slard271
Joined: 09 Apr 2014
Posts: 3
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 Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 3:00 am Post subject: success: dry hands and dry feet |
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Hi, everyone,
I suffer(ed) from palmar and plantar hyperhidrosis for pretty much as long as I can remember. I specifically recall it starting when I was in middle school dealing with sticky papers and such as many of us have experienced. I didn't really do anything about it for ages (I'm 34 now) because I never thought there was anything I really could do. I did try anti-perspirants once or twice and I occasionally used rubbing alcohol on my palms. These, of course, never worked. My hands and feet were constantly freezing cold and sweaty. I could literally stare at my hands and just _think_ about them sweating and they would bead up with sweat. I'd leave pools of sweat where my palms rested on my keyboard. Worst of all I could never really bear to hold hands with my partner of many years. Any sort of friction or touching of my hands would cause them to instantly start sweating. Then I'd think about them sweating and they'd sweat more. This is such an incredibly socially debilitating condition I cannot even begin to describe it.
I am no longer in that relationship and so had been suffering great apprehension about my hyperhidrosis because of meeting new people. What if they want to hold hands with me?! I decided I absolutely had to do something about it so I started to scour the internet. I read about prescription strength anti-perspirants, botox, even ETS surgery which I was really contemplating despite the potentially bad side-effects. That's when I stumbled onto iontophoresis. I watched a couple of youtube videos about making your own device and when I saw those I immediately went out and purchased stuff to do treatments with a home-made device using a 12-volt battery. I intended to purchase an actual device but I was so excited when I was reading various people's comments that it really worked for them I wanted to get started right away. I continued doing the home-made treatments until I decided to order the Hidrex PSP 1000 and while I waited for it to arrive.
This is my timeline of treatments and how to interpret the data.
H = hands
F = feet
The numbers are ordered by (time, voltage, pulse-width)
For example: "2x H,F: 20,50,90" means I did 2 20-minute treatments that day on
both my hands and feet at a voltage of 50 and a pulse-width of 90.
20140331 2x H,F: 12v setup 20m
20140401 2x H,F: 12v setup 20m
20140402 2x H,F: 12v setup 20m
20140403 2x H,F: 12v setup 20m
20140404 2x H,F: 12v setup 20m
20140405 2x H,F: 12v setup 20m
20140406 2x H,F: 12v setup 20m
20140407 1x H,F: 12v setup 20m, received hidrex, 3x H:15,20,90 F:15,30,100
20140408 2x H: 20,20,90 F: 20,30,100
20140409 1x H: 20,25,90 F: 20,30,100 1x H: 20,30,90 F: 20,35,90
20140410 1x H,F: 20,35,90 1x H,F: 20,40,90
20140411 2x H,F: 20,45,90
20140412 2x H,F: 20,45,90
20140413 2x H,F: 20,50,90
20140414 2x H,F: 20,50,90 dry!
20140415 2x H,F: 20,50,90
20140416 1x H,F: 20,50,90
20140417 1x H,F: 20,50,90
As you can see, I was so excited the day the Hidrex arrived I did three treatments. I don't recommend that, but it didn't hurt me in any way. I pretty much immediately started to increase the voltage. As I had started to use the home-made setup and initially while I was treating with the Hidrex, as others can attest, my sweating increased drastically. My only comfort was knowing that so many others experienced the same thing and that it was a prelude to actually having dry hands and feet. It was a tough week or so though because the sweating was so much worse. When I increased the voltage to around 40 or 50 I could really feel the tingling as treatment began but then it would pretty much totally subside. I really think these higher voltages are what makes treatment really effective but that's difficult to do with just batteries because of the discomfort. The pulse-width feature of the Hidrex is completely worth it. The only discomfort I've ever experienced is if I have a scratch or a cut or something. As others do, I simply put Vaseline on my fingertips over my cuticles and along the nailbed line because my hands are so dry now. I have never experienced any other sort of discomfort or shocks. I have at times felt a mild burning sensation but if that happens I just lower the voltage during treatment and it subsides.
From the timeline, you can see that it took me about 15 days to achieve total dryness. I used the home-made device for 7 days and then the hidrex for 8 days before my hands and feet just stopped sweating. It's bizarre. I can feel that my hands and feet "want to sweat" at times, but they simply don't. They literally just stopped all of a sudden. As a matter of fact, my hands are so dry right now I'm going to need to start to use lotion on them. This is unheard of for me because it used to be if I ever used lotion my hands would sweat like crazy. I've stopped doing the treatment twice per day and am now going to start to figure out what sort of maintenance schedule I need to keep to keep the sweat
at bay. My feet do still sweat a tiny bit above where the waterline usually is in the trays I use. Now that the soles of my feet are totally dry, I'm going to experiment with raising the water level a little bit to get those last areas below my ankle.
So that's my story. This has already changed my life. My hands and feet are no longer constantly freezing cold and clammy. There is zero sweat on my keyboard as I type this. I no longer feel the need to constantly wear socks. I no longer have a terrible fear of holding hands with someone or having an awkward handshake. I only wish I had looked into this years and years ago. Thank you so very much!
I will post a follow-up when I have more information on how my maintenance treatments progress. |
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