Night Sweats

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MikeHeim

MikeHeim

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
709
Location
Minneapolis, MN
I have a post-op issue that I've seen mentioned a couple times on this list, but I have yet to see a whole discussion thread devoted to it. Every night since being discharged I have awoken drenched in sweat. I initially thought this was related to breaking fevers (see my other discussion thread), but the fevers have now stopped and the Night Sweats have not. I usually wake up between 2-4 hours after going to bed, and everything I am wearing needs to be changed. My hair looks like I just jumped out of the shower. A couple questions:

How common is this? (It's mentioned in my post-op packet, so I know I'm not breaking new ground)
How long can I expect them to last? (I am exactly 14 days post-op)
Has anyone found anything that helps? (Should I wear more clothes to bed so I can easily change, or will less clothes lessen the chance of the sweats)

Thanks as always!
 
It's very common and I don't think I stopped mine until about 2 months out. Everyone is different, so your mileage may vary.
 
Hey Mike,

I'm about three and a half weeks out and was having the same night sweats problem. It started in the hospital (like you I attributed it to fevers) and continued after I returned home. Luckily, it seemed to stop about a week ago. I still get a little sweaty at night but not to the point where I need to change my sheets and clothes. I told my cardio about it at my follow up and he didn't seem bothered by it, just said it was normal.

I didn't find anything that helped stop the sweats but I did find sleeping with a towel helped alot. I woke up every few hours the first couple of weeks so I would just wipe my head and chest without having to get out of bed. sometimes I'd still have to change, but it was a good stop gap.

Anyway, I hope yours goes away ASAP -- it sure is a pain isn't it?

Joe
 
Mike - very heavy night sweats are one of the main symptoms of endocarditis. It's unlikely you've been unlucky enough to pick this up in hospital - and even less likely that it's developed so quickly - but it may be worth getting your physician to run a blood test just to check and be sure.
Very best of luck.
 
Hi, I am 5 months post op AVR and am still getting night sweats. Some nights are worse than others. I would also like to know if anyone has had them this long. My doctor says they can just disappear or stay with you...Mine are hanging on, it is very annoying!!!!! Rose
 
No night sweats

No night sweats

Amazing it's been all males so far..to respond to this thread..NOW, you know, what we women go thru...:p :p at the end of our baby-bearing years.:D Bonnie
 
Join the club. I started a thread about them a year ago, just like you. I doubt that I was the first, either. All I can say is that you're not alone on that one: http://www.valvereplacement.com/forums/showthread.php?p=78054&highlight=night+sweats#post78054 ...and there have been others since.

Fortunately, as long as you aren't running a fever, the night sweats don't indicate anything bad or good. They're just a nasty mainifestation of the recovery process, and may have to do with expelling remaining toxins from the anesthesia.

I absolutely soaked the sheets, pillow, everything I touched. Totally disgusting. Woke me up almost every night, sometimes repeatedly, like someone had thrown a bucketfull of water on me and the bed. I have never experienced anything like it before or since, thank heavens.

I seem to recall it lasted about four weeks for me. Some said two weeks. I think there was even one fellow who said it took nearly a year for them to go away.

I sincerely hope you're in the short-term group...

Best wishes,
 
Hi,
I went through the night sweats too, though not so bad as to soak everything. It started in the hospital where one night I slept with no covers, had the room thermostat turned down to about 65 degrees. Nurses complained of the cold but I was just comfy. I attributed it partly to my body learning how to regulate itself now that my blood was being pumped properly:)

Hope yours clears up soon.

Cris
 
Night Sweats

Mike, you were screened already for endocarditis, right? I thought I remembered somewhere back that you did see a doc already for the fever etc. Nathan had night sweats first, then shakes and night sweats for about a more than a month before he spiked a fever of around 100 or 101 due to endocarditis/step viridans. He was taking ibuprofen here and there which would drive a fever down if he had one. Post op, Nathan would sweat after meals. Hope you are feeling better soon!
 
Night sweats and day sweats.

Night sweats and day sweats.

Hi there,

Mike, please know that you are not alone. I call it the "curse". I've had the sweats for years and in the beginning I blamed it all on menopause. That's why I had such a hard time going to a doctor with my problems because I thought, he's going to laugh me out of the office. I am post menopause now but things haven't changed much. When eating hot/spicy foods, glas of wine, those things will make it worse and it becomes quite uncomfortable. I always have to carry a hand fan in my purse, just in case. Maybe some of you will remember me fanning my face at the dinner table at the reunion in Golden, Colorado.
Even before my surgery I can remember always being so warm/hot in my face (not the rest of my body) with sweat dripping off my face. I would sleep on top of the covers most of the time. In the hospital after my surgery I needed a fan on me 24/7 otherwise I would have been miserable. Thank God they had one available.
Now it's 5+ years after surgery and I still have the same problem. Right now I have a small fan blowing on my face otherwise I can't sit here.
I can't do much work in my house without getting hot and sweaty in my face.
I have my yearly with the cardio next month and I will mention it again.
 
I was having a big problem with fevers (until yesterday) and endocarditis was ruled as a cause along the way through a series of cultures and blood tests. As someone mentioned earlier, my cardiologist said that it would be extremely unlikely for me to develop that this soon after surgery. The surgeon also told me that it would be incredibly rare for someone with the repair surgery that I had to ever get endocarditis. Regardless, I still find it to be the scariest word in heart surgery (for me, at least).

Hopefully the sweats will clear up with time. When compared to all the other possible complications out there, this one is only a minor inconvenience.

Thanks for the input!
 
*chuckles*

Yes....a minor inconvenience ;).

Heh.... I remember having the night sweats in the hospital and, for whatever reason, when I arrived home I _fully_ expected to _not_ have 'em....

*shakes head*

Don't ask me why I felt that way...I don't know :(.

Anyway, the first few nights, I stayed upstairs on the sofa in the living room ... and I had them. But, I chalked 'em up to being on the comfy/warm/cloth sofa all night.... Heh...when I finally moved to sleeping in my own bed in my room in the basement (where it is usually quite cooler), I was shocked that first morning when I felt the unmistakeable presence of sweat...he he he.

Luckily, it cleared up a couple nights after that....


Cort, "Mr MC" / "Mr Road Trip", 32swm/pig valve/pacemaker
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"Something's wrong in the world today" ... Aerosmith ... 'Living On The Edge'
 
My husband also suffered from those horrid night sweats after he came home from the hospital.

Unfortunately, he still will, from time to time, go through a few running months of night sweats. Same thing, drenched head to toe, has to change his underclothes, and wipe himself down. Happens more than once a night sometimes. Then, for no reason, they will disappear for a few months. He is 6'2" and weights 185, so he is not overweight.

Until you just posted this, I didn;t realize his most recent episode of night sweats stopped, right after they gave him an increase in his beta blocker....mid October. I don't think he has had them since.

He has found, that sleeping on a towel seems to absorb some of the water.
Other than that, I don't think any thing else helped.

Marybeth
 
Until I read this thread, I really didn't think of my night sweats as related to my surgery. My last surgery was right around the time blood tests indicated I was starting pre-menopause. I just assumed the night sweats were pre-menopause, then menopause and now post-menopause. Never occured to me that there was a connection to OHS.

I have been having night sweats off and on since 1994 (my last OHS). Like Marybeth's husband, they come and go but always in spurts of a couple of weeks. That's why I thought there was a hormone relationship. Maybe there is but maybe not since I am now a few years past menopause.

So, if mine are connected to OHS, maybe they never fully go away for everyone. Probably not what you wanted to hear but truth nonetheless.
 
Hi Mike,

I'm about 3 1/2 months post op and like you I was worried about my night sweats. I changed shirts three times per night for the first 4-6 weeks and slept with towels over my pillow...Unbelievable! What meds are you taking and at what doses? I was on 100mg of Tenormin (Atenolol) at night and 360mg of Diovan in the morning. The doc has since reduced my meds. I switched to taking the Atenolol in the AM and and the Diovan at night and I believe that helped reduce the night sweats; although it could have just been timing.

I still have very slight night sweats sometimes and many nights have none.

Hope this helps.

Good luck.
 
Meds

Meds

For meds, I don't think I'm on anything too exciting. I'm on 75mg of Metropolol (twice daily) and 75mg of plavix (once daily). Actually the last two nights the sweats have been minimal. Hopefully this is a trend!
 
my "sweats" were BEFORE my surgery and have not had any since......Dr. don't what caused them or why they went away.....I am just glad they did.
 
Hot flushes

Hot flushes

I am new to these forums, I only found them by accident this evening, I really could have done with them last year when I had all my trouble.

I am amazed to see this thread regarding hot flushes/night sweats, I thought it was only me! The day before my MVR/AVR the doctors took me off HRT so I assumed that these past months (operation 30th June 2005) were due to me having my menopause! I didn't associate the temperature swings during the night to my heart surgery. I find that one minute I am cool then the next thing I am throwing off my duvet as I am roasting.
 
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