Hey guys,
Just wanted to start documenting my experiences with Glycopyrrolate (2mg, Robinul Forte) as well as my Idromed 5 PS Iontophoresis machine possibly as more information people can use to make a decision for themselves on what remedies they would like to implement to fight their HH. Figured this wouldn't hurt anyone and maybe help other people, like other people's posts have helped me big time.
Getting everyone up to speed:
I suffer from severe HH in the hands, feet, and armpits, sometimes also having it bad on my forehead only if I am really nervous and hot or exerting myself pretty hard. Had it for at least the last 8 years or as far back as I can remember, I think it might have gotten a bit worse each year or maybe that is because I just don't remember how bad it was.
I have finally only recently gotten the courage to stop feeling sorry for myself and just accepting the way things were and am now somewhat desperate in trying to get my life back and live as a normal person, or as close to it as I can.
I ordered an Idromed 5 PS Iontophoresis machine a little over 2 weeks ago and have been doing the treatments as recommended every single night, 15MA for my hands for 15 minutes and 25 MA for my feet for 15 minutes, switching polarities every 5 treatments and using cold water. My results up to today have been mixed/leaning towards disappointment. I think that my hands remain dry for longer periods of time when I am relaxed and resting by myself (where before ionto they still MIGHT be sweaty), but once I think about my hands, touch lotion, sometimes wash them, rub my hands together, get anxious, nervous, hot, or excited, then the floodgates open and they still stay sweaty for extended periods of time until possibly I go back home and rest. The sweaty hands for me are what trigger my sweaty feet and armpits.
Because I think the ionto may be working just a BIT, I've decided to keep doing it longer to see maybe if it will get more effective over time as I still have 3 days left before the minimum 21 day straight trial to give me what I want in dry hands. But because I am starting school up soon, and no longer want to deal with the routine of meeting new people and seeing friends again with sweaty hands, or even just getting my laptop keyboard wet with sweat or making my papers curl from moisture, I have also this morning started to take glycopyrrolate.
My thought process is that I'll just do both for now because I think that doing both can't hurt my chances of actually getting dry hands for the first week of school but maybe help them, then after a 2 week period of school starting and getting integrated back into the swing of things, maybe scale off the glyco for awhile to see if the ionto on its own has done better since by then I will have done it for a month and a week straight. If not, then I am just going to use glyco to see if that will work for me on it's own.
Today, August 8, 2011:
Since I am still off school and don't have a job, I can wake up whenever I want and usually wake up around 10am. Knowing my plan before hand, I set my alarm for 9am to take my first 2mg glycopyrrolate pill then went back to bed and woke up an hour later at 10am like everyone suggests.
Up until the late afternoon I just had phantom sweating every now and then but didn't actually physically sweat. But once I started doing tests like rubbing my hands together and thinking about it more, I noticed my hands started getting moist. This is key to separate from full blown sweating, it seems like the moisture on my palms was dimished, definitely something not normal and something I would attribute to the glyco. I am debating on whether to take a 2nd pill or not because I think that under regular everyday circumstances 2mg of glyco won't hold up. My dermatologist who perscribed me the pills told me to take 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon IF I need it. I am planning to start with 2mg in the mornings and see how far that will take me before I start taking another 2mg in the afternoons, always trying to err on the side of taking less medications with acceptable results. I feel like today I didn't sweat at all because of the glyco as my mouth is a bit pastey, not really powder dry but pastey. I also didn't do anything to make my hands sweat yet like workout, or go outside and run errands, or put myself in a position of anxiety or nervousness. I plan on going to the gym tonight to work out, as I like to keep myself in shape daily. I think that by going to the gym at night, that puts the greatest distance of time between my glyco dose and physically exerting myself, a known risk when on the pills due to dehydration and overheating due to lack of sweat. Working out at night also is much cooler temperatures so that should help as well. What's weird is for some 15 second periods when I think about my hands, or ANYTHING like anxiety or excitement I get phantom sweating where I get the inevitable tingling feeling which usually precedes severe sweating, but once I let my mind gravitate away from thinking those things I checked my hands and they were still dry. I wonder if other people who take glyco/do iontophoresis get phantom sweating still, worried the hell out of me.
Side-effects: Like I said I got a pastey mouth and also I got a dry throat which kind of led to a sore throat (took cough drops and drank water to fight that), but one other thing that really hit me was the feeling of drowsiness, almost like everything was slowed down, and a minor headache. This was more prevalent in the morning and kind of wore off as the day went on and I got up and running out of bed. I am not sure if this is because I went to bed at 2AM or what, but the drowsiness was definitely more than I expected, kind of just felt out of it. Hoping that this is attributed to the 2AM bedtime and not the pills and either way hoping that it will go away soon as I become acclimated to taking glyco. I still feel that IF my hands are truly dry even in the worst situations then this side-effect would be bearable but if it worsens (like if I have to up my dose to 4mg) then I am not sure if the pros would outweigh the cons. I am also making myself pee more often due to the known loss of bladder urgers, and trying to eat more fiber like foods due to constipation risk.
So my results today are what I want but haven't been field tested where I need my hands to be dry the most (interviews, intimate occasions, being with friends, running errands in public, etc). I will try to post daily, if not then weekly. If you have any thoughts, questions, or opinions please do feel free to put them on here, and thanks for everything guys.
Just wanted to start documenting my experiences with Glycopyrrolate (2mg, Robinul Forte) as well as my Idromed 5 PS Iontophoresis machine possibly as more information people can use to make a decision for themselves on what remedies they would like to implement to fight their HH. Figured this wouldn't hurt anyone and maybe help other people, like other people's posts have helped me big time.
Getting everyone up to speed:
I suffer from severe HH in the hands, feet, and armpits, sometimes also having it bad on my forehead only if I am really nervous and hot or exerting myself pretty hard. Had it for at least the last 8 years or as far back as I can remember, I think it might have gotten a bit worse each year or maybe that is because I just don't remember how bad it was.
I have finally only recently gotten the courage to stop feeling sorry for myself and just accepting the way things were and am now somewhat desperate in trying to get my life back and live as a normal person, or as close to it as I can.
I ordered an Idromed 5 PS Iontophoresis machine a little over 2 weeks ago and have been doing the treatments as recommended every single night, 15MA for my hands for 15 minutes and 25 MA for my feet for 15 minutes, switching polarities every 5 treatments and using cold water. My results up to today have been mixed/leaning towards disappointment. I think that my hands remain dry for longer periods of time when I am relaxed and resting by myself (where before ionto they still MIGHT be sweaty), but once I think about my hands, touch lotion, sometimes wash them, rub my hands together, get anxious, nervous, hot, or excited, then the floodgates open and they still stay sweaty for extended periods of time until possibly I go back home and rest. The sweaty hands for me are what trigger my sweaty feet and armpits.
Because I think the ionto may be working just a BIT, I've decided to keep doing it longer to see maybe if it will get more effective over time as I still have 3 days left before the minimum 21 day straight trial to give me what I want in dry hands. But because I am starting school up soon, and no longer want to deal with the routine of meeting new people and seeing friends again with sweaty hands, or even just getting my laptop keyboard wet with sweat or making my papers curl from moisture, I have also this morning started to take glycopyrrolate.
My thought process is that I'll just do both for now because I think that doing both can't hurt my chances of actually getting dry hands for the first week of school but maybe help them, then after a 2 week period of school starting and getting integrated back into the swing of things, maybe scale off the glyco for awhile to see if the ionto on its own has done better since by then I will have done it for a month and a week straight. If not, then I am just going to use glyco to see if that will work for me on it's own.
Today, August 8, 2011:
Since I am still off school and don't have a job, I can wake up whenever I want and usually wake up around 10am. Knowing my plan before hand, I set my alarm for 9am to take my first 2mg glycopyrrolate pill then went back to bed and woke up an hour later at 10am like everyone suggests.
Up until the late afternoon I just had phantom sweating every now and then but didn't actually physically sweat. But once I started doing tests like rubbing my hands together and thinking about it more, I noticed my hands started getting moist. This is key to separate from full blown sweating, it seems like the moisture on my palms was dimished, definitely something not normal and something I would attribute to the glyco. I am debating on whether to take a 2nd pill or not because I think that under regular everyday circumstances 2mg of glyco won't hold up. My dermatologist who perscribed me the pills told me to take 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon IF I need it. I am planning to start with 2mg in the mornings and see how far that will take me before I start taking another 2mg in the afternoons, always trying to err on the side of taking less medications with acceptable results. I feel like today I didn't sweat at all because of the glyco as my mouth is a bit pastey, not really powder dry but pastey. I also didn't do anything to make my hands sweat yet like workout, or go outside and run errands, or put myself in a position of anxiety or nervousness. I plan on going to the gym tonight to work out, as I like to keep myself in shape daily. I think that by going to the gym at night, that puts the greatest distance of time between my glyco dose and physically exerting myself, a known risk when on the pills due to dehydration and overheating due to lack of sweat. Working out at night also is much cooler temperatures so that should help as well. What's weird is for some 15 second periods when I think about my hands, or ANYTHING like anxiety or excitement I get phantom sweating where I get the inevitable tingling feeling which usually precedes severe sweating, but once I let my mind gravitate away from thinking those things I checked my hands and they were still dry. I wonder if other people who take glyco/do iontophoresis get phantom sweating still, worried the hell out of me.
Side-effects: Like I said I got a pastey mouth and also I got a dry throat which kind of led to a sore throat (took cough drops and drank water to fight that), but one other thing that really hit me was the feeling of drowsiness, almost like everything was slowed down, and a minor headache. This was more prevalent in the morning and kind of wore off as the day went on and I got up and running out of bed. I am not sure if this is because I went to bed at 2AM or what, but the drowsiness was definitely more than I expected, kind of just felt out of it. Hoping that this is attributed to the 2AM bedtime and not the pills and either way hoping that it will go away soon as I become acclimated to taking glyco. I still feel that IF my hands are truly dry even in the worst situations then this side-effect would be bearable but if it worsens (like if I have to up my dose to 4mg) then I am not sure if the pros would outweigh the cons. I am also making myself pee more often due to the known loss of bladder urgers, and trying to eat more fiber like foods due to constipation risk.
So my results today are what I want but haven't been field tested where I need my hands to be dry the most (interviews, intimate occasions, being with friends, running errands in public, etc). I will try to post daily, if not then weekly. If you have any thoughts, questions, or opinions please do feel free to put them on here, and thanks for everything guys.
Last edited:
