Brief Answer:
an infection probably...

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

since she's gone to the doctor, perhaps you should ask him/her about the cause. The doctor who examined your mother has more information than I do and can probably explain her symptoms better than I will. I'll try to give you the most likely explanations though, based on your description.

Sweating and 'water' in the lung may occur for various reasons. Some of the most common ones include:
- infections
- cardiovascular incidents

Let me start with the first which sounds more likely. Infections usually cause fever. The body temperature may fluctuate between normal and high values. When the temperature goes down the patient usually sweats. This typically occurs at night or after using a drug like paracetamol (acetaminophen) or a NSAID like ibuprofen. If the 'water' in her lung has been caused by the infection then a lung infection is likely. Such infections are usually serious and require close monitoring of the patient.

Cardiovascular incidents that cause sweating are usually acute. The 'water' in the lung may be the result of the heart's inability to manage the intravascular volume (heart failure). In other words, when the heart is weak (worsening of pre-existent heart failure, new-onset heart failure because of - for example - a heart attack) may cause a drop in blood pressure (which may cause sweating), pulmonary edema or a collection of fluid in the lung (the right lung usually).

If her antibiotic treatment is over, she should be checked again by the doctors to make sure the infection's been dealt with properly. Blood tests like the complete blood count, C-reactive protein and procalcitonin levels may help to assess such a patient.

I don't have much information about your mother's history, so I can't go on to 'guess' other potential causes. I suppose that she's checked her blood sugar, blood pressure and heart rate and they're OK. If she has a medical history (for example diabetes mellitus, tuberculosis, blood disorders, etc) please let me know. If she's taking any medications it would be helpful to know as well.

I'll be glad to provide more comments when you share more information.

Best wishes for her health,
Dr. Panagiotis Zografakis,
Internal Medicine Specialist

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