Chinese people believe in “sitting the month” or postpartum confinement. The thought is that after the trauma of pregnancy, if you get sick, then the effect of the illness will stay with you for the rest of your life. Post-heart surgery, I feel like a bunch of things about my body has changed too. Most noticeable is weight loss. I lost a lot of weight after surgery and more than three months later, I’m still down ~30 lbs. I know my peripheral neuropathy is a lot worse than before, and I never started peeing that much after the surgery. Finally, even though I feel cold most of the time, I’m sweating a lot at night when I sleep.
Before, I thought the space heater in my bedroom was turned too high so I put a wifi switch on the plug and have been turning it off before sleeping. It definitely feels cold in the room when I have to get up in the middle of the night. Before surgery, I would use a thin blanket plus an old comforter to sleep comfortably. Now, with just the comforter and the heater off, I wake up constantly covered in sweat. I’m not even wearing pajamas, just a thin t-shirt and underwear. If I don’t sleep under the comforter, than it’s way too cold. I’m at a loss at what to do. Turn up the heat and use a thinner blanket? Open the window a bit so the room gets even colder?
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Last night’s sleep was dismal. I was tired after dialysis and walking so I took some naps, from 3:45 pm to 5:00 pm and from 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Then I could not sleep until 5:45 am and woke up at 7:45 am all sweaty. I can’t remember what I did for almost eight hours but it was a lot of YouTube and Nintendo Switch. That’s only two hours of sleep for today so I’ll need to find some time for another nap. Not good.
Life with chronic diseases 