Has anyone experienced excessive night sweats?

I'm 71 and until 6 months ago led a very active life, biking 20-30 miles a day. I came down with a virus and about two weeks after that started experiencing severe night sweats. They were so strong that I would change 4-5 times a night and would soak through the bed covers, sheets, and mattress pad. In another two weeks or so I started to have pain in my wrist and hand, followed by pain in my knee and my ankle and foot. All on only the right side of my body. Within another 2-3 months I found myself visiting a rheumatologist. My blood tests were all negative for RA and everything else (except my CRP was high and my uric acid was high for a gout patient target, but not for a "normal" person). The rheumatologist diagnosed me with gout. Over the next 3 months I took colchicine, prednisone and tylenol. Only tylenol seemed to have any effect. The rheumatologist wanted then to put me on allopurinol at which point I said no that I would seek another opinion, that I didn't believe I had gout (with no family history and a pretty active and healthy lifestyle and diet.) The rheumatologist I then saw is currently leaning towards an RA diagnosis and put me first on sulfasalazine, then on weekly Methotrexate injections. I am now within the period of time when I could see progress (9 weeks and 6 weeks, respectively)--and thankfully I am! One of the first things that I noticed was that the night sweats have diminished greatly both in frequency and intensity. I feel this is due to getting at the root cause of all my woes, the RA. My joints are less swollen and less painful, though this is a day-to-day experience. It also seems affected by the time between MX injections, i.e., the effect wears off. Has anyone else had a similar experience with the onset and diminution of excessive night sweats? Thanks so much - I have been on this forum for one day and have found my feelings and experiences reflected in numerous posts.