plantar hyperhidrosis

Finger Print Scanning and HH

/ carynjoan / 3 Comments

Somehow, I’m doing pretty alright this summer with HH. Huge change from last summer, thank goodness! This is the first summer that I have not worn sandals and I have to say that it’s helped a ton. Finally- I am listening to my own advice!

I’ve been on vacation for a bit, and most recently took a trip down to Florida. My family and I went to Disney World and Universal Studios. It was very hot, but wearing sneakers helped, and also keeping a towel on me at all times came in handy (pun intended?)

I had a few problems, but the worst was getting in the park at Universal.

All of these big theme parks have a finger print scanning device at the entrance when you show your ticket. I assume this is so tickets are non-transferable.

Anyway, Disney’s finger print scanners worked fine for me. Universal’s  did not!

I was and am still very upset about this. My sweaty fingers would not provide a good finger print! I tried and tried, and had a female employee there with a cotton ball trying to absorb the sweat from my finger, but nothing was working. I was holding up the line and the women said, “You have really sweaty hands!”

At this, I was angry and embarrassed and blurted out, “Yeah, I have Hyperhidrosis!”

She obviously didn’t really understand what this was but just let me through the line anyway and just had me sign my ticket and make sure I had my ID on my at all times. Although, now I wonder what she thought when I said that.

As soon as I got through the turn style, my emotions were so messed up that I burst out crying.

What a wonderful start to my day!

Overall, I was fine. The employee was not mean to me. I was mostly mad that Universal Studios didn’t make the entrance procedure accessible to people like me. I also felt embarrassed that she had to try wiping my fingers and then made a comment.

I wish the knowledge of HH was more prevalent.  If it were, maybe some of these things wouldn’t happen.

Thanks for reading,
Caryn Joan

Your Quality of Life with Hyperhidrosis

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Please take this survey about your quality of life if you suffer from HH. Click HERE!

I sometimes take HH for granted and don’t realize all of the struggles I really have.

The questions in this survey hit hard for me. They made me question my quality of life.

The survey asks how your life as been affected by HH in the following areas:

Choice of clothing, footwear

Difficulties holding objects, handling money, handling paper

Difficulties touching other people

Hobbies, physical activities

Difficulties using touch-screen technologies

 

These were just some of the areas touched upon. For each situation, I found myself answering that HH greatly affects these aspects of my life. Just something to think about…

 

Caryn Joan

 

Insecure at the smallest of tasks

/ carynjoan / 4 Comments

Another  uncomfortable daily activity with HH is the simplest task of receiving coin change from the cashier after purchasing something. I’ve always hated this, but I guess it’s just one of those things I take for granted now. I will intentionally try to give exact change so that I only receive dollar bills back. My hands are usually sweaty at the cashier, and a lot of cashiers will put the change first in your hand, then the dollar bills. If they do that, I risk them seeing or touching my sweaty hand. I would much rather prefer the dollar bill go into my hand and then the change placed on top of that. Is this crazy or what? This is how insecure I am with HH sometimes. I analyze the smallest situations.

Never thought of this

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I always fear that my future children will have HH because of genetics. I’ve pretty much accepted that they will have it.

I was searching around the internet and found this blog post from 2010: http://www.hyperhidrosisandme.com/2010/11/22/hyperhidrosis-and-heredity-does-my-child-have-it/

It got me thinking. What if my child is mad at me and blames me for giving him or her HH??

In my situation, my mom doesn’t have HH. I don’t really have a particular person to blame. But what if I had? This is scary to think about.

Caryn Joan

My Assumptions

/ carynjoan / 6 Comments

I’m really lucky because my work gave me about a month of vacation within a 2 month period. Being on vacation has put me in a more relaxed state and my HH thankfully hasn’t bothered me too much because of this.

I’ve had a couple of interesting situations these past few weeks though.

First was when I went to my boyfriend’s softball game. He is on a team with coworkers and I was meeting them all for the first time. It was also a VERY hot day.

I was really nervous about meeting his coworkers because that meant shaking people’s hands. I was really hoping to stand a distance away and just wave! But I never want to make myself seem any more different than I really am, so I sucked it up and shook their hands. My hands were really sweaty, but thankfully no one mentioned anything about it…until the last girl.

After shaking her hand, she proceeded to wipe it immediately on her pants and was like, “oh, you’re sweaty!”.

I was so offended by this and distanced myself from her the whole game. I mentioned this to my boyfriend after the game as we drove away.

He immediately said, “Oh! I meant to tell you before that that girl always complains about her sweaty hands and how difficult it is to use her softball glove.”

OH! So, maybe this girl was just trying to relate to me and reach out to me. I felt so bad afterwards that I assumed she was just being rude.

I always assume that everyone else is normal and doesn’t have HH. This was a very eye-opening experience.

 

Also, during my vacation, I had a manicure. I don’t really enjoy getting these because my HH makes it very uncomfortable, but my brother was graduating and my mom offered to pay for it.

It was ROUGH! My hands were dripping so much. I almost asked the manicurist to skip the hand lotion because I have enough moisture already!

As much of an advocate I am for telling people about HH, I’m still scared to do it sometimes. I am upset with myself for not telling the manicurist what was going on with my hands. I spoke with my mom about this afterwards and my mom said that she would talk to her the next time she goes to get a manicure.

The other day, my mom told me that she spoke to the woman about me and to my surprise, the manicurist said nothing about my  hands at all. What she did say was that she thought I looked REALLY nervous about something.

Wow, I had no idea I was being perceived this way. Here I was, assuming that the manicurist was thinking all horrible things about me with my hands, but she really was just wondering why I seemed nervous.

 

It’s always very eye-opening for me to realize how HH is perceived by others, and these two experiences definitely surprised me.

Caryn Joan

Coping with Hyperhidrosis

/ carynjoan / 1 Comment

I’ve written at length about my experiences with HH, but I haven’t really discussed my coping mechanisms.

There are many times when coping is impossible, but here are some ways I’ve found that help.

1. Keep a towel in your purse if you can to discretely wipe your hands

2. Wear jeans! Best material I’ve found for sweat.

3. Breathe through it, meditate

4. Keep your hands to yourself- hands on hips or in pockets when talking to people. Or try holding on to something. I hate to admit it, but sometimes I will intentionally hold on to too many things (ie. flute, piccolo, sheet music, instrument stand) so that I won’t have to actually shake anyone’s hand.

5. Keep a fan nearby! I have one at my desk at work and at home.

6. Keep a small, sturdier piece of paper with you- like a postcard or brochure. I love the thickness of this paper. It works best for me to fan my hands with it because it won’t get ruined right away from sweat. Re-usable!

7. Tell your friends. I know it’s scary, but believe me, it helps so much!

8. Learn to laugh about it. Even if your laugh starts out to be sarcastic or insane because you can’t believe that you have to deal with this kind of stuff every day. It is pretty ridiculous, right?

9. Closed toe shoes are the safest…

10. Be proud, persistent, and strong. Don’t let HH control you. You and I struggle through daily life, but we are still here! Be strong in every challenge you face, and happy knowing that you and I will get through it together.  Keep your head up, look people in the eyes, and smile.

Hope this is helping someone,

Caryn Joan

 

Every day is an adventure

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Just getting to work is a challenge.

Today I missed the bus. Well, I really didn’t miss it. It just happened to be “out of service”.

In order to get to work on time, I needed to take the dreaded subway.

I’m walking the 8 minute walk in the heat. Noticing that I keep my hands close to my body because I don’t know where to put them. I definitely don’t want my hands to accidentally brush up against some passerby. That would be unpleasant and probably confusing/frightening.

I’m at the subway, and I see that a downtown train comes in 1 minute. I miss the train by 5 seconds.

At this point, I’m about to cry.

I’m on the hot platform and see that the next train doesn’t come for 7 minutes!!

“Just breathe, just breathe, just breathe,” is all I’m thinking.

My hands are melting and dripping, my feet are sloshing in my shoes, sweat is running off every part of my body.

Just breathe.

I decide to “mop up” and take my towel out of my bag for my hands.

Train arrives. Wow, air conditioning! Wonderful.

I take a seat and then realize the sweat is probably making it’s way through my dress by now. I can’t care anymore. I just need to breathe and sit still.

I get off the train and slowly walk to work. I take my time just so I can try to calm down and cool off.

So much  adventure and it’s only 10am!

How is your commute?

Thanks for reading,

Caryn Joan

Have I avoided this enough yet?…Part 2

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Okay…no more avoiding.

In September 2011, I went to the Columbia University Medical Center’s Center  for Hyperhidrosis in NYC for a consultation for the ETS surgery. This was the day of that crazy water main break in the subway systems…remember that? How appropriate.

I went with my mom. When we arrived, I was asked to fill out some paperwork. It started fine, but a few minutes in, my hands started sweating uncontrollably and I had to have my mom finish the paperwork for me. Glad she was there.

We sat in the waiting room, and I felt like no one around me had HH. It was the waiting room for Thoracic surgery. I quickly noticed all of the old men and woman I was waiting with. They couldn’t breathe very well.

It makes sense. ETS does have the word “Thoracic” in it, since the procedure includes going through the chest. But why do I still feel out of place? I guess I just wish the Center for HH really felt like a Center for HH.

The consultation was pretty good, but I didn’t get the best vibe from it. The surgeon assured me that deflating the lungs was the least of my worries.

Never the less, I started tying loose ends with my insurance company and penciled in the surgery for December 29, 2011.

I still have HH, so I obviously didn’t go through with the surgery.

Why you ask?

Well, I’m realizing that this entry will be a multiple post entry. There’s a lot to say, and this is why I’ve been avoiding it I think. It’s very sensitive.

Stay tuned for Part 3.

Thanks again,

Caryn Joan

I can’t pet my cat.

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Ever tried petting a furry animal with sweaty hands? Not the best experience in the world.

When my hands are really bad, I won’t pet my cat because I will end up with cat fur all over me.

I feel bad, but I think she understands and still loves me 🙂

Meet Grace, 3 year old calico rescue from Upstate New York.

Magazine Ink

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Thought I would add a quick picture. I was just holding a magazine, and this is what happened. Usually doesn’t happen with glossy magazines…

It surprised me. I wasn’t sure where it was from, until I looked at the cover of my magazine. Sure enough, my HH had taken some of the color off. Yuck.