Doctors never take me seriously! I've been suffering unnecessarily
My entire life, i've had sleeping problems. It's been dismissed as bad sleep hygiene, being out of rhythmn etc. I saw a thing about sleep disorders on Oprah of all places lol, and stumbled across something interesting: sleep paralysis.
I have this ALL THE TIME. Not every single night but very often. That is not normal! I didn't even know this wasn't normal until today. So judging by how often I have this, plus other things in my sleep, it's entirely possible that I have narcolepsy (which doesn't necessarily mean you fall asleep while doing normal things like is dramatically portrayed in movies and such). I am so angry!! There are over 80 sleep disorders and since I'm still awake after midnight after 19 years of problems, I think it's pretty safe to assume I have one of them, I'm not just lazy and enjoy sleeping in!
Why did no one listen to me?!
I've changed Doctors, I have an appointment on Thursday, and I am going to keep changing Drs until SOMEONE refers me to a sleep specialist, which should've happened YEARS ago.
!!!
Last edited by Neenee Jellybeanie; September 9th, 2008 at 02:15 AM.
That's crud hun! Hopefully your new doc will get you some decent help - can you not self-refer? Maybe find yourself a sleep specialist and email/write to them and beg?
Here's something freaky. I never in my life suffered from sleep paralysis, then XP told me about it (he gets it occasionally) and BAM i began getting it all the time. I got it in the early mornings, when i'm falling asleep again after peeing or saying bye bye to XP (he worked early shifts). I had to TRAIN my brain not to do it!
I never saw a specialist. I can feel when it's going to happen, nowadays it's usually when i'm very tired but trying not to fall asleep for some reason, usually because DD is still awake, or because i know i have to get up soon but i'm exhausted. Then i fall into this state where my body has indeed gone back to sleep but the bit of my brain that processes reality thinks it's still awake. Thus i am awake, paralysed, and helpless and i frequently dream someone is in the room or hurting me and i can't move. My worst was when DD was about 4 months old. I woke to feed her, put her in bed next to me and tried to stay awake while she fed for a bit because she'd accidentally missed the nipple latched onto flesh rather than boob the night before and had given me a big lovebite and a sore milk duct underneath on my boob. I fought and fought to stay awake and then i realised DD was in the cot, with a sort of demon-man stood over her, eating her guts from her belly. It kept looking over its shoulder at me to see if i was moving, with intestine and blood hanging from its mouth, and i could hear it and DD making wet sucking noises. It was horrific. I woke up a few moments later to find DD in bed, making the noises, latched happily onto the boob, but it was a LONG time before i fell asleep again.
I can feel SP coming on when i am falling asleep. You know often when you fall asleep you kind of twitch a bit? I know if i'm fighting sleep but i don't twitch then i'm not "falling" properly and i'll get caught in the SP phase. So i try to wake up, think of something good, and relax properly into sleep again, or else i force myself to get up and have a coffee or whatever.
I hope you find a specialist who can help. With me i felt that if hearing about it could make it happen then i could stop it happening, iykwim.
The Dr I saw today was not only a complete idiot, but a b*tch as well. When I told her about my syptoms and the sleep paralysis, she goes "What's that?" So I knew it wasn't going to go well. In between saying "I've never met you before, I don't know you from a bar of soap" and "I have no idea how to help you or who to refer you to" she told me that I'm too fat. THANKS. I didn't know I was overweight, I don't look at myself in the mirror every day. All those years of study have certainly paid off, Doc! Well spotted! The fact that I'm losing weight and don't need her help (she didn't offer it anyway, she just called me fat) didn't actually matter, that's all she focused on.
Anyway, I called the Sleep Clinic MYSELF since the Dr was too much of a dumb cow to bother, and the sleep Dr I spoke to said it definately sounds like narcolepsy, and that I really should come and see her (but it costs 100s of dollars without a referral). So I'm going to go to the NICEST Dr I know (He's always really busy) and explain to him that I've spoken to the Clinic, they want to see me, and I need the damn referral already.
Doctors never take me seriously! I've been suffering unnecessarily
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks