Endoscopic Thoracsic Sympathectomy

That's the name of the surgical procedure I'm undergoing in a little over a week.

I've elected to have surgery to correct my case of hyperhydrosis, a condition characterised by overactive sweat glands that activate without warning or reason. It affects approximately 1% of the population (I think this statistic is from the States, but suffice it to say, this condition is either fairly rare or completely undiagnosed a lot of the time). The surgery basically entails me going under anesthesia while the doctors create several tiny incisions under my arms to thread the endoscope (tiny camera) through to my spine. Apparently they will have to collapse my lungs in order to manuever the endoscope through the ribs and towards the spinal column where the nerve clusters are that they have to locate. Once located, they will then go ahead and sever the nerves leading to the affected areas.

Hyperhidrosis is something that's affected my life for quite some time now. For years, it has negatively affected me, where my hands and armpits sweat profusely without rhyme or reason. It's a most embarrassing condition to be faced with; people don't want to shake my hands, people ask why my clothes are stained, people ask if I'm feeling alright because I seem to be so sweaty. When buying clothes, I have to constantly wonder if this particular fabric/ colour/ design will show the sweat stains that will inevitably present themselves. Even thinking about the future had always given me trouble - I wondered about getting married, what that would entail: shaking peoples' hands at the reception, being excited and nervous and thereby exacerbating the condition - all sorts of worries that normally wouldn't affect someone's life, but worries that I have been all too acutely aware of for far too long.

I'm lucky to be able to have this procedure done while I'm serving here at the World Centre; it would have been extremely uncomfortable for me to have to wait until I moved back home to Canada. However, I have to admit that I'm getting really nervous about the whole situation - none of my family is here, and I feel pretty isolated right now. Sure, I have a lot of friends here, and they're being really supportive, but I almost hate having to tell people that I'm having surgery at all. I'm vacillating between excitment and sheer terror, but it's exceedingly hard to articulate that to anyone. So I'm left trying to explain myself to people who have no idea exactly how deeply this condition has affected my life, socially, physically, and mentally.

I'm sure I'm simply overanxious about the whole thing; things will work out the way they're supposed to, regardless of whether I stew about them or not.