My ETS

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Paul1969	My ETS		Lead	[-]
Member Posts: 3 08/11/09 08:38 AM	Tags : None My name is Paul, I'm 39 and live in the north of England. I had an ETS in 2002 for FB. I found this site a few days ago. After reading many stories on here I've come to realise that I'm not out of the ordinary and that I'm not some kind of crazy freak. Like many of you my blushing was sending me over the edge. I couldn't go anywhere without it turning into a blushing disaster. The most innocent remark would set me off and people would take great delight in pointing out "you've gone bright red!" I stopped going to school at 15 because of it and I didn't get a job I could stick at until I was 22, at about 30 years it got me down so much I was going to quit work with a stack of debts and I thought there was only going to be one way out but I really didn't want to do that. I wanted to carry on living but the blushing got so bad I thought I had no choice until I saw a news paper article in The Daily Mail about a women who had this thing, an ETS. She described exactly how I felt and how having the surgery changed her life and how happy she was. I couldn't believe my eyes! The same week I was on a train to London to see Mr Greenstien at the Highgate Hospital. I thought he was quite honest and sympathetic, I'd seen loads of doctors and none of them understood like Mr Greenstien! He told me I could end up with a droopy eye and that I would suffer from CS but I went ahead as I thought I had nothing to lose because I was going to kill myself anyway. I paid my £4500 and he booked me in for the operation. When I came around I was disappointed, I thought nothing had changed. Then it hit me I realised I didn't blush any more, ever! I even tested it out by seeing people that used to embarrass the hell out of me. The CS came a few days later, I'd walked from the car park to the office and my back and chest were dripping wet. The temperature outside was about 18c. Now 7 years later, in the back end of May and June, July, August and the beginning of September I have to sit at work with a fan pointing at me. I'm ok the rest of the year as long as no one puts the heating on (have you tried telling your work mates your turning the heating off in December!) When I go places with no fans or AC or with the heating on I end up looking and smelling like a wet dog. I have used all the tricks listed on this site to hide the CS but they don't always work. I don't think I have had any other side affects. Now despite the CS, I have a life I thought I would never have so if anyone is reading this and is considering an ETS I would say to them, try every other avenue and only do it as a very last resort. Take care everyone. P Last Edited By: Paul1969 08/11/09 08:55 AM. Edited 1 time.
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csmess		#1	[url]	[-]
Member Posts: 1195 08/11/09 09:06 AM Administrator	Hi Paul, Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your story. I'm glad to hear that feel that the problems caused by your CS are an acceptable trade off to be rid of your blushing. I am curious though as to whether your surgeon warned you that you would likely dealing with soaked clothing and would have to modify your lifestyle (staying indoors with a fan on you in the summer, etc.) as a result of the surgery. Like you I was warned of the possibility of CS, but it was characterized as being mild and barely noticeable in all but a tiny fraction of cases. I discovered only after my surgery that cases like mine and yours are not at all rare. There is some evidence that we're more the rule than the exception. See, I'm on the other end of the spectrum. My CS and other side effects have had a dramatically negative effect on my quality of life. I certainly would not have consented to the surgery if I had been warned I'd "end up looking and smelling like a wet dog" at modest temperatures (btw, that is the most accurate description of living with CS I've ever read). Anyway, did your surgeon warn you of the practical consequences of CS, i.e. the soaked clothing, the heat avoidance, etc.? The fact that surgeons rarely, if ever, provide that type of disclosure is my primary gripe. I certainly would not have had the surgery had the side effects been presented to me in those honest descriptive terms.
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Paul1969		#2	[url]	[-]
Member Posts: 3 08/11/09 12:34 PM	He didn't tell me anything about the CS, only that I would have it. I didn't dwell on it, To me sweating was just that until I had the CS. If he had told me I also would not have had the surgery but I would have most certainly followed plan'A' though. I think I adapted to life with the CS because my life before the ETS was so miserable. Better to live with CS than to die with the blushing My thoughts are if you can live with your original condition don't have the ETS.
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csmess		#3	[url]	[-]
Member Posts: 1195 08/11/09 02:17 PM Administrator	Thanks for the clarification, Paul. The only thing I would add is that I tell people considering the surgery to consider the climate they live in, their job and their lifestyle. If someone lives in a mild climate and/or lives a relatively sedentary lifestyle, then the CS is less likely to be an issue. On the other hand, someone living in a hot climate, has an outdoor job, has physical labor job and/or is very physically active will likely find living with the CS worse than their original condition. Take care.
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sumaiya21		#4	[url]	[-]
Member Posts: 2 08/20/09 01:25 PM	well it also makes me happier to know that im also not the only one with this embaressing hyperhidrosis problem or whatever you call it.. well im 18 and believ it or not iv been sufferring from this problem since about 6 years now, i used to sweat like mad from everywhere including my face, armpits and feet aswell, which was a disaster, the sweating under my armpits used to be so bad that my family started making a joke out of it as whenver they went sweaty i used to hairdry them so they started to always say to me hey u hairdryed your armpits yet 2day lmao. well neways still being a teenager this problems very hard to deal with as you cant always wear the clothes u want cos of lukin sweaty and plus you cant holh hands with people and stuff like that becuase they are always sweaty and cold. so when i turned 16 and started college i just decided that i cudnt take it nemre so i started researching into possible treatments, my doctor first put me on some tablets for a month but they made no difference whatsoever, then i tried this spray called odaban which did wonders for my armpits, and stopped the sweating. However the feet and hands were still a huge problem so then i came accross something cald ETS, i then went to my doctor and discussed this with him, and he reffered me to a vascular surgeon. i then went to go see him and had a whole disscussion, and he told me about the complications and also CS, however i thought the CS canot be any worse than my sweaty hands and feet so i decided to go ahead and few weeks later i had my right side done which turned out to be a huge success and my hand was finally dry and warm, and the CS was not as bad as i thought it would be and it only affected me when i was very nervous however i did not get drenched and it was not visible like the sweaty pits. I then got my left side done two days ago and yet again it turned out a huge success also becuase my feet are less sweaty not they arent soaking wet and just a bit humid. so im very happy to say im quite dry now and feel like a normal person now :D. CS does occur on my back but with odaban it calms down a lot. so yea if your suffering from bery bad hyperhidrosis and nothings really working ETS may be for u. just thought id share my story with u people. take care.
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Erika	a night out	#5	[url]	[-]
Member Posts: 123 08/20/09 07:06 PM	I made myself meet up with co-workers for drinks this evening. I was soaked from chest to toe (not head to toe) for the entire four hours or so. I can't even listen to people talk cuz I feel so fucking sick and disgusting. I don't feel like a human being. If I am literally destined to live inside the entire rest of my fucking life, I might as well be dead. Plain and simple. When I decide I can't take it anymore, you can bet there's one asshole I'm takin out before me.
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smoothy boothy	Re: My ETS	#6	[url]	[-]
Member Posts: 71 08/22/09 07:31 AM	Erika!!! I feel for you i really do!!! not being able to socialize anymore without the body going through hell is awful. You can't take on board anything that people are saying because your so concious about your own body, it's awful. We are not human anymore, our life has been taken from us, i really don't know how i get through the days!!!! Cal.
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slovenec	My ETS experience	#7	[url]	[-]
Member Posts: 53 09/05/09 08:51 AM	I have suffered from severe palmar and plantar HH for as long as I can remember. The sweat was dripping of my palms regardless of the outside temperature and stress. It only stopped while sleeping. It is hard to imagine all the embarrassment and constant horrible incidents caused by the constantly sweaty hands. Unfortunately none of the noninvasive methods helped and I was willing to risk everything just to get rid of the terrible sweating. In 1997 I found a web page written by an Italian surgeon dr. Ivo Tarfusser. He answered all my questions and he was very sincere about possible complications. Knowing what the surgery meant to me he even vastly reduced the price of the surgery (I payed only 2500 EUR). The surgery went by without any complications and it is impossible to imagine how ecstatic I was having dry hands for the first time in my life. I had a bilateral T2 sympathectomy which was very rare in those times (they usually cut T2-T4 or T2-T5). I had absolutely no problems for about a year and even the sweating of the soles was significantly reduced. About a year afterwards CS developed. It was quite unpleasant in summer months (I learned to wear white polo shirts only - it helped a lot) but benign in the sense that (unlike palmar HH) it was only present in hot environment or during exercise. In the last 12 years CS became bearable. I do sweat a lot in summer months and sometimes I may have to change a shirt after lectures. Unfortunately the plantar HH returned. I was able to control it by ionthopheresis but it was quite unpleasant and time consuming (I had to do it every other day for half an hour). Now I use Odaban with mixed results (it definitely helps, but the feet are often damp without a reason). I am even thinking of an additional lumbar sympathectomy. I will definitely wait for a year or two to see the results of combined sympathectomies. Today, L3 and L4 are cut and it seems that the laparoscopic method causes none of the problems so much feared before (impotence, problems with ejaculation). Even CS after lumbar sympathectomy seems to be milder than CS after ETS.
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ugyan		#8	[url]	[-]
Member Posts: 627 09/06/09 08:04 AM	Lumbar and combined sympathectomy?! We did not have it here for a while! It is the most ABSURD statement that because ETS is now laporoscopic (or endoscopic), that it does not cause problems with sexual function/ erection any more. It is not the size of the scar that matters, but the fact that you cut the sympathetic chain, reduce innervation and eliminate sympathetic outflow, - which is requred for maintaining erection and the ability to ejaculate. There have been several investigations looking into the effects of sympathectomy (also lumbar, not to mention cervico-thoracic plus lumbar!!!). reduction in symp. activation resulting in sexual dysfunction, retrograde ejaculation (INFERTILITY). I will not even get into the assumtions you make about less CS after the lumbar sympathectomy, that "seems to milder". It is propaganda. I frankly thought that you are Konecny, the associate of Baumgartner, but after this post, you might be Ivo Tarfusser. But it can be traced back and checked. "Lumbar sympathectomy is not recommended for hyperhidrosis affecting the feet as it can interfere with sexual function." http://www.nevdgp.org.au/...ermnet/hyperhydrosis.htm Judging from the text on Tarfusser's website ("it is (almost) irreversible if it persists for more than 1 year"), I am quite certain that he is posting as 'slovenec', and advertising ETS. What the heck does it mean: 'almost irreversible'???
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slovenec		#9	[url]	[-]
Member Posts: 53 09/08/09 04:37 AM	You are totally wrong. I disclosed my identity to the administrator of the forum.
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