The source of the sweat

I’ve been pondering this for a few days now. I started to show signs of the flu last weekend. Headache, aching body, low grade fever and no desire to do anything except sleep. Pretty standard flu symptoms. So not surprisingly there were a couple of nights of awful sweating when my fever broke. The bottom and top sheets were soaking, my pillow was wet as was the hair at the back of my head. I had enough energy to change my top and encase myself in soft fluffy towels, hoping I wouldn’t have another soaker before morning.

After the first night, I woke up feeling not bad. Now I’m usually the worst sick person. The kind of person who, at the first sign of feeling better, will get up and check her email, empty the dishwasher and do other not important tasks that could easily wait another few days. But this time I figured I’d be smart. I stayed in bed longer. I didn’t want to take any chances and jump back to work too soon. By the end of the day my headache was a minor buzz saw, not a major jackhammer. The aches and pains and sneezing were almost gone. And I was definitely well-rested. I was feeling rather proud of finally learning how to be sick. That night I soaked the bed again. It was the last remnants of my fever, I figured. I still didn’t go into work that day, but spent a few hours catching up on emails and mentally preparing myself for full work the following day. I also had an overflowing laundry basket and disgustingly sweaty sheets to deal with.

So as I spent hours sitting by the washer and dryer with my tea, I began to wonder if the source of all the overnight sweating was really a fever breaking or … the dreaded return of the night sweats. Quite honestly I’m not sure I can tell the difference. My last episode with night sweats was last spring and it lasted for about 4 weeks. With night sweats, I would have anywhere from 4 – 6 sweats per night. And each time was enough to soak through a shirt but not the volume that I produced from a fever breaking. It was just a pain in the ass having to get up that many times per night to change and flip a fresh towel down on the bed. And I hated waking up feeling trickles of sweat dripping down my neck or across my breasts. Blech.

I didn’t have a major sweat last night so I’m sure the two nights earlier this week were fever-driven. But it has me on-guard for the next round of night sweats. I know I’m not off the hook yet. Even though I’m approaching the end of menopause with only two more months to go before I reach twelve months with no period, the post-menopausal fun is about to start.