tracy,

I thought of mentioning this to you a few times before because of your extreme symptoms, but drenching sweats is classic for Babesia, which is a co-infection with Lyme Disease.

It's an especially dangerous infection. Even more severe than the Lyme. I had the sweats alternating with feelings of being ice cold back in my early twenties, when I was nowhere NEAR menopause. Yet it felt like I imagined menopause must feel like, but much worse. And yes you wake up feeling like your brain and thoughts are "frozen", and it can take much of the day before it seems like your brain starts to functioning again.

The sweats improved eventually but I was still in the habit of changing my clothes constantly because I tended to fluctuate between way too hot and way too cold.

There's a new book out on Babesia (by James Schaller M.D.) and here's a list of symptoms from it. The most prominent are:

Significant fatigue
Night sweats or sweating during the day
Fever
Chills

Others are:

Muscle aches
Joint aches/pain
Depression
Anxiety/Panic
Nausea
Vomiting
Cough
Shortness of breath
Air hunger or unsatisfying deep breaths
Dark urine
Enlarged liver
Enlarged spleen
Yellow hue on eyes, hands and skin (Jaundice)
Enlarged lymph nodes
Significant memory change
Profound psychiatric illnesses
Struggle organizing
Daytime sleep urgency despite nighttime sleep
Waves of generalized itching
Balance problems with dizziness
Severe chest wall pains
Random stabbing pains
Weight loss
Sensitivity to light
Sleep in excess of 8 1/2 hours per day

I've had most of these symptoms at one time or another, but not all at the same time. I remember the extreme dizziness was around or after the time of the most severe night sweats. I had vertigo so bad my head would just seem to whip around with no warning. Even lying down it felt like my head was spinning!

The symptoms have improved on the Salt/C protocol for Lyme, but the effects on ones personality are the hardest to recover. It can be devastating to your sense of identity because you just feel gradually hollowed out.. -- LB