Guest Post: “I Want To Hold Your Hand”

I shook someone’s hand today. I didn’t have to wipe it on my pants first or on a bounty paper towel.

I didn’t have to make a joke about my sweaty hands or apologize profusely about sweating profusely all over that person.

Since I was a teenager, I have suffered with hyperhidrosis. It’s basically all over. My hands, my feet, my thighs, my back & chest. But the hardest place to “hide” it is on my hands.

I’ve found unique ways to mask and deal with this sweat, but the hands have been the hardest. There are no clothes that can cover my hands year-round. How do you hide your hands when getting a manicure?  You don’t get a manicure.

My hands would drip, drip, drip. The more I felt the sweat, the more I was embarrassed, and the more nervous I became. Drip, drip, drip.

Wetting the computer keys; the phone I hold to my ear; the hand of the person I’m holding while I dance salsa; the pole on the subway; the little girl who wants to play miss-mary-mack; the person  I meet at the job interview…

Drip. Wipe. Stress. Drip.

The only place I felt a little better about sweating was at the gym. But even then….

Over the past few years I started to look for a solution, but to no avail. Doctors didn’t really take the condition or my urgency with any real concern.

Not until I found this blog did I decide to give a dermatologist another shot.

I tried drysol before but it didn’t work with gloves. Who wants to sleep with gloves?  And that just made me sweat. So I gave up on it. The next doctor I saw (a very popular one) said I could try botox but it would “hurt like hell” and be very expensive. I asked for an iontopheresis machine. I got the prescription, but it was nowhere to be found through my insurance company’s medical supply stores… so much hassle.

So again, I gave up. I just decided to sweat. Recently this dermatologist suggested I try it again, without gloves. Result: much better.

It’s not perfect, but it works. My hands sweat less, then stop sweating, but start sweating if I don’t keep it up every day. I also have to put lotion on to combat the dryness. I cannot believe I’m combating dryness!!!! Never in a million years did I think I’d need lotion on my sweaty hands.

This may be a lifetime regimen for now. The little bottle I keep at the side of my bed. But I’ll take it.

You have no idea how liberating this one little bottle has been for me. Now I’ve got one less thing to sweat about.

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By HerDeepThoughts.com

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From Charmaine:

I want to thank the author for contributing this extraordinarily touching article.  As someone who also has dealt with palmar sweating, I really identified with her words.  I would like to point out that the author of this post is a person who has gone out there and pursued her dreams without letting hyperhidrosis stop her.  Check out her blog.  She is proof that hyperhidrosis does not have to control what you can and cannot do in life.

 Link to this page

 Link to this page