my story

“Sweating is normal, everyone does it.”

“People blush when they get nervous.”

As someone who suffered with hyperhidrosis and facial blushing for 20 years, I know how these statements can hurt.  Usually they are said right after you explain all of the effects that sweating and blushing have had in your life.  I think maybe people say this to make you feel like you are normal and nothing is wrong.  For us who suffer/suffered, we KNOW we are not normal when it comes to sweating and blushing. 

Here is an abbreviated version of my story. 

I began noticing excessive sweating while I was in junior high.  I remember using a piece of paper or a towel to keep my answers from being smudged by the sweat dripping off my hands.  All of the papers of my homework were curled.  At first I never knew why my papers were curled and my friends weren’t.  What the heck was I doing to my paper that they weren’t?  Turns out I was sweating on them, making the paper moist, which in turn caused it to curl.  Case solved. 

I could have just asked my older brother or father.  They both suffer from HH.  My brother actually started sweating earlier in his life than I did.  My mom remembers my brother sweating when he was around 5 years old.  My father has sweat his entire life.  His sweating has decreased over the years which is quite normal for HH sufferers.  My sisters have symptoms of facial blushing, but don’t have the sweating part.  So, for me it is a family thing. 

I also remember blushing quite a bit while in school and other social situations.  I thought that was just a normal thing for a shy person to do.  My friends knew they could always count on me to turn bright red if they put me “on the spot.”  I tried to stay away from these situations as much as possible.  Thus the beginnings of my avoidance strategies. 

High school and college were just a continuation of junior high, except the symptoms steadily grew worse and my avoidance methods grew to accommodate these increasing problems.  High school is when I first noticed that if I were sufficiently anxious, my face would sweat.  Neat.  In college I experienced my first “full body” sweat from anxiety.  In these situations, sweat would start first in the hands, then face, then EVERYWHERE.  It was not a cool thing.  I remember having an interview in college during the winter.  My hands were cold and moist when I shook the interviewer's hands.  She said something like “Wow, your hands are cold!”  She was actually a nice person. 

I started looking into solutions to my increasing problem with blushing and sweating during my freshman year of college.  The dermatologists at the time knew nothing about how to effectively control the sweating on my hands or armpits.  (I had very, very poor results with every single dermatologist I spoke with during the 10 years I was looking for solutions.)  The only help I found was with a doctor who was willing to prescribe medications to control the underlying (see model) anxiety which caused the sweating and blushing to occur.  So, for the next 8 years, and 3 psychiatrists, I took a varying degree of medications to control my anxiety.  I remember taking propanolol, desipramine, xanax, prozac, and zoloft.  I am sure there were others, but these are the ones I remember. 

The medications had varying effectiveness in controlling my anxiety.  Xanax seemed to limit the symptoms the most.  However, this was offset by the side effects.  Xanax (alprazolam), when taken at the dosage levels that I was taking (which were somewhat obscene) causes the patient to suffer from drowsiness.  I would take a healthy dose before meetings, and interviews. (Notice I didn’t say speeches.  I somehow got a degree without giving a speech.  A spectacular example of avoidance.)  I remember feeling COMPLETELY drugged up for my interviews for full time jobs.  I’m really not quite sure how I would have made it through the interview process, and got a job, without the medications. 

During these years I also tried Drysol and the Drionic Iontophoresis device.  Drysol caused a considerable amount of irritation and it was expensive so I just had the pharmacist make some Aluminum Chloride 25% solution.   The AlCl was somewhat effective at controlling the sweating of my armpits and hands, but when I was nervous, it was useless.  The Drionic worked better than the AlCl, although it did not stop the sweating on the backside of my fingers.  If I had just palmar HH, this would probably have been enough. Sure, it is a pain to sit there for 30 minutes at a time, and it does hurt a little, but it sure beats spending $6000 dollars to have your nervous system messed around with.   However, FB and facial sweating could not be controlled with the Drionic. 

So, I graduated from college and was beginning a career.  You would think a person who suffers from what most doctors call a “social phobia” would choose a career with little requirements for meeting new people and being in “situations” which cause anxiety.  Ooops, there is where I went wrong.  I got a job with one of the largest management consulting firms in the world.  It was a great job.  Great experience and coworkers.  The only problem is that it was a nerve-wracking situation virtually every single day.  So, I continued the meds and visiting with the psychiatrists. 

I am a pretty good consultant, but due to my “handicap” I was not able to fully take on the responsibilities required to move up the ladder.  This was a big bummer.  The people I worked with were very helpful and went out of their way to help me with my “special problem.”  Oh, that reminds me.  I eventually told my boss and everyone I worked with.  It was a fantastic feeling.  It really felt good and I would encourage everyone to divulge to others.  People, in general, are truly understanding beings. 

In mid 1994 I got hooked up to the net.  I remember using Mosaic in a search for information on hyperhidrosis.  I didn’t find anything.  It may have been that I didn’t search well, it may have been there was nothing out there on the net.  For some reason, I did not do a search for another 3 years.  What the heck was I thinking?!? 

Last summer, thanks to a friend who had never heard of HH before, I casually searched for HH on AltaVista.  To my amazement, there was a forum with information about a new surgery.  (I knew about the old, open sympathectomy, but my doc said it was crazy to have that performed for a “cosmetic” condition.)  I read the postings and then started visiting the websites of surgeons who performed ETS.  After about 4 months, I chose Dr. Nielson to operate on me.  In December of 1997, I had my T2 ganglia cut.  For the results see my surgery.

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-phil