweating to my palms.
They will do each side seperatly starting with my right side which is my dominant side decided by me. I am now going to be
having surgery on the 2nd of august 06. I will be staying in over night for safety reasons. This is sooner then i expected. I am not scared at all i am more excited. Finally i get
to get rid of what has been troubling me all these years.

I will discuss side effects and the pros and cons of having the surgery. See you all later!

(2.8.06) -
2nd August 2006

Week 1:
Coming Soon

 

[jeff123]

What worries me a bit is the fact that they are letting down your lungs. I looked into this surgery in the past and am fairly sure that this a somewhat dated practise? I could be wrong though. Perhaps somebody can clarify this for me.

 

[billyb]

What worries me a bit is the fact that they are letting down your lungs. I looked into this surgery in the past and am fairly sure that this a somewhat dated practise? I could be wrong though. Perhaps somebody can clarify this for me.

what do you mean by 'dated'?

 

[Hyper-Hydro]

Billy forget surgery. There´s a reason why you sweat a lot. Eventually it will be discovered why. Maybe tomorrow? Butchering your nervous system is a bad idea. In any case you´re too young to decide it anyway. I hope your parents are sensible people and say no. The surgeons don´t know shit about what they´re doing. You can inhibit feet and hands sweat effectively by iontoforesis, just make sure you buy quality equipment. I know because I did it. E.g. read my posts in ESFB forum. It means you have to spend some time dipping your hands and feet in trays with water. You can watch tv meantime

 

[Hyper-Hydro]

What worries me a bit is the fact that they are letting down your lungs. I looked into this surgery in the past and am fairly sure that this a somewhat dated practise? I could be wrong though. Perhaps somebody can clarify this for me.

If you have ETS you will be sedated and both your lungs are partially collapsed during surgery, so the surgeon can insert two endoscopes into the space where your lungs normally are. This happens through the top of your rib cage right under your armpits. One endoscope contains a camera which allows the surgeon to look inside you pretty much the same way sewer workers look into the sewer pipes to see if rats have blocked up the pipes.
The other endoscope has a laser gun which is used to burn your nerve threads. The intention is for them to die. (sounds really smart doesn´t it?) The target nerve threads are stretched out on the back of the tissue which lines your lungs to the right and left of your spine. Actually some of them are on back of the lungs themselves the surgeon told me anyway..

The narcose doctors are very skilled at controlling the lung collapse, but after the surgery your chest will be feeling weird for some days, because you´re re-experiencing the movement of the lungs against your rib cage.

I guess there must be a small percentage of patients that die during this type of surgery (even appendix surgery occasionally has a terminal exit)
But nobody knows (why do I hear that phrase so often talking about HH) where they keep the statistics and how to make them publish it.

 

[akm]

Hi Billy. I've been in you shoes. I had hh on hands and feet, and had ETS done, and I would do anything if it was possible to go back and undo it. I just wish somebody was there to tell me what i'm telling you.
First of all if doctor told you that he is gonna cut nerve that controls sweating to you palms then he already lied to your face, this nerve controls sweating of your whole upper body, upper chest, back, shoulders, neck, head. And this is among hundreds of other things that it does. The resulting compensatory sweating is a nightmare, this is one way street, it's irreversible.
I know that you already made up your mind and you want to belive that surgeon, but don't, they are in it just for money. Please, postpone this surgery and make an appointment with neurologist, who doesn't have anything to do with this surgeon. Tell him about this surgery and ask his opinion. I recently talked to one, and when I told him about this surgery - his eyes poped out, he coudn't believe it, and thought this doc should be in jail by now.
Also you should try iontoforesis, i just wish i did.

 

[Alvinsduckie]

on hold

hey

please wait and do more reading before you make this decision. Dr's often try to sell the clamp theory--with promise of reversal if you are not happy. Is the problem so bad that you will be willing to pour in other areas? (groin-for example) after ETS?

and depending on what they cut--you could be impotent after ETS.

we had a desperate young man in our ezboard forum who is 22 and taking viagra in an attempt to be *normal*.

PLEASE exhaust every possible option before ETS. (thyroid tests,hormones, sperm count,blood sugar--etc>) I want to tell you not to have it at all, but who am I to tell you what to do with your body?

also, if you DO have ETS, you will have proof that your body worked fine before the surgery. (a problem many of us are having because we cant prove we were fine before)

its a one way street--there is no going back if you are unhappy later. I now am disabled thanks to ETS. (hypothyroidism and brachial plexus injury)

have you read this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endoscopic_thoracic_sympathectomy


i wish you well, hang in there

 

[billyb]

Sorry, i am very for getting this done. I had a hour meeting with a consultant again today. She explained exactly what's going to happen.

 

[Seismograff]

Wouldn't it suck if you did all this for nothing? It's sad to see someone go straight for the last option before exhausting all others.

 

[sorebluearm]

hello

i just wondered if I might be able to reconsider your surgery for your palmer and pedal hydrosis - ie sweaty hands.

I had the early from of the surgery that you wish to undertake in the 1980s' and although the surgery is much more easy these days, less invasive etc. I would like u to consider not going through with it.

I had cervical and lumber sympathectomies at 14 and 15 years of age- I am now 33 and I have a son who is 15. i had the surgery for the hand sweats and the feet sweats and raynualds as well- i was blue, freezing and sweaty 2! I do remember what it was like, but please be aware that your sympathectic chain that they will cut - is very very important.

You may develop severe sweating on other parts of your body, you may in future years maybe 5 or many more, develop nightsweats, you may develop someting called RSD - which is a neurological disorder that is sometimes set off by the damage to the sympathectic nerve chain- having ETS - in effect damages/kills the nerve. RSD is very very painful and it cannot be cured - only managed. You may develop gustro sweating - that means that when u eat or even smell certain foods- you may break on in a sweat- ketchup, curry and even chocolate - has causes this in me.

I am speaking to you as someone who has had this surgery many years ago, and u may think that I am old at 33. But my son has sweaty hands and the most incredibly smelly feet- i call him stilton sometimes- he can literally rot his shoes and socks with the sweating- despte washing/showering twice a day. Him and I have spoken about his problematic sweaty hands - and u know what, he has seen first hand what cutting the sympathectic chain can do to someone. he has seen his mum get ill .....and on top of it all- my feet and hands now sweat again - just like before!

I know how hard it is to feel like you feel, I know that my son has been teased and bullied at school because of it, I was 2- and it is not easy - but the problems that you may get from the ETS may be much much harder to cope with than the sweaty palms and feet. But you are young, your body by the age of 20 - after you have completed puberty may settle down and stop the sweating- this often happens.

Therefore, please listen to an old lady that wishes she still had her sympathectic chain intact still. The trade off is simply not worth it.

However, whatever decision you take- I wish you well for your future and hope all goes well either way.

Take care of yourself, and maybe if you would like- I am happy to talk to you or your parents on line about my expereinces of the surgery. You may also like to know that in Sweden in 2003 - ETS was stopped for those under 20 years of age - for the very reasons that I mentioned above. In 2004 - Tawian did the same

kind regards

sorebluearm

 

[akm]

Billy, i understand how much you want to believe ETS surgeon. He promised to cure you, but take it from someone who had it done. ETS is not what you think it is. It is not a cure but a destruction.
Don't hurry, you have a lot of time. Please, make an appointment with a neurologist, talk to him about ETS, listen to what he has to say.

I don't know who your surgeon is, but my was C. Drott, and i wish i never knew his name.

 

[Emma]

NOOOO, Stop right where you are Billy!!!! Don't listen to what one stupid doctor has told you!!! Do you really think you are better off being butchered like a lamb in a slaughter house? Do you really want someone messing with your lungs? I hate to say it but it sounds like you are being ripped off big time....How do you even know you'll be better off? I think you should listen to the people who said the surgery has ruined their life, How are you going to feel if that happens to you? I had surgery, (which in no way compares to what you plan to have done), but my point is that if I had my time again I wouldn't have done it, the end result is a disappointment......Don't let some quack who wants to make money mess with you!!!!

 

[billyb]

I had the ETS done 2 days ago, best decision of my life. My right hand is as dry as anything and im suffering no side effects. My chest still hurts a bit from the surgery but the doctors said that will go away in 2-3 days. I have still got to go back to get the left hand side done in 4 weeks. The outcome was amazing its so noticeable my right hand is really dry and my left still is wet its pretty funny actually.

 

[billyb]

Hello, would just like to say i haven't forgot about this forum. It has been 5 Months since my ETS op and i am still having no problems. It's very strange because i have only had the right hand side done so my right hand will be dry and my left will be rather sweaty. I have noticed that my left hand isn't as sweaty anymore now my right hand has had the OP. I am still deciding if i should get the left hand side done. Thing's have gone very well and i am suffering no side effects. My feet have improved also, i don't have the constant smell coming from my shoes. I am not persuading anyone to get this surgery done, i am simply giving a follow up like a promised previously.

 

[akm]

Hi Billy, glad to hear from you.
Judging by the fact that you didn't do your left side, I think you realized how damaging and destructive ETS really is.
My advise to you is don't do the other side. I read a story about a guy who also was doing ok after ETS on one side, then did the other side an all hell broke loose.
Here is the link to that story:
http://p069.ezboard.com/Never-again-/fetsandreversalsfrm12.showMessage?topicID=70.topic

Stay away from ETS 100 miles, and good luck.

 

[billyb]

Ok, it's been a long time i would just like to give my feedback on the operation. I'm now 18, and i wouldn't consider myself as a hyperhidrosis sufferer. If you have followed my story, you would know i only had my right side done. Due to my right hand being completely dry, it has more or less cured my feet and my left hand only sweats a bit. I don't get paranoid about it at all, i now have a girlfriend and i have told her the story and she just thinks its funny that i have one sweaty and one dry. I don't want to convince people to get ETS done because i know it hasn't worked out for a lot of people, but i can honestly say it's been 3 years and I'm cured of ETS.

 

[Phoenix_Elite]

Ok, it's been a long time i would just like to give my feedback on the operation. I'm now 18, and i wouldn't consider myself as a hyperhidrosis sufferer. If you have followed my story, you would know i only had my right side done. Due to my right hand being completely dry, it has more or less cured my feet and my left hand only sweats a bit. I don't get paranoid about it at all, i now have a girlfriend and i have told her the story and she just thinks its funny that i have one sweaty and one dry. I don't want to convince people to get ETS done because i know it hasn't worked out for a lot of people, but i can honestly say it's been 3 years and I'm cured of ETS.

Hey. I'm glad it worked out for you (half at least). Perhaps if you had gotten surgery on the other side it would've been a disaster. Glad you came to this board, though.

 

[billyb]

Just a slight update, it's been nearly 4 years and i would consider myself completely cured of hyperhidrosis. Would i recommend ETS?, for desprate measures then yes. If you read up I had just the one side done, i chickened out on the other side, but now im more confident then ever, and i dont sweat in either hand at all, nor anywhere else.

 

[MyHyperhidrosis]

hey this is interesting. im sweaty only in my hands and feet. if I could have anything it would be to at least have my right hand be dry. i'd probably become a different person since i work with my right, shake hands and hold things all mostly with my right.

After I had botox it all came back and then I was considering ETS at a place in Chicago so they send me a book of info on it. Once I saw they were going to be tearing me up basically I chickened out. That was 4 years ago and I think I'm ready for ETS and maybe do the one side like you.

 

[bellbottom666]

Hi billyb - I know I'm echoing what everyone else has said already, but I can't feel right unless I know that I've tried my part too, please don't get the surgery. I felt exactly the same way when I was your age, but I'm glad that my parents were not supportive at the time and didn't make it possible for me to have it done.

My uncles have had the surgery and they have to live with the compensatory sweating, they're aging now and they say that the cs make them so much more prone to catching colds and pneumonia, as they are sweating out of the back of their thighs and also back. Not so good for people in the older age. It is also much easier to hide your hands than to have wet patches showing on the back of your pants or your shirt. The worse thing is that it is irreversible.

There are many other ways of dealing with this aside from surgery, I do iontonopherosis treatments and it works. I don't have sweating in my hands generally, even though I have the condition. You can try medication or botox. But please don't have the surgery at this early stage of your life without having tried all the other treatment options first. You can always have this done later in life. Please reconsider.