"I've heard of that," Elias interrupted, his voice tighter. "That's... disfiguring."
"It can be," Dr. Alvarez said gently. "But we're nowhere near that. For now, stop using your deodorant. Use a warm compress. Exfoliate gently. And let the glands breathe."
"Allergies," he lied, wincing as he reached for a blueprint. The movement caused a nodule in his right armpit to rupture internally. A wave of nausea washed over him. He excused himself and locked his office door. armpit sweat glands clogged
But by the time he got back to his studio, the pressure had spread. Both armpits felt stuffed, like overfilled suitcases. He excused himself to the private bathroom, stripped off his shirt, and examined himself in the harsh fluorescent light. The skin of his underarms, usually unremarkable, was faintly swollen and had a strange, cobblestoned texture. He prodded the area. A tiny, pinprick of a whitehead, no bigger than a grain of salt, wept a minuscule bead of thick, yellowish fluid. Then another. And another.
That was the irony, and the coming curse. "I've heard of that," Elias interrupted, his voice tighter
The doctor smiled patiently. "You know how eccrine glands are your body's air conditioners? All over, watery sweat for cooling. Your apocrine glands are different. They're mostly in your armpits and groin. They produce a thicker, milky sweat full of proteins and fats. It's the stuff that, when bacteria on your skin break it down, creates body odor. In your case, the ducts of these glands have become clogged."
After a brief exam under a bright light and a magnifying lens, Dr. Alvarez sat back, removing his spectacles. "Mr. Thorne, you have a case of apocrine miliaria. Follicular occlusion, specifically, in the apocrine sweat glands." Alvarez said gently
The eccrine glands were working fine. It was the apocrine ones, the ones tied to stress and emotion, that he had learned to fear. But now, as the client yelled, Elias didn't clamp down. He let his shoulders drop. He let his arms hang naturally at his sides. He felt the cool, clean sensation of normal sweat evaporating, doing its job.