I had Botox injections 2 days ago

Stuckwithme

Well-known member
I am happy to say I live in such a wonderful country like Sweden. We have a great tax and welfare system which means Botox treatment is free for me. I only have to pay $20 for the doctors appointment, that is all. I am welcome back for Botox treatment whenever I want. It makes me sad to see my fellow HH americans having to go through insurance trouble and some only having enough money to treat one hand and so on. My heart is bleeding for you, really :(

Anyways, I suffer from palmoplantar hyperhydrosis (palms and feet) but I don't care about the feet. My HH is not so severe. It doesn't drip but my hands are almost always moist. I have learned to live with it even though it does reduce quality of life a lot at times. I can not for example say yes to a dance and so on. Sometimes I can't even cuddle with my girlfriend without feeling like a freak, but she don't care. She loves me regardless.

The worst thing with the treatment was the anaesthetic. It took 2 injections in each wrist and it was quite unpleasant. I could take it, no problem but I dont think Im very sensetive to pain. It was unpleasant too when the hands went numb. Weird feeling. To me it all felt like overkill so next time I'm not going to use any anaesthetic. Im either going to use a numbing cream called Emla or I am going to go totally natural. After all it isn't all that bad and the needles are small. It will hurt, no doubt but the treatment is over in a matter of minutes (1-2 minutes) and everyone with HH knows it is worth it.

After the treatment I could go home. But before that I discussed with the dermatologist about ETS and such and he told me not to do it. We didnt go any deeper into the subject but he just shook his head as if it is crazy stuff.

It would take 2 days for me to feel the effect he said and I am in on my second day now. Some say it takes up to 7 days so I will wait for a week until I know the full effect for sure, but I can already say it works great.

The hands are only a little, little..well not moist but not as smooth as the rest of the hand here and there, mainly between fingers and on the side of the palm but it is nothing almost. It's not wet, not moist but not as paper dry as the rest of the hands. I would say I got a 90-95% reduction.

It is a weird feeling. I expect my hands to sweat, I can feel my hands sweating but when I look and touch my hands are dry. Amazing. It really works great.

I can only pray to god it will last for at least 6 months. If it would last for 12 months I swear I could cry of happiness. And I really hope its effect will not be less and less for every treatment. Some say it last longer and longer for each treatment for some but others say it gets less and less. Oh well, I just have to wait and see.

I know I will be so disappointed if I would start to sweat again in a month or two so I have to live with the fact that this could happen. That is why Im not currently jumping up and down. I must wait and see.

I was walking through a hospital with my new born baby today and I was holding a paper during the whole visit. And it hit me that I was holding this paper without the paper becoming moist and wrinkled. My fingers were dry, the paper was dry...I couldnt believe myself.

I hope that, if this doesnt work, I won't feel even worse because of the fact that I cought a glimpse of the good life and forever will miss it. At least before I didnt know better.
 
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Stuckwithme

Well-known member
This is getting better and better. It works 95% now which means my hands are normal because no human is 100% dry. I could shake hands all day long no problem. I only hope it will last for a long time. The dermatologist who performed the procedure on me said it usually lasts for about 5-6 months but for some only 3 months and others up to 14 months.
 

Stuckwithme

Well-known member
I have been out all day, sun shining and have not had to wash my hands once. They are totally dry. I shook a friends hand and held on to it as long as I could without seeming weird and my hand was totally dry. I held my girlfriends hand for a long time and my hands were dry. Before they would have been really moist.

Only thing is that the side of the hand is a bit colder and more "rubbery" than the rest of the hand because of the simple fact that there were no injections in that area. It's not sweating interestingly enough, but there is a slight difference. As I mentioned before it is not moist either, just a little bit different, skin is a little cooler. Next time I'll just ask the dermatologist inject the botox a little bit higher up the side of the palm and treatment will be 100%. This is awesome. If it stays like this summer will be a walk in the park.
 

Stuckwithme

Well-known member
I have been searching Botox on this forum and I am surprised to see that it didnt work for many and also that some only experienced a 50-85% improvment. My dermatologist does about 15 treatments a day and is very experienced. He works at a special sweat unit at the hospital and he say's it works for 9 out of 10. I dont know if that is for all patients, feet, hands, armpits or only hands like me.

But it seems weird that it would only help "a little". Botox is supposed to paralyze the sweat glads 100% since it is a very powerful toxin. It seems weird that it would only work a little for some and full for others.

I experienced 100% dryness in the areas I was treated. Every injection treats an area of about 1.2 cm2. Also if only treating one hand, the other untreated hand usually sweats less for some reason.

Personally I believe that people who get botox treatment with bad results have been treated by doctors with little experience and probably did a bad job with the injections as well as unit wise and dose.

I can be running 20 miles and my hands would still not sweat even a little. I have only been on the treatment for 4 days so maybe I shouldnt be getting my hopes up too much. I would be very, very disappointed if it stopped working in a couple of weeks. This treatment will be worth it only if it lasts for at least 3-4 months. On the other hand it doesnt cost me anything and I am always welcome back so it's not like its a lot of trouble.
 

Stuckwithme

Well-known member
I forgot to mention I do notice a bit of compensatory sweating on the feet but it is impossible to say if it is because of the Botox. I mean, I had heard about this so called side effect before the treatment and worried about it a little so it might be a placebo thing. Also summer is closing in and its getting warmer so it could because of that. I dont know. But I perfer plantar HH over palmar HH anyday.
 

weak

Well-known member
I had botox done on my armpits. Reduced sweating by 50% and only lasted 3 months. Not worth the pain of being stabbed by a needle 20 times in each armpit, nor the $1000 it cost me.

Glad it worked out for you though!
 

Stuckwithme

Well-known member
You never thought about going to someone else to try it out? I mean maybe a specialist in Hyperhidrosis at a Hospital? I know many get Botox at private places that also work with skin care and so on. I don't trust those.

If you payed $1000 I can see why you wouldnt want to do it again though. That's just too much money. As you can see I get it for free and it works surprisingly well. I'm so dry Im almost getting fed up with it. :D

With armpits sweating doesnt antiperspirants work for you? In Sweden there is one called "Absolut torr" and it works like a charm on me. I use it once and I am totally dry for 1 week or more. Doesnt work on hands or feet though since skin is too tough there.
 
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Stuckwithme

Well-known member
Im going back tomorrow for some extra injections in the side of my hands since we didnt inject botox there. I still gets sticky in that area. Not so much sweat but more a stickyness. There will probably be about 4-5 injections in the side of each hand. I wont use any anesthetics. It may be a bit painful but it is not so bad.
 

Stuckwithme

Well-known member
That's really strange. It's not like you could be immune to botox? Maybe the dose was too low or they did it wrong? Maybe it's because my hyperhidrosis isn't too severe
 

Stuckwithme

Well-known member
Ok, so I got my extra shots in the side of the hands today. I did it without anesthetic and it didnt hurt much. I am quite surprised to see people say the pain is bad but then again we are all different. Personally I think the needle is very thin and sure it stings but it only takes 2-3 minutes of pain (which isnt even very bad) and then you are dry.

I met a girl there who has a bad case of palmar hyperhidrosis. It is dripping from her hands. Botox keeps her totally dry for 3 months straight and then it takes another 2 months until she is back to "normal".
 

generation7

Member
My doctor told me that he doesn't do injections in hands because it weakens yours hands since it weakens the muscles. Can you tell me if there is a significant difference in weakness. Like how is your grip?
 

Stuckwithme

Well-known member
I have heard the same thing and I do believe it could happen, but even if it did it goes away in a couple of weeks. My grip is not weaker. I have not noticed anything. My doctor used something called "nerv bloc" or something on my thumb muscle to prevent that muscle from becoming weaker. So maybe he has another technique?

I am so happy with the botox. I know it is not a cure and even if it works well enough to make my hands dry I do not function like a normal person which I must accept. For example my hands can still sweat in untreated areas like between the fingers and such. It is not enough to make your hands sticky or sweaty at all and you can treat that area with more botox injections but I said no, I am happy as it is. Also a normal person do sweat a little to make it easier to grip stuff but with botox I am so dry i cannot even pick up my phone out of my pocket lol. All of this is just some relief.
 

DaaaBulls

Well-known member
Yeah I'm wondering how botox can work for some people and not for others. Like someone said you can't really be immuned to botox can you? Is that even possible? What does botox even do? It paralyzes the sweat glands correct? So unless someone has super human sweat glands it would only be plausible that it would work for everyone. I think maybe it has a lot to do with who performs the injections and whether or not you use some sort of numbing effect.
 

Stuckwithme

Well-known member
I agree. I think it has a lot to do with knowledge, technique, dosage and so on. Maybe there are even different kinds of botox with different strenghts. I dont know. My doctor said though that it works on 9 people out of 10 so obviously it doesnt work on some, but it seems strange to me. It's so effective on my hands I cant believe it doesnt work for some. My hands are so dry I am screaming for moisture. All I have to wait for now is to see how long the effect will last. If it's only 1-2 months then maybe it isnt worth it, but if it last for 6-12 months this will be a miracle for me. Even if it lasts for 3-4 months I will be happy. Especially since I believe I can do it without anesthetics which makes it all a lot more easier.
 

Stuckwithme

Well-known member
I noticed I do sweat on the upper side of my hand. I guess I always have, but with the palm now dry it becomes more obvious. Next treatment I will make sure to treat the upper side of the hand as well. I dont know how picky to be. Im a bit confused. Should I be happy with the dryness I have achived or should I demand more when it is possible.
 

DaaaBulls

Well-known member
If your getting it done for free then there is no reason not to see if you can get the entire hand dry, in my opinion. I would not think twice about trying to achieve more. I should know in around 2-3 days whether or not my insurance company is going to cover the procedure. If they don't I am not sure what my next move is, I certainly cannot afford $1,000 every 5-6 months.

Also, how many shots in each hand did you recieve? I talked to the derm and she told me she does like 20 in each hand and I thought this sounded low. I wonder if there is anyway to find out if someone specializes in doing these sort of things in my state.
 
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