Words cannot express how I feel right after just a few days after the surgery. For the first time in my life, I am dry as a desert. I am still in recovery so I am keeping this short. I will provide a more detailed update in a day or two.

My Journey To Retrodermal Curettage

As a young teenager, my mother would constantly tell me that I needed to be more consistent about wearing deodorant and that I couldn't skip my baths. I did not understand any of this because I was always very good with hygiene. Growing up, I would find myself constantly going to the restroom to wet my underarms with wet wipes and dry them before reapplying deodorant. This was my daily routine 4-5 times each day when I was out and about. I can't stress enough how social crippling this can make you feel. I would buy the "Clinical Strength" deodorants, shower 2-3 times a day, wear cotton clothing and lots of sweaters, anything to sweat less and/or not show the sweat or the strong smell of all of the deodorants, but nothing worked. Within minutes of getting out of the shower, my underarms would immediately begin to feel moist. At one point I tried CertainDri and almost cried with joy the first night because I woke up and, for the first time in my life, my underarms were completely dry and I had NEVER felt that before. Unfortunately, this only lasted 2 days before my body started sweating again. It wasn't until my late 20's that I thought I should just ask my G.P. He prescribed some Rx deodorant but I saw no results. This was the beginning of my proactive search for normalcy. I was referred to my first dermatologist. After prescribing me the same Rx deodorant that did not work, she prescribed some medication that I was to take orally every day. After that treatment proved unsuccessful, we decided to try Botox (2011). About 30 days later, the insurance company approved the procedure and I went in for the treatment. I was told that Botox rarely has no effect on hyperhidrosis so I thought I had finally found something that would make me normal. I felt no pain during the procedure (slight discomfort) and was up and walking shortly thereafter. A week after the procedure, I saw no improvements. Two weeks after the procedure, I still saw no changes. The doctor's office told me to come back in so we could try more units; they were certain that would do the trick, so one month after the first Botox treatment, I was back in the office getting 100 more units. Weeks after the surgery, I had no improvement whatsoever. The Doctor explained to me that, although she has heard of cases like mine, she had never seen this first hand and she then referred me to a 2nd dermatologist. The 2nd doctor assured me that if Botox was not successful, my options were very limited and I would need to look into 1) ETS or 2) retrodermal curettage.

A couple months later I visited a physician who performs ETS but was very uneasy about the high probability of developing compensatory sweating in a different region. I decided I would first look into retrodermal curettage. I called the physician referred to by the 2nd dermatologist I visited and felt much more comfortable with the side effects of this procedure compared to ETS. I would've tried MiraDry or Ultetherapy first since they are noninvasive and have been shown to be just as effective, but my insurance was only willing to pay for the retrodermal curettage so that is the procedure I went with.

Anyway, I am sitting here writing this because I want people out there to know that they are not alone. I am happy to share the details of the actual procedure to those interested. I just wanted to share my journey thus far.