My Miradry Experience in Treating Hyperhydrosis - Calgary, AB

Hey everyone!

Well first a huge thankyou to everyone on the board for writing all their reviews of the Miradry procedure. They were tantamount in my decision to also go for the treatment. In addition a personal thankyou to those of you I spoke with directly after procedure who gave me confidence my recovery was proceeding on par with you own ?

Background

First let me say hyperhidrosis runs in my family, dad’s side. It affects everyone, males and females. My dad had surgery when I was a kid where they “burned” the sweat glands under his arms, this was back before any modern techniques existed, and was very painful and had a lot of complications and huge scars.

My problems with hyperhidrosis started when I was about 13… I remember forgetting to use antiperspirant one morning before going to junior high school, and was dripping sweat before 10am.. Soaked a t-shirt and even the sweater I'd put on over top of it was damp :( I don’t think I will ever forget that day, no will my classmates who has the misfortune to be sitting near me. UGH :(

I remember picking an outfit for grade 9 “grad”  that had a jacket, just so I could wad paper towels under my arms to soak up the sweat without the extra padding being noticed. In Grade 12, thankfully the gowns were loose so no one could see the extra padding anyway.

The problem remained of course, and got worse in adulthood. I went to university taking engineering and had the fortune of landing my first office job at 20 for a work term. Ya… that didn’t go so well.. I remember having to go the bathroom and soak paper towels so I could wash off (hidden) in the bathroom stalls where I could attempt to reapply antiperspirant.. largely in vain. I finally resorted to packing a second dress shirt every day so I could just change at lunch. Then let’s not forget the dry cleaning bills to try and remove the sweat stains from my shirts, which worked better than me using a bottle of shout and scrubbing every week... but still I think if a dress shirt lasted me 6 months before it was garbage I was lucky. They had to be dark as well, nothing light colored or white. OMG

Well I could go on, but I know many of you with hyperhidrosis get what I’m saying. And as many have said… people without hyperhidrosis just don’t get it. They don’t know what it’s like to have the social embarrassment, or to have a soaking wet shirt under your armpits all day.. or to be afraid to raise your hand a little to point to something when giving a presentation. (oh ya I remember my first laser pointer.. I thought it was a god send because I could finally point to something on a screen and keep my arms down)

And yes I tried it all… antiperspirants (oh please.. like they did anything), drysol, certain dri, clinical strength antiperspirants, you name it.

So fast forward ~15 years or so and I heard about botox injections to treat hyperhidrosis. Now… I have to say.. FINALLY something that worked (at least for me). Using botox with a light application of gilletes clinincal antiperspirant every day gave me relief. No more secondary dress shirts, or multiple trips to the bathroom to wash a re-apply, no more wadding paper towels under my armpits. YAY!!!! So, botox was life changing. So for any of you that aren’t ready to resort to a more permanent solution… give botox a try ! Yes, you need to go back every 3 or 4 months, but if you’ve got insurance, it’s worth it yes.

However after doing that for 5 years I (as always) kept searching for a more permanent solution. Finally heard about Miradry and as mentioned, after reading all the reviews decided it was for me.

Miradry Experience

So I had my first Miradry procedure Feb 6th, 2015

My experience was similar to what a lot on here have described I’d say…. They stick a temporary rub on tattoo under your arms that gives a grid pattern for the miradry machine and for local anaesthetic injections. Everyone asked me if the freezing hurt… its about 30 to 40 injections under each underarm. Overall, pain of 1 on a 10 scale I’d say… similar to botox injections so it didn’t really phase me cause I was used to it.

The miradry procedure itself didn’t really hurt because you’re numb from the anesthetic… As some people have mentioned… There was a few times I had the sensation of some localized “hot” sensations.. but as soon as I felt them and was going to mention it.. it went away. So overall pain level for the procedure itself I give it a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10.

About 2 or 3 hours post op, things definitely start to sting. Kind of feels like a first degree burn and it’s definitely uncomfortable if you rub the skin together. I had just a couple of square ice packs the doctor gave me.. and I definitely used them extensively as they’re the only thing that feels better. I did the procedure on a Friday so I could take the rest of the day to relax, and the weekend. I’m glad I did, and if /when I do my second treatment I’d do the same.

The morning after… there was a lot of swelling, almost the size of a tennis ball cut in half. So…. I used ice a lot for the first 48 hours, almost every hour I’d say for at least 20 minutes per session. I had trouble keeping the ice packs frozen in the first 24 hours cause I used them so much. I DID try to tough it out without any pain meds, but I admit, I finally resorted to advil every 4 hours, and that seemed to take the edge off and let me be comfortable enough to watch movies while I kept things iced up LOL. I used advil for maybe 3 days post op.

One thing I wish I’d have seen was the idea of frozen water bottles instead of square ice packs like misssydney27 used after her procedure. This was coolest idea I’d seen because of the ergonomic fit water bottles would bring, and I recommend anyone doing miradry should have 4 of these babies in the freezer for when you come home so you can cycle them. ?

The swelling subsided a lot about 48 hours after the procedure… and for almost the next 5 days the treatment area was just kind of puffy. After about a week out, there seems to be a just a series of small lumps under my arms, they’re a little tender for sure, but very bearable.

The best part? I haven’t used a stitch of antiperspirant since the procedure. Showered once a day and there’s been no smell, and everything has been completely dry. I check multiple times every day in stark amazement that I haven’t had any sweat.!! After all these years of knowing nothing else.. this is absolutely astounding! ?

I don’t know if any will come back once all the lumps are gone or not.. I’m hoping not of course. But they say you do need two treatments so I guess we will see where things are in a couple weeks. I will take a couple more pics at the 2 week mark and post an update
So far.. for someone who’s suffered with hyperhidrosis for a lot of his adult years… Miradry is life changing. I wish this would have been available when I was like 16!!

Thanks to everyone else who wrote and told me their story, as well to those who encouraged me to write about mine. :)