It's been almost a year since I had my ETS surgery done. To look back at the whole 11 odd months, I feel that I have been a "new" person and that I have done many more things that I could not believe to have done in the past.
However many people asked me about the compensatory sweating problem. Well, it indeed started happening about few months ago, but not to the extent or severity of those people who wrote in various blogs in the internet. It will only happen to me when the surrounding temperature changes (eg. sudden movement from a cooler place to an outdoor environment), taking hot and spicy food (eg. curry and Thai food), anxiety state (eg. playing PS3 video games) and when I fall sick (eg. URTI or fever). Other than that, the compensatory sweat does not seem to come at all.
The sole sweating is the one I do not consider as compensatory sweat, as it happens all these years even before the ETS surgery. In fact, I must say that the sole sweating is much less, as what the surgeon told me pre-op. He told me that the sole sweating would decrease by around 20-30%, with the thoracic ETS; unless of course I went for the lumbar ETS for a total cure of the sole sweating problem, but there is a high risk of getting erectile dysfunction! ;)
The lower back compensatory sweating is sometimes quite a nuisance, but if I were to compare it with palm sweating, I would choose the former! Trust me! With lower back sweating, it at times can get quite a lot, and drench my shirt; but because of the constant absorption of sweat by the shirts I am wearing, there is at least a few hours before I need to change - or in fact most of the time, it dries up by itself! For palm sweating, you can't be on cotton glove all time to help you absorb the sweat! And that's the major difference!
Falling sick time, I would definitely sweat more at the lower back (since the palms won't sweat anymore). But in the past, my palms would sweat horrendously whenever I fell ill. So at least this time around, somewhere else which is not so prominent, is taking over the sweating process. Cool! ;)
1 year is almost up, and my response to people who are still asking whether they should go for the ETS. I would say "YES". However, it has to be a severe form of palmar hyperhidrosis we are talking here, and definitely worth every penny spent and every minute on that operating table!!
