Excessive sweating when I sleep

[ctyguy]

Not sure if others have experienced this or not so I thought I would throw out a new thread. Im 4+ weeks post-op, everything seems to be going very well at this point. I had a mild bout of pericardial effusion but a few days of Advil seemed to take care of that, also had some digestive issues and minor bleeding but that too seems to have worked itself out. I don't have any real pain anymore and my INR is floating around 2.5 to 2.7.

My only issue is when I sleep at night it seems when I get to sleep initially I end up waking up within about 2 hours and Im just drenched in sweat. I haven't been sleeping through the night, usually wake up at least 4 or 5 times. But its that first time I wake up where I've been sweating. Seems after that it drops off considerably and by the time I get up in the morning Im nearly dry again, kinda sticky gross, but closer to dry than sweating. Have others experienced this ? Prior to surgery I've always been one to sweat at night if I have too many covers but this seems over the top.

Thoughts ?

 

[Bina]

Maybe you are going through MENopause??
Seriously, many people experience a few, or many, nights of sweating.
Your system is still trying to adjust from the havoc it has gone through.

 

[Cooker]

Your body has had the crap beat out of it....it takes time....it is confused.....the things you are concerned about are not uncommon.....sweats are pretty normal.....be patient.

 

[tobagotwo]

It's very common. There are whole threads about this.

Go to the solid bar at the very top of the thread and click the arrow next to Search. Then click on Advanced Search, and enter night sweats in the Key Words box. Go tothe bottom of the page and hit Search.

Best wishes,

 

[Dina]

Im confused , I thought night sweats could be a sign of infection...?
Im 2 mos postop and had some mild sweats about 1 month ago , but it went
away and I forgot about it . At the time though I was concerned.
Just make sure there is no fever,etc.
Many blessings, Dina

 

[Philip B]

Night Sweats

Night Sweats

Night sweats seem to be the norm. Many of us experienced the same thing post-op.

Opinions vary, but I subscribe to the belief that your body has endured a lot of physical and chemical abuse. I think some of the sweating is the result of your body trying to get rid of the junk they put into it during surgery.

It sounds like your recovery is progressing on a pretty normal track. Hang in there things will continue to improve.

-Philip

 

[WayneGM]

Yep....night sweats and dreaming. They seemed to go hand-in-hand with me.

 

[MikeHeim]

Very common - I had them really bad for at least six weeks. After a couple weeks of experimenting, I figured out that the best thing to do was to wear a sweatshirt and sweatpants to bed. Those would at least soak up most of the sweat and I could easily change out of them when I woke up. The sweats themselves seemed completely independent of what I wore or what I did during the day. It's just a part of OHS.

 

[Natanni]

Not sure if others have experienced this or not so I thought I would throw out a new thread. Im 4+ weeks post-op, everything seems to be going very well at this point. I had a mild bout of pericardial effusion but a few days of Advil seemed to take care of that, also had some digestive issues and minor bleeding but that too seems to have worked itself out. I don't have any real pain anymore and my INR is floating around 2.5 to 2.7.

My only issue is when I sleep at night it seems when I get to sleep initially I end up waking up within about 2 hours and Im just drenched in sweat. I haven't been sleeping through the night, usually wake up at least 4 or 5 times. But its that first time I wake up where I've been sweating. Seems after that it drops off considerably and by the time I get up in the morning Im nearly dry again, kinda sticky gross, but closer to dry than sweating. Have others experienced this ? Prior to surgery I've always been one to sweat at night if I have too many covers but this seems over the top.

Thoughts ?

After surgery my husband had some mild-moderate night sweats and would always sweat after meals. This lasted for about 6 weeks.

My husband also had horrid night sweats, one of his few symptoms of endocarditis which is nothing to fool around with. These sweats were different from his post op sweats. He would literally soak the sheets and the shake afterward. As Dina mentioned, watch for signs of fever and whenever in doubt, contact your doctor.

 

[cp172]

I am not having night sweats but if I take a warm shower I can not seem to cool down.

I am having all kinds of wild dreams. G,GP,R and X. OHS sure carries a lot of side effects (of course if you have pump head you forget some of them). If not for this forum I would be questioning my sanity.

 

[sknydave]

I would be freezing one minute and sweating up a storm the next. VERY uncomfortable to wake up in a pool of sweat in the middle of the night. It went away little by little. Probably due to low hemoglobin levels.

 

[rn_cvicu]

Be careful

Be careful

I'm new to this site and I don't want to scare anybody but I know that night sweats are a symptom of endocarditis. Other symptoms include loss of appetite, weight loss, general malaise and persistent low grade fever. Unfortunaty these symptoms are present for most people post op but my advice is to talk to your cardio if these other symptoms are present.

 

[Philip B]

Endocarditis?

Endocarditis?

As usual, we sometimes have different experiences with what we encounter post-op, and our perceptions vary. Night sweats maybe be a symptom of endocarditis, but many of us experienced night sweats and had no issues with endocarditis.

Night sweats seem to be pretty normal for many of us and do not signal any kind of complications from surgery. This said, I guess if endocarditis is a worry, it would be a good thing to get checked-out by your doctor.

-Philip

 

[Bryan B]

As someone who had night sweats from endocarditis and night sweats following surgery I can tell you that in my case there was a marked difference. The night sweats from endocarditis were so bad I slept with a towel on my pillow and usuallly had to change it at least once during the night. I also had to change the t-shirt I wore to bed at least once and usually twice during the night. I even resorted to putting towels over my sheets because it was easier to change the towels during the night than changing the sheets. I also had severe chills...in other words I wasn't sweating because I was hot but because my body was in a major war with a strep bacteria that was kicking its butt.

The night sweats I had after surgery were also uncomfortable, but I felt that was due more to my body having a hard time regulating its temperature. Even during the day I would get hot to the point of sweating and an hour later I was looking to put another layer on. I felt a lot of it had to do with the anesthesia and also possibly being on the bypass pump. I had a long surgery...6+ hours on the table and 4 hours on the bypass pump. Add in the fact that you just had your sternum sawed in half and your heart sliced and diced (my apologies to those in the waiting room for my graphic descriptions) and your body can get pretty grumpy for awhile. I guess I was "lucky" ( ) that I had experienced night sweats from endocarditis and realized the post surgery sweats were not in the same league as the endocarditis sweats. I also had echos and blood work several times in the weeks after surgery during followup visits to my surgeon and felt confident that they would be able to diagnose endocarditis if I had it (unlike my PCP who took 4 months to figure it out ).

 

[ctyguy]

Seems the last two nights I've had a bit of a better time of it. Still sweating some but not nearly as much. Possibly has to do with sleeping with a t-shirt on in a leather recliner. I am one to sweat at the drop of a hat anyway. What has changed for me in the last two days is that Im not taking Tylenol any longer, just my long term perscribed meds (Coumadin, baby asprin, prilosec, and Toprol). I take two Tylenol PMs before bed and I've also taken a Xanax. Rather than waking up 20 times a night I've only woken up 1 time each of the last two nights and the sweats have been substantially reduced.

Im hoping to ditch the prilosec and get a reduced Toprol perscription when I see my PCP next week. The crazy dreams I was having have also stopped which is a releif as well. Im thinking this is all just part of the healing process and that when I can actually sleep without a shirt (incision still isn't fully healed) and on my stomach again things will be back to normal.

 

[bodman25]

My surgeon and other docs said that most of the post op sweats are caused by anesthesia. I had it for about 2 months.

 

[dillondog]

Night Sweats

Night Sweats

From what I have heard it is very common to sweat and more common at night when you are in a deeper sleep. It is mainly your body recovering from the hell its been through. I had sweats every night for awhile. My shirt would be almost dripping wet. I would change T-shirts 2-3 times a night. Eventually it was every other night and then once a week and then it was gone. Medications can also cause you to sweat. I was taking Vicodin in the hospital and during the day I would start to sweat shortly after taking a new dose.