A Blog in the Life of a Sleepy Girl
I was officially diagnosed with narcolepsy in June, 2009, but when reflecting on the apparition of the symptoms it would seem that I've probably had it for almost 10 years. From what the research indicates, this seems to be the case for a lot of narcolepsy sufferers - they don't know they have it until they get officially tested. Until then, it's just a case of... well, I didn't sleep too good last night, or.... I'm a student, students are always tired! That's what it was like for me, until I fell asleep at the wheel and hit a car in front of me. Luckily I was only going 5kms an hour but still.... it was enough to jolt me awake, finally, and realise that something was just not right.
I have started this blog for various reasons. One is to hopefully bring more awareness to narcolepsy as a genuine neurological illness... it's not just prevalent in people who randomly fall asleep for no apparent reason. People can have narcolepsy and not suffer from sudden loss of muscle tone, also known as cataplexy. Because of this, it's been hard for people around me to understand that I actually have a genuine need to sleep, all the time, and that I'm not just immensely lazy. Hopefully this can be a forum for me to express how I feel, vent my frustrations, and rejoice in the simple achievements, like driving a whole half hour without needing to pull over and sleep.
I also hope to be able to use this as a way to provide information for people either interested in the illness, or for people who think they might have it, or for people who do have it and don't really know much about it. To be honest.... I don't either. So maybe this is more about providing information for myself, rather than for anyone else!!