Hello. My name is McKenzie and I have hyperhidrosis. I wish we were all sitting in a circle so we could share our stories more personably, but I hope the experiences you read here will provide some sort of relief or feeling of community. I hadn’t thought to make a blog until I stubbled upon one myself and felt such a big wave of happiness that it surprised even me. Subsequently, I was shocked to see that so few sweaty blogs exist! I know this problem is a big one; why not provide another platform to talk about it? I can’t remember a single defining moment when I realized my body was different. My first real memory of even noticing the sweat was after I cut my pinky finger and it had to be stuck into a bulky, plastic tube that created a pocket of air surrounding the injury. There was nothing to absorb the sweat so little beads of it would run into the cut, stinging and preventing it from healing. I was 7 and, from then on, the sweat on my hands and feet would become a big problem. It would leave shared keyboards and school papers, bedsheets and sandwiches, magazines and books and toilet paper, completely soaked and uncomfortable. I could go up to the bathroom sink, grab the bar of soap and lather up without even turning on the water. If I turned my hands upside down, sweat would run off the tips of my fingers in rivulets. Forget wearing flip flops or sandals or advancing in bare-feet-required karate. By the time I turned 16 I felt defeated. I decided to see a local physician who agreed to perform an endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy (ETS) to get rid of the hand sweating, called palmar hyperhidrosis. This is a surgery which is very rarely recommended now. It was fairly new at the time and, although I was warned about side effects, the prospect of shaking or holding someone’s hand without embarrassment was too tempting to pass up. Right after the surgery I was overjoyed to have dry hands. My eyes weren’t droopy, one of the biggest risks, and even my feet were dry. My feet started sweating again about a week later, but I expected that. The surgery is never performed for plantar hyperhidrosis, but I never could have predicted how much my entire body would be affected by compensatory sweating. Now, it’s 9 years later and I know that when I get up from this chair it’ll be soaked and my jeans with it. I have to be extremely careful of the pants I wear, or skirts or dresses, because I know that I’ll sweat right through them. It’s a given. It doesn’t matter what the temperature is, what season or time of day it is, who I’m with or not with. If I put my hands over the crotch of my jeans, they’ll come back wet. Not only is this incredibly restrictive, but it’s incredibly uncomfortable. It feels as if I’ve completed the biggest workout of my life, all day, every day, but I still have to wait until the end of the day to finally wash off. Of course, the compensatory sweating happens in abundance in other areas, but this is the biggest one and the biggest inconvenience. I can’t say for sure that I’d recommend the surgery to others. I think I’m still glad I had it. Hands are so central to everything in life…tossing a salad, holding the hand of a significant other, typing on a keyboard…that it still feels like it was the right area to focus on. Of course what I truly try to focus on are the many happinesses and joys in my life that remain unaffected by the sweat: my writing, my family and boyfriend, and, most importantly, my cat (see adorable fluffball above). These things and more make the ongoing journey with HH a much easier one, but a journey it most certainly is. Has anyone else had ETS? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments!
The Sweaty Blog 