Author: HQH
Released: May 19, 2001
Updated: September 9, 2004
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Current Status (As of September 9, 2004)
Some things have changed since I last updated my status on January 1, 2002 (a section below). Time to update my status since I
last reported. Let me start off that my hands still stay dry and warm to this day. My feet are still able to sweat, but not like it
use to prior to surgery. My feet's chance of sweating is still good at the reduced percentage it would sweat after having surgery.
Nothing apparently changed with my feet sweating. Heart beating is still going good. In fact, I just measured when I'm at relaxed
state, breathing normally, for 1 minute, my heart beated 52 times. Still sub 60 beats per minute as I last reported. For the weird
numbness funny, yet weird sensation feeling described, I'm getting less of that each year. Oh, and it's not really numbness. I
should remove the numbness description. Weird tingly sensation is more fit for the chest feeling description. Compensatory sweating
is still in effect. Pretty much permanent if one would think it may go away. I can still sweat from the back and down to the legs
(although not all areas, usually just the back). My back would produce sweat as if I ran a lengthy distance for some time when I'm
hot. Nothing too bothering. Just need to get myself into a cooler area to stop my back from sweating. As for the incisions on each
side of my body, updated pictures are provided below. You can definitely see that the incisions went from dark red to light red and
beginning to match my skin's color. The appearance of the incisions have improved (in a good way). They're still obviously there,
but they look far better than when I took pictures back in March 9, 2002. And no, I didn't miraculously turn white all the sudden.
It's due to the lighting when I took the pictures on each occasion. Here are the pictures:
Left incisions above (Sept. 9, 2004).
Right incisions above (Sept. 9, 2004).
Well, that's pretty much it. Nothing alarming, life threatening, or regrets about the surgery and the entire process I went
through. Very well worth the risk I took to disable hyperhidrosis. I am enjoying life more than ever, ever since my hands stopped
sweating thanks to the surgery.
Status (As of January 1, 2002)
Pros
- Hands: Dry and warm.
- Feet: Dry at times, but sweating is reduced, but still sweats a little.
- Heart beat: Significantly lowered from high 80 to mid 90 beats per minute to about sub 60 beats per minute.
- 2 incisions on each side of the chest near the armpits instead of 3, making total of 4 incisions instead of 6. Update:
pictures added below:
Left incisions above (Mar. 9, 2002).
Right incisions above (Mar. 9, 2002).
Cons
- Compensatory sweating: Occurs from my back and down through my legs. It's not bothersome to me. This only occurs if my body
gets hot, and my body needs to sweat, and this is where it'll happen. At times, the palm of my hands can sweat a very tiny bit only
if I'm getting way too hot.
- Gustatory sweating: When eating sour and spicy food, it only makes my forehead sweat. This happens when I eat more than just
a bite of food, my forehead will start to sweat slowly, and accumulate a lot of sweat if I keep eating more. Stops sweating when I
stop eating sour or spicy food in chunks. Small pieces won't result in sweatiness. Just got to remember to eat small pieces.
- Body more sensitive to cold (temperature, not illness) now. I can get cold easily. A glass of cold milk straight from the
refrigerator can get me cold!
- Occasional dry skin on fingertips of hands, but body lotion takes care of it.
Notes
Compensatory sweating is excessive sweating and this is the most widely known side effect after having surgery. All
compensatory sweating is that when the body is hot, the body needs to cool down. In order to cool down, the body sweats. Since the
hands and feet are typically disabled, the body must sweat. Therefore, wherever it may happen, it'll sweat, but it sweats
excessively that if you where the right clothing you'll be able to see perspiration staining the clothing. Good thing that mine
is bearable. It's not bothersome and I don't regret it. Gustatory sweating is when eating certain food or even smelling food, the
person will sweat. Unfortunately, I'm one of those 3% or 5% who gets it after the surgery process. Although it only happens when I
eat (good thing it's not when I smell) sour or spicy food and my forehead sweats. Not a big deal.
Pain almost completely gone, but feel some pain here and there in rare cases. The scars from the surgery are still there, but I
don't really care about it. For some reason, I want to say that my acne problem is going down hill. Ever since surgery, my acne has
lessen and not a boatload of them popping up here and there. Also, I'm not dehydrated as much as before surgery from all that
sweating going on from my hands and feet. So I don't have to drink so much water as before, but I still drink a lot of water now
anyway (not that I'm dehydrating). Right now, after many months after surgery, there's a funny and weird feeling in upper chest.
It's not very annoying, but I thought I would like to say that.
As for the heart beats, it is true that my heart was clocking at high 80 to mid 90 beats per minute. Even if I was calm, I would
be in the 80's. My heart beat rate is pretty high. It's been like this ever since I have hyperhidrosis I believe. But after surgery,
my heart beat are sub 60's per minute now. This is a significant reduction and also good for my heart. Now it can have some rest.
To let you know what were the bad things that I had to go through the first couple of months after surgery:
- Lung capacity temporary reduced for more than a week or two.
- Random pain in the chest area for a couple of weeks.
- Temporary sweating reoccurrence on the 3rd day and little bit into the 4th day after surgery.
- Can't use the arms to do a lot of things, like lifting up heavy stuff, extending it to a full length vertically over my head
for the first few weeks after surgery.
- Back/shoulder blades sore, aches for the first couple of weeks.
- Numbness to funny and weird feeling in upper chest and triceps for months.
- Dry skin (several places) develops about a few weeks after surgery, but body lotion takes care of it.
There might seem to be more bad things to deal with after surgery, but trust me, it was worth the troublesome just to have my
hands dry and not sweating uncontrollably. The pros outweigh the cons seriously even if there's more cons than pros. It's the
quality, not the quantity that matters.
Since my feet still has the ability to sweat, but the sweating length and when is reduced by the surgery, the best way for me
to attempt to control the feet sweating is to wearing socks. It may seem ridiculous, but it works. It doesn't work 100%, but most
of the time, it keeps my feet dry. My feet can still sweat, but the socks also reduces the length of the sweat and the ability for
the feet to sweat. The socks doesn't absorb the sweat if that's what you're thinking. I have a theory that my feet senses the
change in temperature and it can cause it to sweat. So, I believe that the socks block the feet's sensing ability. Although the
socks keep my feet warm at a constant temperature, it's kind of hard to prove that this theory is true, but it's better than
nothing. It's just that having socks on can keep my feet dry at times.
Surgical Information
Procedure: Bilateral VATS (Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery) Sympathectomy, disruption of T2 through T4 nerves.
Where:
George Washington University Medical Center
2150 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Suite 7 - 420
Washington, DC 20037
Go to the 7th floor, get off the elevator, straight down the corridor is Department of Neurological Surgery.
Surgeon:
Dr. Anthony J. Caputy (Neurosurgeon)
Contact: Appointment: (202) 741 - 2750
Notes: Due to time elapses, information provided above reaching Dr. Caputy (or anybody else who can perform the surgery)
may be outdated. Please attempt to reach GWU Medical Center and ask for the Neurological Surgery department if the above contact
information becomes obsolete. Regardless of what surgical technique is performed, you should understand the complications that comes
with the surgery if you want to eliminate hyperhidrosis. The complications are the same for virtually all surgical techniques
disabling hyperhidrosis by disrupting the T2 through T4 nerves. You should go
here and
here and read about the complications/side effects and prepare
to deal with them if you shall encounter them if you have hyperhidrosis and want to have surgery. Ask the surgeon for more details
about the complications/side effects and any other concerns for more information. What I have provided on my website may not be
enough. As time changes, so may the surgical procedures and any new information about hyperhidrosis may come up.
Final Notes
Just an additional note, I met a person and became friends with him at George Mason University, and I find out later on that he
has the same problem as I did, but I never knew about it. I hardly see him to know, but I found out through e-mail after I told him
about my problem. I then told him about how I'm going through surgery to eliminate my hands from sweating. He was very interested
and he wanted to know how it went, because he wanted to do it as well. After I successfully completed my surgery and recovered well,
he went for it in June. He then had surgery in July. His operation was also a success, and from the same doctor as well. I do not
know much complications from him, but I do know that he does have compensatory sweating, but I do not know from where to where.
If you are a person who has hyperhidrosis and feels like having surgery to eliminate the problem, and wish to contact me, you
can e-mail me and I can try and answer any questions that you may have.
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