Next year.... well, I'll be busier. Instead of one full day of teaching a week, I'll have two in a row. But, due to the way the timetable will work, I'll have my classes in hour blocks, instead of hyper-intense half hours, which I think will work better. I think I need to make more of a commitment to exercise - towards the end of this year I let fatigue claim me, and if I wasn't required somewhere for work or uni, I basically zoned out on the lounge. Unfortunately I'm paying for the inactivity rght now - it's NYE and I'm stuck at home unable to move much due to my back beig chronically out of alignment. I've always considered myself pretty lucky in that I'm one of the people with narcolepsy who isn't very overweight, but I can certainly see how that can happen. I've always said that I didn't want to be defined by my narcolepsy, but I think that by the end of this year I had all but succumbed to it, and my health has definitely suffered. It's going to be a hard habit to break - I can't tell you how easy it is to sit around instead of getting out and doing something when you're perpetually exhausted - but I just need to keep telling myself that it will get easier as I go along. Baby steps!! Plus I have a brand spanking new bike to play with, so yay!!
I'd like to thank all of the people who have contacted me over this year. It really just makes my day to get emails from people, saying they enjoy what I write, or that they can relate, or even that they are so glad to know that they are not the only ones out there who are dealing with narcolepsy. Due to the nature of the illness, and the lack of research (which is building, but still in early stages) it's easy to feel as if you are the only person in the world to have this affliction. It doesn't help, either, that the mai symptom - tiredness - is something that probably 99% of the population experiences too!! I've stopped talking about narcolepsy to pretty much anyone except my employers, just because I want to avoid the inevitable, "Oh yeah, I'm always tired too. Maybe I have narclepsy??" line of conversation. I find that describing the condition as having to function on 2 hours of sleep... your entire life, as being an effective way of putting it in perspective. So please, keep commenting, and emailing. I try to reply to everyone!!!
Thank to all for your support this year, and I wish everyone a very restful 2013!!