New here, looking for some help please

[Nutcase99]

Hi all

I'm new here and am very nervous (a feeling I'm used to). I've had anxiety for the last 15 years. I also have Ocd although I feel I'm controlling it better in the s
Last few years. I'm now 33 with 2 little boys.

Since having my boys I've become increasingly worried about my health. It can get very irrational.

My current worry is lymphoma. I can feel
3 glands in my neck and I've had a few night where I've woken up with patches on sweat on my nightgown and the sheet feeling slightly damp despite having no heating on. I'm fact it's too cold to get out of bed in the morning! My doctor just felt them and said he felt nothing "sinister".
This doesn't help me much and I can't concentrate on anything right
Now.

I'm losing my mind and upsetting myself and my children and partner. I can't go on like this. I've had worry about stomach cancer, brain tumours, liver cancer, the list is endless.

Can anyone help? Can anyone else feel lymph nodes or have
Night sweats?

Thanks all

[KayeS]

I can, and always have been able to feel a lot of my lymph nodes. It's normal to be able to feel them, especially in places where the skin is thin, like the neck. Also in regards to night sweats, night sweats really are classified as waking up DRENCHED, like you might do when you have the flu. Waking up a little bit sweaty is also normal and happens to me every now and then too :)

[Nutcase99]

Thanks for your reply. Is it normal
For my nightdress to be wet though. I can literally see big wet rings of sweat and it's the middle of winter!

[sandie]

I have some serious night-sweats, where I wake and the bed and my night clothes are drenched. So bad, I know put a large towel between the bottom sheet and the mattress protector in order to protect the mattress, and I have a towel by the bed so that if I awake in the night, I can put this below me rather than lay in a damp bed. Often the top part of the top sheet is also soaked. There were quite a few bad nights before Christmas when I had to wash all the bed linen on two or three consecutive days.

This is all part of anxiety - I often wake up in the middle of a panic attack, and the adrenaline coursing through my body had caused me to have a night-sweat.

All that you mention is symptomatic of anxiety. You are still very young, and I would suggest that perhaps you try to get some help now rather than letting this anxiety rule your life. Talk to your GP about some CBT or some other form of therapy which might help you.

[Fishmanpa]

I always sweated in my sleep. It's been that way since my teens. Then...I had night sweats due to cancer. We're talking about dripping wet, wring out the sheets head to toe wet. Like 10X worse than what I normally did. They started about a month before my diagnosis. I also had other symptoms going on too. Let's just say there were several red flags and my doctor was paying attention.

I've been cancer free for 2.5 years. Still, to this day, I get some pretty intense night sweats. Nothing like when I was sick, but I still get them. Like Sandie, I keep a towel by the bed in case I wake up wet. No biggie.

I agree that this is not sinister and indicative of anxiety.

Positive thoughts

[Nutcase99]

Thanks everyone appreciate the help. I spend most
Of my time crying just now. What must I be teaching my boys?!

My sheets feel a bit damp and my nightdress felt damp too, but I could actually see the we patches on the nightdress so also know I wasn't imagining it.
When I crawled back I to the sheets they were cold from being damp. Does
This sound sinister? I do take sertraline and I know this can cause night sweats but I've been on it for 6 months and they've
Only just started so I doubt its that.

[cerridwen]

Night sweats are a typical symptom of anxiety. I have had raised lymph nodes in one side of my neck since my 20's. No apparent reason. At first I was worried and saw my GP he said they were nothing to worry about. I have more or less forgotten them.

[Nutcase99]

What worries me is that I get these sweats even whrn I've not had a particularly anxious day. And although I feel anxious I don't have physical sympts like panic attacks etc