Narcolepsy?

oh so stylish, originally uploaded by MNicoleM.

So I was at my neurologist's office and she asked me if I was experiencing any side effects from the seizure meds they started me on a few weeks ago. I said "Well, I know you said it might make me sleepy, but you have to understand - before I started this medicine, I was already going to bed around 8:30 or 9:00 most nights and sleeping till 6 or 6:30 am and still being exhausted every day ... now I can't stay awake past 7:30 or 8, so I think the tiredness is the main side effect that is bothering me". So she looks at me kinda strange and here is our conversation
Dr: "OK wait, before you were sleeping 9 or 10 hours a night and still being tired?"
Me: "yes"
Her: "every night?"
Me: "well, most nights ... on the weekends I'd sleep more ... I still go to bed around 9 but I sleep till 10 or 11 sometimes I get up on Saturday at 10am, eat breakfast and go back to bed until 1 or so"
Her: "You realize that's not normal right?"
My mom "She's not lazy, she doe work hard while she's awake, she just gets really sleepy - she's been a big sleeper since high school, she'd sleep mostly the entire weekend away back then"
Dr: "Have you ever been tested for sleep apnea?"
Me: "Yes, but they said I didn't have it"
Dr: "How about narcolepsy?"
Me: "No, but I don't randomly fall asleep ..." (I'm picturing narcoleptics on Saturday Night Live and in that movie Deuce Bigalow)
Dr: "No, the biggest symptom of narcolepsy is excessive daytime sleepiness"
Me: "Well I certainly am excessively sleepy during the day"

Dr proceeds to tell me more about narcolepsy and ask if I experience various other things that are apparently symptoms of narcolepsy and refers me for a "nap test" (multiple sleep latency test). Now I'm excited, think "I get to take 5 naps in one day?? I'll ace this test!".


So I go on Wednesday for the test - yeah, not as fun as I anticipated. To me, a nap lasts at least an hour - for the test, the naps have to be 15-20 minutes long, so just when I get good and asleep they wake me up! Then I have to stay awake for an hour and half before I get the next nap. Meanwhile, I have all these wires and crap attached to me and I'm stuck in bed but not sick - so it got quite boring. My mom was there, and I had books and puzzles and stuff, plus there was a TV but it just seems wrong to be sitting in bed all day, not sleeping and not sick lol.



So I get the results on May 7th to see if I'm narcoleptic, in which case they'll put me on some drugs and maybe I'll sleep less. For now, though, I'm off to take a nap :)