Zzzzz (Alternate Title: Did my doctor just call me stupid?)

I've had a bad relationship with sleep for as long as I can remember. I have a very vivid memory of watching the clock all night when I was about 7 years old. Add to that the fact that I loved reading and had no problems staying up late to finish a book in one night and you have one sleepy me.

I've never understood how someone could fall asleep reading or be able to pass right out after closing their eyes. (Yep, Tim does both of those all the time.) I can't count sheep or just "stare at the back of my eyelids" until I drift off. My brain has to be exhausted or it takes me hours to fall asleep.

I asked my doctor for a referral to a sleep doctor and they got me in as soon as they could...THREE MONTHS LATER. I have never known a doctor to be so busy. The day of my appointment was insanity. I was given the wrong address completely and ended up having to drive all the way back across town to his second location. I was sure he would end up being rude since I was almost 30 minutes late (I've had some bad doctors in the past, obviously) but instead he was extremely nice and apologized for my inconvenience.

He recommended a sleep test to see if I was experiencing sleep apnea, had strange sleep patterns or any number of awful sounding things that could cause my exhaustion. After a lovely night with a million wires and barely any sleep the test showed that I have hyposomnia, which means it takes a really long time to fall asleep. I'm pretty sure I already knew that, which was ridiculously frustrating.

Oh yes...that's hot.

I'm still not sure how I slept like this.

At my follow up appointment, which took another MONTH, he explained that there are two things that he thinks I could be suffering from, a mild form of Narcolepsy or Idiopathic Hyposomnia. That was the point where I asked if he had just called me an idiot. Thankfully, it just means that I'm tired all the time but they don't know why. Helpful! To figure out which it is I get to take yet another test, an MSLT (Multiple Sleep Latency Test) which is done during the day. I'm going to hang out at their sleep testing center all day and every two hours they give me a chance to nap for 20 minutes. I'll get more sets of wires, although not as many, which is one plus I guess. 

I'm not sure what the treatment will be or if it will even help, but I do know that I'm tired of being tired and over feeling like my head is swimming. I'm not sure I've ever felt rested and I'm ready to know what that actually feels like. Who knows, maybe I'll become the awesome mother, housekeeper and cook that I've always hoped to be.

Or maybe it will make me even crazier. Either way, more energy = GOOD. :)