My experience with HH (I had ETS)

[anonymoushh]

I never really talk about this and I try to hide it all the time (I'm usually successful). So, this will be interesting. I'm going to try to organize this post as logically as I can. Hopefully I get some replies. I'm a 23 year old male. I'll be 24 very soon.

Background

I've had HH about as long as I can remember. Feet and hands. My earliest memory of HH is being in 1st grade. I turned in a paper I wrote and the teacher asked why my papers were always wet (do you drool on your papers?). I replied "No, it's sweat." I wasn't ashamed or anything since I was 6 or 7. Around the time I was 13 or 14 I became very depressed because of my HH. I was petrified about high fiving people and shaking hands. Anyways, in 2001 when I was 14 I got ETS. I was very happy with it at first. I became very social...sort of dated girls and I was kinda popular. Then came the CS. CS wasn't too much of a problem for me at first. I started playing basketball outside in the summer and that was somewhat embarrassing (I live in Omaha, Ne. It gets hot in the summer and humid.) My back became drenched. That was the most noticeable side effect. I remember my mom asking me if I ran through a sprinkler. Still though I liked it. I can't imagine living in phoenix, the southeast, or somewhere where it's hot a lot. I'm sure the winters are nice. That would be pretty horrible to me though. As far as HH goes...I think the weather would be best with it in coastal California or the pacific northwest.

Current Situation

10 years later CS is starting to bother me more. I don't think it's got any worse. My situation has just changed. If I wear jeans you can't tell I have a sweaty butt (at least I don't think so). So, dressing up at work is interesting. I rarely wear khakis. You can see it easily in light colored khakis. Dress slacks seem to hide it. I just bought some kleinerts boxers. I'm gonna test them out this week (fingers crossed). Golfing is another situation thats embarrassing. If it's hot out I sweat a lot. Bought a kleinerts under shirt. Hoping this helps.I'd like to be able to golf in hot weather, go to an amusement park in hot weather, go to a barbecue in hot weather, go to a baseball game in hot weather, and not worry about my back and ass being drenched. In spite of all this I don't think I'd call my CS severe. If it's a reasonable temp at work I'm fine. Same with golf. Reasonable meaning 60-70 degrees. Maybe 75. Luckily, my pits aren't too bad of a problem. I think my pits are the one part of my body thats fairly normal when it comes to sweating. If it's hot they sweat, if it's not hot I'm fine.

Other Random ETS related Things I'd Like to Talk About
Here's some other weird post ETS stuff. Hands never sweat and they used to get real dry. If it's really hot my hands might get clammy. I kind of fear my sweaty hands will come back some day. Idk if there's evidence to support this...maybe I'm just paranoid. My face never sweats. It might get clammy if I'm eating spicy foods. I've heard people complaining about gustory sweating. It doesn't really bother me too much. I think most people get a little sweating when eating spicy foods. So do I. My feet sweat a lot. If they sweat a lot day after day then I get bad in grown toe nails. I never wear sandals because of my hh on my feet. This only recently started happening. I get bad dandruff sometimes. I can usually hide it though. This probably isn't ETS related as I believe I had this before ETS. Um, this one is sexual in nature...so skip over the next three sentences if that bothers you. Recently, I believe I may have developed some sort of erectile dysfunction. I don't think this is ETS related though because when I was 14 to 21 I got them a lot. Now I seem to get them less frequently and they aren't always incredibly hard. Maybe I'm just getting older or maybe I've looked at too much porn. I don't know. Anywho, that sucks. Also, I've never had a real long term girlfriend. You people with HH that have significant others...that just boggles my mind. I really haven't even told my closest friends that I have HH. HH doesn't flare up too much and when it does they're just like "wow you sweat a lot." So, whatever. I have a real problem opening up about it. I sort of told one girl...that was really hard...I told a counselor...I don't even like to talk about it with my parents. Anywho...kind of afraid that bc of my hh I'll never get married and have a lonely life.

Thank you if you read all of this. Please comment. Feel free to ask any questions. I'll be very honest and open.

 

[hyp-hi]

Thanks for sharing your situation. I'm sure it helps that your hand sweat is gone, but the compository sweat is bothersome. If I am wearing thin pants like khakis, I usually wear 2 pairs of cotton boxers to help absorb the sweat. This works fine most of the time as long as I don't have to sit on a plastic chair for a long time. The undershirt should also help absorb sweat to keep from soaking your outer shirt. Have you tried any oral medication for HH? It might help with the CS.

 

[Sprawling]

Thanks for sharing.

I found that being open honest with friends and family makes my HH a little easier to deal with. When i first told my closest friends, it felt like a weight was lifted. It took me till my mid 40's to come out and tell people about about HH. It still bothers me, yet the freedom to tell others... wow!

Despite all, I still managed to have girlfriends, get married and be social. I'm not saying it was easy for me having major sweating issues, but there is HOPE.

 

[anonymoushh]

Thanks for sharing your situation. I'm sure it helps that your hand sweat is gone, but the compository sweat is bothersome. If I am wearing thin pants like khakis, I usually wear 2 pairs of cotton boxers to help absorb the sweat. This works fine most of the time as long as I don't have to sit on a plastic chair for a long time. The undershirt should also help absorb sweat to keep from soaking your outer shirt. Have you tried any oral medication for HH? It might help with the CS.

I haven't tried the two boxers approach. I used the kleinert's boxers today and I had fairly good results. I went with a medium which may be a tad too small. Since I am 6'2 185 it's tough to find perfectly fitting clothes sometimes. I may try the two boxers approach soon. Also, I'll probably look into the oral medication approach soon

Thanks for sharing.

I found that being open honest with friends and family makes my HH a little easier to deal with. When i first told my closest friends, it felt like a weight was lifted. It took me till my mid 40's to come out and tell people about about HH. It still bothers me, yet the freedom to tell others... wow!

Despite all, I still managed to have girlfriends, get married and be social. I'm not saying it was easy for me having major sweating issues, but there is HOPE.

That's pretty inspiring. Thanks.

 

[anonymoushh]

Sorry I haven't updated in a while....so the kleinert's boxers work great for me for the most part day to day. I can wear khaki colored clothing and not worry about sweat showing through most of the day, but today I had a rather embarrassing situation and it has motivated me to try something new. I am going to attempt to get robinul...I don't go to the doctor much so this could be interesting...
So here's my story about today: I went to a baseball game with 3 coworkers. I wasn't really worried about being outside in the summer because A) it was only supposed to be up to 80 at the most...and be overcast B) I was wearing kleinert's boxers which usually stop sweat from soaking through. Well we drove there and I was sitting in the back seat....it was kind of humid today and there was little to no AC reaching the back seat so I was sweating. We get there and I'm not too worried...however I walk behind our group of people so no one can see my potentially sweaty butt. We get there we sit down and it's cool...there's even a little breeze. At this point I'm happy and thinking nothing embarrassing will happen. After a while the sun comes out and I decide to go to the bathroom. I check the back of my pants and they're soaked. It mustve had something to do with sitting on a plastic seat. Well, I somehow managed to prevent my coworkers from seeing my sweaty ass but damn was I nervous.

Anyways...that got me thinking about this forum again. Other than that I've been ok for a while. Though when I golf when it's hot out I get pretty sweaty which is embarrassing. I'm hoping robinul helps.

Thanks for sharing your situation. I'm sure it helps that your hand sweat is gone, but the compository sweat is bothersome. If I am wearing thin pants like khakis, I usually wear 2 pairs of cotton boxers to help absorb the sweat. This works fine most of the time as long as I don't have to sit on a plastic chair for a long time. The undershirt should also help absorb sweat to keep from soaking your outer shirt. Have you tried any oral medication for HH? It might help with the CS.

I'm gonna try it

What nerve did you have cut or clamped? Would you do the surgery again? And how bad was your condition before? Thanks

I'm not sure which nerve. I think they're clamped. My hands, feet and pits were very sweaty. I think my hands could drip.