Jacquelyn V.

United States

About 10 years ago, I noticed I started suffering with axillary hyperhidrosis. I went to a dermatologist, attempted all these different techniques to help alleviate the sweating and finally settled on Botox injections in my armpits which actually worked pretty well for quite some time. However, it seemed as though my body developed a resistance to the Botox. I consulted the Internet, multiple doctors and eventually decided to have an endoscopic transthoracic sympathectomy where titanium clips were placed at my T3 and T4 vertebrae ganglion to help alleviate the sweat response. I was inpatient in the hospital for a few days recovering from the surgery and actually had a complication where my lung partially collapsed due to the portion of the surgery were they have to deflate your lung to get to the ganglion. I had surgery with a thoracic surgeon as well as a neurologist and it worked well for about eight months. However, what has started to happen approximately a year ago was I began to have compensatory sweating in my chest, back and groin area as well as the sweating returning back to my armpits. I saw my prior dermatologist who stated there really wasn’t anything that we could do about it and I just kind of gave up. I work in a public job as a law enforcement officer, and I’m very frustrated and embarrassed. I traded excessive sweating in my armpits for it in pretty much half of my body. I can’t wear certain color shirts, certain clothing, etc. because the sweat stains just show up on all my clothing during normal daily activity. If it’s the summertime, forget about it. I’m literally dripping from my neck down to my knees to the point where I have to sit with a towel covering my car seat so I don’t sweat onto my seat. I’m in great shape, take care of my self physically, but the psychological pain this issue causes me is insane.