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 Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 5:05 pm Post subject: spettybetty, the story to date... |
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I've just ordered the PSP 1000 device today. Wanted to share my story and hopefully report my progress with treatment once it arrives.
I first properly noticed my hands were very different at about aged 14. I had a bad injury which chopped of the top the top third one of my fingers. At the time, I thought that was the a huge problem - little did I realize that it would heal soon enough and later be the source of huge amusement to my friends and kids as I made up new and crazy stories about how my finger was chopped. Anyway, the doctor was looking at my finger and happened to notice that my hand was dripping wet. He informed me it was hyperhydrosis and looked kind of serious. OH! I thought, they actually have a name for this, and its a medical condition? Up until that point, I though my hands were just sweater than most and it wasn't a big deal. fast forward 20 years, and boy oh boy now do I realise what a horrible condition this is!
Although my hands and feet were wet a lot of the time, up until my early 20's, it never really bothered me, with the exception being during soccer games where I believed my sweaty feet were affecting my game. It was like all the other players are playing on a nice sunny day while you are playing on a field that has just had a flood. In social situations, where you need to shake hands I would usually have a couple of beers in me which meant that my hands were not that sweaty - if they were I would hold a glass in my right hand and use that as an excuse to wipe them before the dreaded shake.
At 21 years of age, I made a huge mistake (in terms of this condition). Up until that point I was living in a pretty cold country, the sweating really wasn't too bad and didn't affect my life too badly - I even had a girlfriend who claimed she liked my sweaty hands and was more than happy to hold them (DOH.. Didn't realise she was a keeper at the time!). Then I moved to Japan. Yes, I knew the summers in Japan were hot..but hey I thought, I am only going to be there for a year, maybe 2 at most. That was about 15 years ago, and I am still in Japan...and man this country is hot in Summer.
I am an IT engineer by trade - this is a good job to have if you have this condition, since most of the time you are sat behind a desk writing code or teaching users how not to break things! Also, I get to put an over-sized fan at my desk pointing right at my keyboard - this is great, since it blows away the sweat and if a visitor arrives I can stand up, immediately shake hands and he will be none the wiser about my condition (although he might wonder why my hands are so cold, he generally wont instinctively wince like most people do when you give them the big dead cold wet fish handshake)
About 3 years ago, the powers that be decided to give me a promotion. This wasn't all good news, as it meant I needed to get off my ass travel to remote offices (some of them in v hot locations) to meet colleagues and clients. I didn't have a fan there and I was under stress. You can imagine my embarrassment in these situations. I often wonder if it is more rude to refuse a handshake than to give them the wet fish. I have become adept at detecting early stages of someone thinking of or trying to initiate a handshake. Once detected, I will immediately change my body language to put them off - e.g. pull my phone out or slightly turn away my body and back away. Of course this doesn't always work and I often see that terrible wince on the face of my unfortunate handshake partner.
So about 5 years ago I started searching for solutions. I went to the local skin clinic and was advised to apply some lotion and prescribed some anti anxiety pills. Neither worked, but the pills made me feel great for a few weeks. After about 1 month I started to have memory problems which was affecting my work performance, so started researching the pills - they were Benzodiazepines - cant recall the name - I wonder why  . I immediatly stopped taking them.
Next I found iontophoresis on YouTube - I thought it was crazy and would never work, especially for my severe case. But I was desperate, so I made a home made machine with 2 stainless steel tubs, 3 9V batteries, wires with crocodile clips and a voltmeter to check the volts. I used this every day for a week and started to notice reduced sweating. After 3 or 4 weeks my hands were completely dry! Holy cow, was I happy..this is how the other 98% of the world lives. You cant imagine the difference it makes..not just for shaking hands, simple things like driving your car and actually feeling the steering wheel properly is such an awesome experience.
After a couple of months I started getting lazy about the maintenance treatments. Its a big time commitment even at 2-3 times per week. This was also partially due to cost cutting at work - business trips had dried up and summer had passed so it was getting cold so eventually I stopped completely.
In the summer of the next year the sweat started to drive me crazy again - so I fired up the machine once more. However, I was not getting the same success - the treatments were not working as well as before. In hindsight, this might be because I started using way more water in the tubs since it didn't work as fast as the year before (big mistake). I tried to add salt to the water but it didn't help. I tried various brands of mineral water, but it didnt help. I changed from 9V batteries to a laptop power source (do not try this at home), as I was too lazy to keep going to the store every few weeks for new batteries and too lazy to connect 3 of them in series every day . The first time I dipped my hands in while the setup was connected to the mains was quite scary I have to say. I had to get my 4 year old to test it first (just kidding, she was 7 ). Anyway, I eventually gave up that summer as it wasn't working.
In the next year (2012), I found a clinic that had an iontophoresis machine, about 25 minute cycle from my office. I went 3 times per week and after 4 weeks, the sweating had been reduced to about 80% of normal levels. I couldn't go more often than that, since the machine was popular and the slots were often booked out. So I decided to supplement those sessions with my home machine - at this point I was clued into the less water is better approach. However, I couldn't get the sweating level higher than 80%. So I ramped up the duration of the sessions - bad idea since this made the skin on my face very dry indeed. After a friend commented on my facial skin being very dry I gave up again.
Now it is 2013, I guess the economy is ramping up slightly in Japan (abenomics in action!). Good news you would think -- well for me it means that travel restrictions have been lifted. I need to visit 3 offices in September and I am estimating this will involve 100 handshakes at least! So I am desperate for a solution. I've bitten the bullet and dropped serious coin on this psp 1000. It will cost about 900 yen (9 USD) per handshake. If it works, it will be worth every yen! |
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spettybetty
Joined: 08 Aug 2013
Posts: 7
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| Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 5:09 pm Post subject: Update |
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I received the PSP 1000 device 4 days ago. It was delayed 1 week in customs and I guess they had a good look at it, since they opened the package to inspect it. The post office also charged me 3,000 yen (about 30 USD) before they handed it over. Customs duty perhaps?? Anyway, they don't seem to have damaged it at all.
Some observations:
- It's very well built, and doesn't look like it will break easily, although somewhat industrial design.
- It's awkward to switch between hands and feet if you treat them separate since you need to enter setup mode to do that.
- The trays are poorly designed and uncomfortable on the wrist area. I need to rest my arms on 2L plastic bottles to get some comfort and a good angle. I know you can get ergonomic trays, but why not solve the problem at source and put some round and padded wrist rests into the trays?
- Plug fitted into my 110V socket. Nice!
- Not enough guidance about how much water to put in. I'm using 550ML for hands and a little more for feet. Not sure if this is too much?
I amusing pulsed mode 60% at 20V for 20 mins on my hands and DC mode 34V for 15 mins on feet every day. Previously I was using my 12V home-brew machine for about 10 days and had already had decent success. I have not noticed a significant improvement after 4 days, my hands are dry about 50% of the time, but not when it's very hot or I am under pressure at the office. I'm thinking of ramping up the V or pulse for my hands from tomorrow - hopefully it will help. |
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