Archive for Randomness :)
I Have Some ‘Splaining To Do
Posted by: · on March 26, 2011 | CommentsHello, my HH friends… It has been quite awhile since I wrote a post, something I was not expecting. Back in November, my husband and I started seriously considering buying a business. Since that time, we went from thinking about it, to working with a franchise broker (who is FANTASTIC!), to looking at our options, to ultimately, Business Ownership!
I am very excited to tell you that we are in the process of opening the newest branch of Always Best Care Senior Services right here in our community, Chicago’s North Shore! Always Best Care screens and hires caregivers to help take care of the in-home care needs of those who need help with activities of daily living, such as dressing, meal preparation, and general non-medical assistance. We also can help families choose an Assisted Living Community when staying at home is no longer practical.
I have long felt drawn to helping people, whether it is reaching out to those like me with hyperhidrosis, or now, people who need help navigating through the aging process. We feel blessed to have this new opportunity.
The down side to this is that I cannot keep up with this site very easily. I used to spend up to 7 hours a day writing articles on various blogging networks to promote this site, keeping up with HH&Me’s Twitter and Facebook pages, and maintaining this site in general. While it was emotionally enriching to do all of that, I was not contributing much financially to our family. Hence, the need for a Major Change.
So bear with me while I figure this out; I will do my best to write posts, especially when I find a great product or hear of a new treatment. Starting a new business while raising 5 kids leaves little room for much else, but this site is important to me, as I have grown immeasurably from at long last being honest about my condition. I hope some of you have benefited in some way from my efforts.
There are some wonderful HH developments to share, so on to the next post, before my writing window closes! 
‘Tis the Season For Social Anxiety Fa la la la…
Posted by: · on November 30, 2010 | CommentsWell, it is official now that Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the newer kid on the block Cyber Monday have all passed… Holiday Season 2010 is Here. Yay.
Bring on the Holiday parties, frenetic shopping, office parties (I hear they are making quite the Comeback this year). Not to be a Scrooge, but for many of us with hyperhidrosis, ‘Tis the Season to dread.
Parties, for other people, are opportunities for fun and something to be anticipated. Parties for us are something we pretend to get excited about. We fake a smile with our arms glued to our sides. Cold drink complete with sweating ice cubes clutched in right hand, thankyouverymuch. Cursing inwardly the stupid STUPID decision to wear red satin…
Sound familiar?
OK, well if you’re a guy, I do hope the red satin part is not a memory for you… not that there’s anything wrong with that (Jerry Seinfeld reference 
)… My point, and I do have one– wait, do I? Oh yes, the point is… I get it. Have lived it, too many times to want to count. And I would like to give you a little pep talk and a couple of pointers.
Please don’t feel like a freak standing there feeling all awkward at a holiday party. Put the stupid-ass sweating in its stupid-ass place and have fun anyways. Don’t give hyperhidrosis the power to ruin your evening.
Look around the room and if misery loves company, consider that statistically, you are probably not the only person present with hyperhidrosis. Three people in a hundred– and that number is conservative (IMO). You could even play a little game with yourself. Such as, Guess the Sweater (and I don’t mean knitwear).
Dress appropriately– wear the appropriate foundation wear. Guys, undershirts are made that will conceal the sweat and keep you comfortable! Check out my article on Men’s Undershirts. Ladies, there are dozens of options for you. So many, in fact, that my article on Women’s Undergarments is too long for my liking– but I wanted to show you just how many options you have. You can really wear any neckline, sleeve, or color. The feeling of confidence just knowing you are wearing something that will manage the sweat will actually make you sweat LESS. Unless it’s like 95 degrees in the room or something. In which case everyone else will be sweating, so who cares? See? Misery does love company.
If you find yourself sweating, say so. Yes, that’s right. Say. So. Casually. It totally takes the edge off and you get a little sympathy, to boot. I swear. The key is to be really casual about it. When you put it out there, you feel better, and often it will make the sweat production slow down.
So have fun, kiss someone under a bunch of dead leaves, clutch your sweating drink in your sweating hand, and thumb your nose at hyperhidrosis.
Navigating Hyperhidrosis And Me
Posted by: · on November 29, 2010 | CommentsIt has been just over a year since I started putting together this website. As most big projects do, this site has evolved over time. My main goal for this site has remained unchanged: to offer a safe place to come and empathize with others’ hyperhidrosis stories, and to provide a place where one can find advice as well as product and treatment recommendations.
I quickly learned a few things: First, there is a lot of information regarding hyperhidrosis available, and quite a few treatments and products that need to be explained and reviewed. I did my best to research every real treatment option and provide you readers with accurate information. I also found that there are many products on the market that can help you manage and conceal the sweating. Organizing all this information has been a challenge! At times I worry that navigating this site is not as easy as I would like it to be.
Blog posts are organized by categories, which you can find below the title of the site. Pages describing treatments, strategies, and various products can be found above the title of the site. If you want to know about a particular treatment, Botox for example, click on Treatment Options, and you will see a menu drop down where “Botox” can be found. You can also click on “Botox” on a category tab (below the title of the site) and you will be taken to blog posts where I discuss Botox. When I discuss Botox in a post, I also usually provide a link to my PAGE for Botox too. Confusing? I hope not!
If you would like to know more about ETS (Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy), please don’t hesitate to download the report I offer for free here. I will not give anyone your email address or require you hand over your Firstborn (thanks, I have enough kids). You will simply be added to my list of folks who get an email once a week containing my latest blog posts… and you can opt out of that if you want to.
Something you will NEVER find here is a recommendation or Heaven forbid, a link to any scammy sure-fire “cures” for hyperhidrosis. That was the biggest surprise for me when I embarked on this journey. The ratio of fake cures to real cures for hyperhidrosis is depressingly huge. This is something I talk about a lot here, because it does two things: it rips people off, and it also makes it very difficult for people like me, who offer only genuine and honest help, to be found. There are several honest sites for hyperhidrosis– maybe a dozen?– and hundreds of scams. Hundreds. You have probably found many of them before you found me, yes?
I hope this little navigation tutorial can help you find your way around this site!
And The Truth Shall Set You Free
Posted by: · on October 26, 2010 | CommentsThis is my first blog post in awhile; my computer’s hard drive sadly died! I felt as though I had lost a limb while waiting to get back online. While I was in Offline Land, I had an incredible experience that I would like to share with you. I rarely talk about my life unless it involves my hyperhidrosis, so let me explain a bit of background pertaining to the circumstances of this experience…
I am a practicing Catholic and so grateful to have my faith. My faith journey has been profoundly influenced this past year by a women’s retreat I participated in last November. Wanting, well, needing to continue the journey after that incredible weekend, I joined the team that would host this year’s retreat. I was blessed to bond with a team of amazing women over this past year and was inspired to contribute to the retreat experience by way of “giving a Witness”. Giving a Witness means that I would be sharing my life experiences and struggles, describing how my faith has defined those experiences and how that faith has helped me through times of trouble.
Throughout these many months I have struggled with whether or not I would have the courage to face a room of 40 or so women, many of them strangers or (worse!) acquaintances, and be open and honest about having hyperhidrosis. I agonized whether it would be relevant, too uncomfortable, too personal… too hard. Finally, I gave it over to God. Duh, I should have done that to begin with, right??
So… Sunday morning, I stood at a podium and spoke of my life. There were other difficulties to describe that were also of a personal nature and very emotional, but the moment when I said, “All my life, I have had a problem with sweating…” the feelings that came over me were nearly indescribable.
I explained that I felt like an outsider all my life, that I was convinced until recently that God could not possibly love me if He had made me this way; that there were 178 million other people in the world who were afflicted with this just like me. I described the shame that ran so deep as to be nearly impossible to erase.
And I looked around that room, and what did I see in the eyes of those women reflected back at me? Tears for my pain, empathy, love, and acceptance.
Two of those women approached me and confessed they have it, too, and asked me if I could help them. Many others embraced me with words of support and admiration.
What was I so scared of? I write about hyperhidrosis every day. It is not so very difficult to be open on the faceless, anonymous world of the Internet. I have gotten used to the general indifference and/or ignorance of hyperhidrosis online. Being public about hyperhidrosis in the flesh and blood real world posed a completely different challenge for me.
The closing Mass was held in a room where we all sat together. By the closing song, we were all standing, swaying, belting out “How Great Thou Art” along with Carrie Underwood… holding hands. Well, I wasn’t. I was laughing, fully in the moment filled with joy, with my arm around the shoulders of one sister and the grip of another’s lovingly on my wrist. And it was awesome.
I waited my whole life for a moment like that. And it did not disappoint.
Hyperhidrosis Treatments: Know Your Real Options
Posted by: · on October 14, 2010 | CommentsIf you are at all new to this site, I would like to well– first, WELCOME you — and then let you know that you have found a safe place to: a) read about the journeys of others like you, b) submit your own stories or memories of how hyperhidrosis has affected your life, and c) find out all you can about the real, proven treatment options available, as well as find strategies and clothing and various products to help you manage your daily life. By participating in any or all of these things here, you can give yourself the opportunity to turn the tables on your hyperhidrosis. What do I mean by that? In a word, CONTROL.
Ask yourself– does your hyperhidrosis control you? Does it keep you from doing things you want to do? Do you make decisions every day based on whether or not your body will betray you? I am going to make an educated guess and say a loud YES.
So take your control back. Take your power back from this pain-in-the-ass disorder.
Start with your Treatment Options by clicking! There ya go.
Join My Community “Hyperhidrosis And Me Blog” on Blog Frog!
Posted by: · on October 12, 2010 | CommentsHi everyone! There is a great blogging network out there in Webland that stands apart from the other networks I belong to. Blog Frog is a place where you can go directly from the widget on the right side to join my Hyperhidrosis And Me community. Here’s the cool thing about this: anyone who joins this community can interact with the other members. So if you go to my Blog Frog community and you have a question about something, I am not the only person you are talking to! It is kind of like a chat forum but with less structure, and more user-friendly, in my opinion. Oh, and just so you now, they are not paying me to write this I just think it would be good for this website to have a safe place where we can talk to each other easily. You do not have to have a blog or website to join.
In other news… it is my youngest’s birthday today!! She is 6 years old. Wah.
