Hey All!
I’ve had a great time responding to all your comments from the article, and it’s time to get back to posting! Thanks for your patience!
For some time now, I’ve wanted to write about my palmar HH and what I say or think about my hands when they are extra sweaty.
Palmar HH is really difficult.
If my hands are extra sweaty and I’m in a meeting, I literally can’t take notes. I can’t even move.
The other day I was in an awfully stressful meeting. I literally sweated through half a notebook- just by holding it.
If the sweat wasn’t enough, I was also super self conscious about my neck and chest blotching and was trying so hard to cover it up.
Other examples of Palmar HH struggles:
If I’m on a hot platform waiting for the subway, I can’t read a paperback book or a newspaper- I can’t even hold it! (Recently switched to Kindle and loving it)
Also, just last night, I was trying to answer emails on my Mac and my sweat was interfering with the trackpad! Can’t catch a break.
Palmar HH is so annoying!
Here are a few things I say about my hands:
My hands are…
1. melting
2. not working right now
3. broken
4. bad
5. a mess
6. not behaving
I’m sure I missed a few.
What do you say about your palmar HH?
Please leave me comments!
Thanks for reading,
Caryn
Just a Little Sweat 
Hey Caryn,
It is so wonderful, and inspiring that you are doing this. I love how you seem to have learnt to accept this part of yourself. Your blog I’m sure gives much strength to other hyperhydrosis sufferers.
I am one of them. A nineteen year old girl, with the condition from the time I was six. People know, and have always been sweet and accommodating, but one has to be a fellow-member of the community, living the experiences first hand, to “understand” and actually “empathize.”
I have a few pieces of writing as well, which I would like to share. Any suggestions of where I can share them? 🙂
Thanks for your comment! I would love to read some of your writing! Have you heard of verysweatybetty.com? They sometimes accept guest bloggers. You should think about starting a blog on your own.
Hi Caryn,
I can so relate to you. Not only do I suffer from palmar HH, my entire body is also affected to a certain degree. Yesterday I was at the bank with a colleague to open up a corporate account. For me, that meant signing papers and what’s worse in front of my colleague. How I dealt with the situation was I brought the documents to my person and on top of my purse placed the documents for my signature. Also, the entire 15 minutes that I needed to be there, I started to feel my body heat rising. Was I happy to be out of there. Right now as I write this, I have a fan facing in my direction and so my hands/fingers are just a tad moist but bearable. You are right when I read in a previous blog of yours that as soon as my thoughts are drawn to my palmar HH, I can actually feel the perspiration working even harder…like right now. Oh well, it is what it is, right? Have a great day, Caryn!! 🙂
~Kay
Hi Kay- Thanks for writing! Sorry you had that experience with signing papers in front of your colleague. Those simple tasks definitely cause people like us much anxiety!! Good job for coping. Just keep breathing and moving forward. In those moments, we can feel so alone and helpless. Please know that you have a support and that you will get through it! Though, having a fan next to us definitely helps!! Have a great day too! 🙂
Palmar HH just cripples every sphere of our life. Sufferers like me used to avoid social gatherings, just to avoid the embarrassment caused by it.
We are really unfortunate people who can’t enjoy life to its fullest as HH acts as a ‘BIG ROADBLOCK’ ahead us !!!
Thanks for writing. I know how you feel. I used to only feel angry about HH- especially with how palmar HH seemed to limit my life. I still feel angry sometimes, and this is normal. What I hope you can discover is that we can adapt somehow in society so we don’t have to avoid things we love. When we discover there are ways, we will feel proud. I believe that people with HH are some of the most emotionally strong people out there. I don’t think the average person can live with a condition like ours in silence, but we have been given that challenge. We have been given a taboo condition that limits our lives. Yes, you can be angry. But you can be positive that you are strong. Nothing else can break you. Be strong and proud. We may struggle, but we are still here.
So, I pretty much just stumbled on your blog and reading each and every post and leaving comments on most. Lol
I am so happy to read this and just know that there are more people like me out there. My whole 25 years on earth and I have never met (in person and until this blog) anyone who suffers from hyperhidrosis.
I came across your blog because of a class I was taking, Narratives in health care. The final project required us writing, either a research paper on illness narratives or a memoir or some such creative aspect. The research paper was too boring and he had urged me to blog because he thought I was a good storyteller though I never mentioned my hyperhidrosis in the papers he had read, just other diseases I suffer from. Anyway, I figured I would do a personal memoir for the project. Which I did. What I did not anticipate was that I would have to present to my class. I found a way of glossing over it because I was embarrassed of my classmates reactions and also just scared, not knowing how receptive they would be.
But at the last minute, I shared the true story and I felt good about it. This was the first time I had come out and formally told anyone what I suffered from. And one girl was very appreciative of me telling my story because it explained why I was not the most social person (I have been taking classes with her for almost two years now and the most I ever say to her is hi
So now I have decided to blog about it and hopefully be better socially
Thank you
You are amazing! I am so inspired by your courage 🙂
This seems like a great project your teacher assigned and I’m glad it helped you in so many ways. And also, you informed a lot of people about our condition!
You don’t happen to have a video of your presentation?
No unfortunately I don’t. It was a paper and I did short in class presentation of it. I only have my essay now.
And thank you, you inspire me too 🙂
One more thing, I forgot to mention what I call my palmer HH
1. Cold hands
2. Wet hands
3. Messy hands
4. Not working right
Lol the list is endless