Sweaty

I'm definitely anxious for the follow up visit next Thursday to explore my options as my botox has started wearing off. Hopefully I can make it through the day without sweating through the shirt I'm wearing. Fingers crossed. I had to switch back from the all natural fragrance-free, paraben-free deoderant I was wearing and back to chemical full aluminum anti-perspirant. :o(

It's Been A While

It's been a while since I wrote on this blog. My follow up appointment for my unsuccessful surgery was cancelled and rescheduled for a week today. So, I won't have an update on what the plan will be moving forward until there. I know that liposuction is potentially an option but I don't know the details or whether or not that surgery is covered. I will keep you posted.

My Surgery Update: ETS

Well I'm sad to report that the ETS surgery has not been successful for me. I have been sweating and it is disappointing. But I went in with the understanding that there was no guarantee and the efficacy is less for under arm sweating.

I have my follow up appointment with the surgeon tomorrow at 8am, so we will explore options. Ironically, I haven't yet healed from the surgery so it really it disheartening that it didn't work for me.

The doctor had previously discussed another option for which he could refer me- which is liposuction of the sweat glands in the under arm area, I imagine we will discuss that tomorrow morning.

I will continue my battle.

Surgery- The Up and Coming

Well, here's a little bit of a secret:
On April 25th I had an Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy (ETS). This is an innovative and controversial surgery that involves making four small incisions on your side below your armpits. Your lungs are deflated to allow the surgeon to insert a scope and tools, they go in a locate the appropriate nerve (for myself it was T3) and they clamp it. Actually severing the nerve is a huge no-no.

I found this option after spending a lot of time on the web researching alternative options to the bank breaking botox (over the long term that is). This surgery is considered to be more successful for feet and hand sweating as well as extreme facial blushing. Underarm sweating can be fixed with this but it's not nearly as successful as for the other types of hyperhydrosis.

The doctor that I found was fantastic and put me at ease. I was really impressed by the questions that he asked and the fact that he wanted to make sure I had explored many options before jumping directly to surgery. The surgeon that I had happens to be the head of Thoracic surgery at the hospital that I went to as well as a teaching surgeon at one of the Universities in the area.

There is a lot to cover with this so I will probably section it into a few blogs.

I can't say that I advocate this surgery at all only because each person has to do their own investigation into the procedure, the doctor, efficacy, and side effects.

Surgery (the old fashioned kind)

About 4 years ago I went to see a surgeon to explore that option...what was available at that time was a very old procedure that would result in the removal of all sweat gland and unfortunately take a lot of underarm skin with it resulting in a large unsightly scar.

Totally defeating the purpose that I had never owned a long sleeved shirt or a t-shirt for that matter, the surgery would limit me to only wearing sleeves and not allow me to wear sleeveless, or straps.

Easily enough I ruled this one out.

Finally Success...Botox Injections

Approximately 4 years ago, I can't believe it's been that long!
I must have been one of the first people to research and try botox injections- in fact to this day I don't know anyone else who does it.

I researched and found this as a way to temporarily control hyperhydrosis, so I went through my family doctor to get a referral and started having this procedure. As this is considered a medical condition one bottle of botox is covered under most drug benefit plans, the procedure is not and is usually $300.00. Over the past 4 years I have had this procedure preformed numerous times with 100% success although the rate of efficacy has fluctuated. The last two injections being the longest lasting- almost a full year each.

The last injections I received were done with two bottles of botox (benenfit plans only cover 1) so this is a fantastic treatment but it gets really expensive. In 10 years I will end up spending $10,000- $14,000 (of which I don't have)

So despite my pleasure with this success I'm still searching for another treatment.