sWeAtY pALmS nO mOrE

I had been plagued by sweaty palms since I was in secondary school. Was it due to stress? To tell the truth I had no idea. When I was in primary school, my palms do not perspire so I was pretty worried and uncomfortable when sweaty palms striked me in my sec sch yrs and continued thereafter.

It was horrible. I was darn conscious of myself coz of the problem. Even in air-con conditions, my palms will sweat and the extent of it is pretty serious. You see beads of sweat and sometimes it gets pretty wet. Yuck!

I can't hold on to metal poles (or anything for the matter) without leaving imprints. And the worst thing is I am quite a lousy balancer so when I take the MRT I need to hold onto the bars/poles to keep me steady. To prevent obvious imprints, I will just use two of my fingers to gingerly hold on to the whatever is in sight. Terrible and of course, with such a thin support, I will be wavering and fearful I will fall flat when the train jerks.

In addition, school requires us to take notes etc and paper gets wet easily. Plus I love to read so my books will get stained. I hate it. I can't read in peace unless I am like in an ultra cold environment. I dare not shake hands! I was afraid people will be disgusted at my sweaty palms and often I just wave hi instead of offering to shake hands with people I just got introduced with.

It was in my early uni daes that I decided to go for treatments. I went to the polyclinic and was referred to NSC for a process where I will place my palms in electric current and a certain type of solution to soak for half an hour or so. The effects were supposed to last for a week dependent on individual. But for me, it didn't work well, after a day or two, the sweat will resurface.

To think, just merely thinking of my palms will cause them to sweat. !!!

By then, I had heard of a surgery to curb the problem permanently. I was eager to go for it but my mum was pretty apprehensive. But I insisted and it was another trip down to the polyclinic to get referred. The doc referred me to the Neuroscience clinic (beside TTSH) and I got to know my surgeon Dr Peter Hwang. Dr Hwang is a real friendly and nice doc. He calmed both my mum's and my fears and reassured us of the op.

He did mention some side-effects of the op such as diversion of sweat (but it was minimial) and a light scar (I can live with it since it is not inflicted obviously). Dr Hwang also told us of an op gone wrong where another doc performed a sweat gland cut off op for this man and the after the op the man's palms no longer perspired but the rest of his body did. It was an op gone wrong but Dr Hwang assured us that he will not let such a thing befall on his patients.

We set an appt with him and I was due to have the op performed in May 2004 (after my uni exams). It was 2 years ago but I can still remember the process of it. I was admitted into TTSH a day before my op in the late afternoon. Stayed in C-class and had my dinner there (the food was pretty yummy, maybe cause I was hungry :p).

The nurses were all friendly and I felt relaxed. My good old pri sch friend paid me a visit in the night and wished me all the best. After 8pm, I was not allowed to take in any food or fluids. Was wheeled into the op theatre the next morning around 7am. To tell the truth, I felt a little scared and wanted to cry but I told myself it is now or never.

On the op table, I was told to take in deep breaths as a mask was placed over my mouth and nose and before I could flutter my eye lids, I KO-ed. When I woke up (think like maybe 2 -3 hours later), I was wheeled back to my ward. My mum and bro were already waiting for me at my ward.

Had this thing stuck into my nostrils to help me to breathe. Could not even feel it in my nose. The needle stuck into my hand was darn painful and thick (felt it worse when the nurse had to pull it out) but it was to help me to get glucose from the bag attached to the stand beside my bed. So I got to tahan till I can eat.

Friends came to see me and bought me magazines, flowers and sweets. Was grateful for their visits, made me feel so lucky. Boy, when I went to the toilet, I saw for the first time the covered up wounds. It was bloody (made me think of those cellophane wrapped up fishes' blood you see in the supermarkets or wet markets. Yuck!). It hurt a little but my pain threshold is pretty high so it wasn't too bad.

The nites spent in the hopsital was not very comfy since I am pretty used to sleeping flat on my side but with an op just done I had no choice but to sleep straight on my back. Not the most comfy position if you asked me. Had probs falling asleep but I did doze off in the end. Was woken up in the night about twice by nurses who had to take the patient's blood pressure. It was a blur.

Had my cover off my wounds the next day and was allowed to eat soft food. I had no appetite at all. Could only eat a biscuit and drink milo. Nurse had to carjoled me to eat :p

Felt like puking so had to take a pill or two to curb it. Doc came to see me and said everything was a sucess and can go home the next day. Overjoyed coz I miss my own bed tons! Left in the early afternoon around 1pm the next day and after 2 weeks my stitches were removed and the scars as promised was very minimial. Happy with the results and palms stayed sweat-free thereafter. *Happi*

Did a follow up with my doc a few weeks later and we were all happy. I can shake hands with others freely now and no more worries. I am glad I had gone for the op plus the fees for it was affordable too. A pretty low risk op since I am not a smoker or drinker.

Had a friend who is in NS who had the op done and the fees subsidised. He too now can boast of dry palms and no longer adverse to shaking hands.

Be off sweaty palms! :p