Hello! :)

I am a fellow HH sufferer. I haven't had the ETS done, so I can't speak from experience, but what I can tell you is majority of the people that gets the surgery done suffer from compensatory sweating which means you sweat on other areas, and most of them sweat much much more on those new areas such as abdomen, forehead, back, thighs, scalp and so on.

How old are you?

:)

Sweating in other places than your hands is much more accepted in society.

Hey there, I will be undergoing ETS in 19 days. I posted a thread in this support group, and I will document how it goes for me. I hope whatever I post can help you out. Just keep in mind, the doctors don't quite know exactly why the surgery works, and they cannot predict bad side effects. I am willing to take the risk though, my life pretty much sucks at the moment and I think this is where rock bottom is at, as far as sweating goes. I think I can tolerate sweating in other places, if I can't, then...ruh roh I guess I'm screwed.

@ cberau,

Ruh-roh..lmao! Well, think positive about your outcome. Trying something is better than not doing anything at all. May I ask which state you live in? Also, what type of insurance do you have?
My previous insurance would not cover this surgery. Now I have a new insurance and need to find out if they will cover anything. If not, then I will have to take out a personal loan for this surgery.

I commend you on finding an ETS surgeon and pursing the surgery. I can't wait to be where you are right now.

The surgeon I saw wanted to charge me $6,000 for this surgery. This doesn't include the hospital, lab and anesthesiologist fees. Ruh-roh is right! lol

Please keep in touch and post everything about pre-op, post-op, and anything else you can think of. Please.

Take care and I hope to hear from you soon!

Well, I live in Arizona for school at the moment, and I will be undergoing the surgery at the Mayo Clinic Phoenix Specialty campus. The self-pay no insurance quote for the surgery was $22,000, with insurance is $38,500.00. I have United Healthcare, but an interesting tidbit, this surgery is actually automatically denied by all insurance companies, Mayo Clinic has a department for advocating the patient in this case, they say that no matter what this surgery has to be appealed to insurance, and they are usually successful at getting 100% coverage. The argument that they put together includes the hospital's success rate in the surgery, what treatments you have tried prior to the surgery, and how it is affecting your life. I happen to be a pilot so it absolutely affects my life in a big way in addition to all of the other common problems, and I am allergic to nickel--badly--therefore doing this surgery will limit my exposure to nickel. Sweaty hands leach the nickel out of almost anything. I was told that my surgery has already been denied by insurance, but, they will start the appeal process on Monday and told me to call on wednesday to make sure that it is covered. They told me not to worry and based on they information they have on me that I should have absolutely no problem getting it 100% covered. You just need to have an advocate on your side to squeeze the juice out of the insurance companies. I think your best bet would be with blue cross/blue shield. I got an informal referral from my dermatologist and primary physician, and brought all of the records from those visits to mayo clinic. basically my primary physician and dermatologist wrote a letter to mayo for me to bring that advocated my cause too. It's just a matter of getting a lot of evidence to prove your case.

Oh yeah, here is a link to a blog I just created to document my process, feel free to head over there and interact. I would like to reach a bigger audience to try and help as many people as I can with it.

http://etsforhh.blogspot.com/

I'll still be on here too.

Let me know if the insurance company covers it. I have Anthem.
Do you know if they have a Mayo Clinic in CA?

How did you find your doctor?

I don't think there is a Mayo clinic in Cali, I think only in AZ and Minnesota. I'll let you know about the insurance, and I just got recommended to go down to Mayo by my dermatologist, and Mayo just issued me this doctor.

Okay.
I found an ETS surgeon by me but I had no idea that the total bill (as you had said) would be $22 K! Do you know how much your surgeon is charging you?
The one I saw for a consult wanted to charge me $6000 since my insurance didn't cover it.

Yeah the billing department told me that's what the total would be, I don't know what the surgeon would be if it were itemized out though. The 22k includes all of the anesthesia and stuff. But when insurance covers it they charge 38.5k.

Do you know if your insurance covered it?

No they denied it today, but I am setting up a peer to peer with the insurance company and the surgeon, or her assistant. It should work I hope, I'll battle those assholes to the bitter end though. This surgery is going to happen, and they are going to pay for it. That's what I pay premiums for.

Oh my God. That would have me shit a brick knowing that the stupid insurance company denied. Insurance companies normally do though. Just appeal, appeal, appeal. I can't believe (actually I can) this surgery is costing $22K. The insurance companies need to make a change in their benefits. This is a real problem for people suffering with HH.

Don't give up! Get the surgery done. Hell, if it comes down to it, you can always pay $10 a month to the hospital and they can't say shit about it. My uncle had open-heart surgery w/ no insurance, and he made payments to the hospital.

Good luck on your appeals! Let me know what happens.

Yeah I shit a brick, but I'm setting up the peer to peer thing monday, if that doesn't work, I'll appeal, if that doesn't work then I'll lawyer up. The surgeon should have my back pretty good. Plus it's Mayo clinic, not really a low-quality place.

Let me know what happens.