Emily Payne was dreading her high school graduation and other social events where she would want to shake hands and hug people.

“My hands have been cold and clammy and dripping with sweat ever since I can remember,” says the 18-year-old Hixson High School graduate. “It was so embarrassing.  I had excessive sweating under my arms and on my feet, too, but that was easier to hide. Water would drip from my hands and make puddles on my school papers. I had to keep wiping my hands off when I was at the computer; and when I played softball, I had to keep putting dirt on my hands to pick up the ball.”

Emily is among the eight million Americans who suffer from hyperhidrosis, according to Dr. Robert Headrick, a thoracic surgeon who has helped establish the Hyperhidrosis Center at Memorial Hospital.

“This is much different from ordinary sweating,” Dr. Headrick says. “Patients with hyperhidrosis produce five times the normal amount of sweat for no apparent reason. It’s a condition that has not been considered a serious disease because it isn’t life-threatening, but it can and does seriously affect a person’s quality of life”

Sweaty hands can complicate a person’s job, business deals, and social relationships. Things like driving, taking tests, and simply grasping objects are severely hampered by sweating hands.

“Many careers present challenges for hyperhidrosis sufferers,” Dr. Headrick points out. “They would have difficulty working every day with computers or being a dental hygienist, a cook, or doctor.”

Emily, who has always wanted to work in a hospital, participated in the MASH (Mathematics, Sciences, and Health Occupations) Academy program at Hixson High School.

“We learned CPR skills and did a clinical internship,” Emily explains. “I chose to go to Memorial Hospital and shadow Dr. Walter Rose. I even went into surgery with him. He was a great teacher and I wanted so much to be able to become a nurse, but I wasn’t sure I could with my sweating problem.”

Emily learned to hide her sweaty condition from most people. She always wore light jackets or hoodies – even on warm days – to hide the wetness under her arms. She tried to keep her hands wiped off when people were around, and she wore socks with her shoes, which limited her choices..

 “I couldn’t wear flip flops or slides,” Emily says. “My feet would slip right out of them.”

Even Emily’s mother, Brenda Payne, who works at Memorial Hospital, was not aware of how serious the problem was or how much it embarrassed and worried Emily.“I knew Emily’s hands were always a little damp and cool and that she seemed to sweat under her arms and on her feet more than most people,” Brenda says. “But that was the way she’d been since she was born. We tried to manage it. We tried every antiperspirant made, I think. Her physician prescribed a more powerful one, but Emily couldn’t tolerate it; it burned her skin – and it didn’t keep her from perspiring.”

It never occurred to Brenda, Emily, or her physician that it could be a medical problem. “I didn’t know there was such a condition,” Brenda says.

 

“I first heard something about a condition that caused people to sweat excessively from someone on the ballfield when Emily was in middle school,” Brenda says. “I did some research and found out about hyperhydrosis, but it didn’t seem like anyone in Chattanooga was doing anything about it then.”

Early in 2007, Brenda heard that Dr. Headrick was performing a treatment for hyperhidrosis. “I told Emily we would go to see him just to find out about what was available.”

Dr. Headrick, who is affiliated with the Alliance of Cardiac, Thoracic, and Vascular Surgeons, explained that hyperhidrosis results when the sympathetic nerve, which controls the body temperature and sweating, becomes overactive.

“We don’t know what causes this dysfunction, but the only known cure is to cut the sympathetic nerve, and we can now do that with a minimally invasive outpatient procedure,” Dr. Headrick says. “After the surgery, some people have compensatory sweat in an area on the abdomen, chest or back, but there are few other side effects.”

Brenda was hesitant. “Surgery seemed a little drastic to me” Brenda says. “I know with any surgery there are risks, and this was my daughter.” But Emily said, “I’ve suffered long enough with this. Couldn’t we try it?” Brenda and Emily went home and prayed about what to do. “We talked about the possible side effects,” Brenda says.  “But Emily kept telling me none of them could be as bad as what she had been going through. She said, ‘I know God will be with me.’ She has a very strong faith.”

On April 23, 2007, Emily had her sweat faucet turned off. Dr. Headrick severed the sympathetic nerve chains that run down each side of the body behind the lungs. “These nerves do not control any movement or feeling,” Dr. Headrick points out. “They only control the body temperature and sweating, and Emily’s were overactive. Cutting the nerves in the right place stops the sweating.”

Dr. Headrick says the surgery has been around a long time, but new technology has made it easier and safer, and it is covered by most insurance plans.

“Previously, it required two 4- to 6-inch incisions, cutting muscles and separating ribs to locate the sympathetic nerve,” Dr. Headrick explains. “Now the surgery is done through a tiny puncture wound. The scope, which is only slightly larger than a toothpick, allows us to insert a miniature video camera into the chest. We temporarily collapse one lung and can then locate the nerve bundle and sever it with a cauterizing tool at the point where it is inappropriately working.”

If the hands have excessive sweating, the sympathetic nerve bundle is cut at the second vertebrae; if the armpits and feet are also problem areas, the nerve is cut at the third vertebrae.

“When Emily woke up after surgery, she said, ‘Mama, my hands are dry. They’ve never been dry before. And they’re warm!’ We were so happy we almost cried,” Brenda says.

Graduation was a very happy occasion. “I could wear anything I wanted under my robe, and I could shake hands and hug people and not be self-conscious about sweating,” Emily says. “It was amazing.”

Emily is looking forward to the first summer when she can wear tank tops and flip flops. She has a job in the pathology department at Memorial Hospital this summer. I’ll be working with slides and microscopes, something I never could have done before the surgery,” she says.

She hopes to enter the nursing program at Chattanooga State this fall and wants to become a surgical nurse. “This surgery has opened up so many possibilities to me,” she exclaims. “I am a computer freak, and I love using the computer at Memorial Baptist Church to put the words to songs on the screen.”

The things Emily loves most: “My hands are always warm now, and I can talk about it now and tell people something can be done. There is hope.”