Anti-sweat Drugs No Longer Working .

[willows]

Today has been so bad that I feel I want to go and sit in our fish pond and stay there ..........forever.

My reason for this ? well if I'm as wet as a fish I might as well go and live with them all, it would save the clothes washing...............mind you dont know what the postman would say finding me naked with the goldfish

I take clonidine tablets ,3 morning and 3 evening, not to keep my blood pressure down, which I believe is what a lot of others on this site do , but for the sweats.....................oh! the sweats.

I can sweat out more than I take in each and every day and if not very careful get dehydrated very quickly. But my sweating is often triggered by things like; dog barking, car starting, someone makes me jump , phone ringing or the big one FOOD and DRINK !!!!

If I smell food the sweat runs down my face and drips off my chin , in other words 'I rain' my whole body becomes soaked and it's just so horrible as I go very pale and my hubby gets worried.

My clonidine are now no longer working , which means that I have to wean myself of them, then stop taking them for about 4 weeks , then restart them again.

It's like I have to re-boot my system every 5-6 months .............

I dont know what to do, where to go and dread the next few weeks, soaking myself and the bed , not being able to go anywhere, being afraid if the phone rings or the door bell does ............or any noise that is just that little bit above average..........and off I go 'rain, rain, rain'

why, oh... why, can't some manufacturer somewhere come up with a drug that actually works .

Willows. very fed-up as sitting at the computer with a towel around her neck and cotton gloves on to 'catch the rain'............................... .......... umbrellas offered to son and hubby!

[Eli6596]

I feel for you. I feel the wetness myself. I don't have the sweats as bad as you, but I have ruined clothes due to sweaty armpit white rings. Mine gets worse wtih startle or stress too. I use drysol prescription antiperspirant, but I still have wet patches which people stare at. I feel like a pig at times.

Drugs with anticholinergic properties are supposed to dry us up. I see that you take nortryptiline which has mild anticholinergic properties. Amitryptiline or artane have more anticholinergic properties.

I even sweat when my hands and feet are ice cold, and even during the winter. Do you too? Does your sweating get worse when the POTS gets worse? If so, maybe better overall control of POTS might help the sweating.

Karyn

[Ernie]

Hi,

I have read that there is a disorder where people sweat so much that it affects their life. I don't remember the name of it but it was showed on TV last year.

[DancingLight]

Ernie,

I have heard of this also, and this is what I was wondering about when I read willows post...it seems like more than ANS or POTS?

I will ask my mom if she remembers a bit--she met someone who's daughter sweat like willows is describing. She would just leave puddles everywhere...

I sweat a lot, but more like Karyn described--even when my hands and feet are frozen. I often have sweat circles too and it is so embarrassing, I agree! And also, I sweat a tremendous amount 'down there' and I haven't quite figured out what to do about this! Doesn't help that I wear hose and a girdle.

Willows--has anyone suggested that this could be more than the ANS stuff?? Just wondering...

Emily

[willows]

WOW..................thank you all so much for your replies.

It would be a great help if anyone can remember what this TV programme was about or called .

My sweats are really bad at this time, I have, when its been as bad before, fallen asleep in bed ( bedclothes at bottom of bed ) then woken up with the feeling that I have 'legged things' running about in my pubic hair! only to discover that I to am sweating so much its trickling down my thighs............not nice.

My hands and feet sweat when I have Raynard's and they get so wet that I leave footprints on the wooden floors and if not careful can slip, slide and fall .

I was told by Dr. Battle, the doctor who diagnosed me, that this horrendous sweating is one of the main diagnostic criteria of Autonomic Nerve Dysfunction, along with falling blood pressure, headaches and either brachycardia or tachycardia ............may be he was talking about 'the pure form' which is a bit more 'over the top'............becuase this is definitely an 'over the top' symptom.

I'm so tired and heady today , last night was awful, what with the heat from the day and then the sweats all night long I didn't know what to do with myself at this minute, think I need to try and catch up with some sleep now ...............as long as the phone, door bell, next doors dog just keep silent for a while ...............PLEASE.............

Willows.

[Guest sonotech]

I know that there is a condition called "hyperhydrosis". Maybe you can do a search on that condition and see what you find!!

In the meantime, would it help to be put on a different med for anxiety, so that maybe you wouldn't get startled as easily which triggers the sweating.

Hope this helps!

[DancingLight]

sonotech,

i bet that is the disorder we were trying to think of!

thanks!

[Sophia3]

Here is a link to that word Sonotech used.

http://www.sts.org/doc/4097

[corina]

willows,

i have sweatingtrouble as well, not as bad as you do and mostly during the night. before i was on mestinon i never ever sweated during the day, unless i was very cold (???).

the funny thing is that this week i was thinking the same thing: i feel like i'm a fish in a pond, everything around me is VERY wet.

i had to dry myself, change my t-shirt and pajamapants (i wear the pants because it catches the sweat that comes from my legs which i HATE) and rolled on my hubby's side of the bed (he is on a business trip), when i woke up again his side was wet and i started all over again and stepped back on my side of the bed that was dry again. in a way i was lucky: most of the times i feel too bad to come out to dry and change myself

so: put off the phone, the doorbell and buy the dog a bone and take some time for yourself!!!!

hope you will do better soon!

corina

oh and thanks for the link sophia, i will go have a look!

oh and i forgot: my white t-shirts and pajama's now turn almost black in the places where i sweat most. i feel so yucky when i wear them but i don't want to just throw them away. think i will buy dark blue from now on

corina

[willows]

Thanks again for all your replies , I am about to have a look at the site suggested and see if I can come up with something to show my wonderful local doctor, who is always ready and willing to seek out and read stuff on my behalf.

I had a touch of the giggles in the night, if my neighbours could hear me through the wall ( we are a set of four terraced cottages ) by now they will think me as ' mad as a hatter' ( English for a mental case ) I kept trickling..........trickle , trickle, down my back, trickle , trickle into my ears . Stood up and flapped my arms about trying to cool myself and stop the stream from running all over me , I might add I'm in total darkness and slightly without clothes at all , and to top it all I'm as blind as a bat in the dark

Flap, flap, trickle, trickle is this what my life has come to ? .............oh, well back to bed.

BANG !!!!!!!!

Bed no longer where it was left, bed must have moved over slightly while woman here was flapping arms and trickling away , bed must be trying to cause havoc to rest of sleeping household

Now I'm full of wind!!!! great rumbling, painful balloons of the stuff lodging itself under my ribs , I feel if this continues to build up I will suddenly lift off from the ground with the amount of gasses in my poor system.......Gaviscon........... thats whats needed and a couple of weights tied to my ankles ' just in case'.

Willows ..............starting to think I may need more medication or possibly a straight jacket !!!!!

[willows]

Hello all again, well I'm now off the clonidine and boy ,oh.... boy, do I know it.

Unfortunately , although the doctor doesn't think its anything to do with coming off the drug , I've had the most terrible bout of chronic pain and had to be on morphine for the past few days, hence not posting.

I started a couple of nights ago with pain in the right side of my face ( thats normal for me ) but then it spread to the left side, down my neck into my left arm and then my left leg , the whole of left side in fact was in agony and I couldnt walk .

By 5 am in the morning I was in so much pain I was in tears, something I hardly ever do.

Anyhow doctor said to start the morphine and when this didn't stop the leg pain even more pain drugs were added..............talk about feeling as high as a kite, but after 6 hours at least I could lay still.

So I've been in bed for three days ( just up now ) it was so bad that just trying to get to the loo ( just 2 yards away) without bursting into tears was an effort with a zimmer frame to walk with and then on returning to bed the pain just increased again and had me rolling around in agony , I can honestly say I have never had pain like this before in all of my 35 years and childbirth to this is nothing !!!

I'm looking like death at this time and have a rotten headache , but no pain as such...............yippppeeeee !

I've been up half an hour now so back to bed again now , I'll be in contact again soon . take care of yourselves in this hot weather.............willows.

[Jacquie802]

Hi there,

I almost have the opposite prob from what you have. I don't sweat much at all during the day. My skin gets all red and feels hot, but not much sweat comes from me. Atnight however, I sweat ALOT. I wake up and my clothes are soaked through. When I had the TTT, all 5 times I would sweat alot. Did the same happen to you on the TTT?

[willows]

Thanks for your reply Jacquie.................dont think me thick but whats the TTT?

I'm afraid at my age I've never quite caught on to those abbreviations , if its the 'time of the month' then no I have always stayed the same , I did however increase my sweats when I went from normal hormone level to full menopause in about 6 weeks, that was awful and for almost all this time I couldnt leave the house.

I now take an HRT drug for this , BUT it still hasn't effected the sweats I get 'normally' ah ! normally that's a laugh how can anyone sweat as much as this be classed as normal that makes nonsense out of the English language doesn't it!!!!!

I try not to let this sweating problem take over my life, but it can be so hard and at times soul destroying .

When you have got yourself dressed up for something special , your hair has been done , you have make up on for once , so you dont look like Dracula's daughter before her supper ( all pale and pasty) and for once you feel 'I look good' .............

Then a noise makes you jump , someone knocks into you , the smell of food is very strong or someone hugs and kisses you ' a bit to hard' and off you go 'raining again'................clothes soaked, hair literally dripping down your back , make up running down your face making you look like a panda.................and everyone See's you !!!!!!!!!!!

Trying to get other woman to understand thats it not 'the menopause' and being told the same old thing over and over again ............ ' You'll get over it soon, dear ' or...................... ' HRT is what you need dear, ask your doctor for some ' ................

I sometimes think a large sign on my forehead with the words .............' I have an Autonomic condition please dont stare' might be the answer !!!!!

Mind you ,could I get one printed with little pink roses and sequins on , oh! and of course lace trimmed !!!!!

Willows ...............making her own water to help the national shortage .

[yogini]

One of my childhood friends always had excessive sweating. She finally got it checked out and it turned out to be an endocrine condition. I'm not really sure of the name of it, but it might be hyperhydrosis. You may want to see an endocrinologist if you haven't already.

[Jacquie802]

Hi,

A TTT is a Tilt Table Test...Have you had one of those??

[willows]

Hello Jacquie, yes I did have a TTT ..............am I thick or what ( dont answer that !!!!) with interesting results as my blood pressure went onto my boots .

Well guys , it is now official ..............I am falling to bits, slowly and with purpose ( haven't figured out what the purpose is yet though ) my body is out to get me !!!!!

Why ? you are ask ?

Well having had that really bad session at the weekend with pain at level 10 +++ I saw my GP today who has confirmed the following to add to my now growing list of 'whats she got now' .........................

My cholesterol is very high so I'm now going onto Simvastatin.

And her concern is that this left side 'happening' is a warning of .....................stroke.

So I'm now going to merrily stuff Aspirin Dispersible down my throat every day.

Never mind at least our local village chemist is making a nice sum out of me , by now I must have had enough drugs of him in one year to pay for a caribbean cruise, is that why he rubs his hands every time he sees me I wonder !!!!!!!

Shopping spree I think is now needed to boost the old confidence and make me feel 100% better ( well thats my excuse )

Still as silly as ever Willows.