Life By Lindsey Rae

I slept nearly 14 hours last night and I woke up feeling like I hadn't slept for a week and then had been run over by a truck. It's one of those days when I'm so tired, I can't even explain how tired I am. I'm afraid my Hypersomnia is killing me and I am dying a slow and painful and sleepy death.

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's not technically possible for hypersomnia to kill you, but if it could, I'm sure it would feel like I feel.

Every Sunday when I get home from church I am just so tired. My calling is exhausting. I feel like all I do is chase kids around all morning. (Part of the problem is that it is in the morning....I don't do well with mornings.)
Usually after church you want dinner, but I don't even eat most times. I just have to come home and take a nap.

I just realized that the thing that makes it so hard is not that they are 3...but that they are 3 and that I have to attempt to keep them at least somewhat reverent for such an extended period of time. If we were just playing around it might not be so difficult, but we go to the 3rd hour of classes with the senior primary and I have to admit that if I were 3-years-old, I would probably not have any clue or interest in what is going on in there most of the time either.
And as difficult as it is for the class to sit through it....well, let's just say I guarantee it's at least as hard, if not more so for their teacher who must sit with them in all their difficulty.

I like to say that generally, when you have adult ADD, primary is a good place to be...I enjoy that it keeps my mind active and that I don't have an opportunity to fall asleep like I might if I were in an adult class. (This is especially good for me having excessive daytime sleepiness problems.)
But, hanging out with a bunch of 3-year-olds will wear a person out. (And cause additional excessive daytime sleepiness.)

Still haven't got sleep study results back yet. It was supposed to have taken 3 days, but it's now been 2 and a half weeks. After talking to them on the phone numerous times and getting no results, I finally went into the sleep center on Tuesday to find out what was going on and spoke with the lead sleep technician (who did my study). She said that they were going to have it done that night and she would personally bring it to me the next day....which never happened. Apparently they had some problems merging the two different studies, because they usually don't have to do that, and it took them longer. I can understand that, but, they need to stop saying they have them and they will give them to me by the next day if they are not going to do that. I mean, this has happened at least 10 times that I have talked to them and they have given me that story.
And, they have already billed my insurance and so that bugs me that they are getting paid for a job they haven't finished.
Mostly, my concern is that I need these results before I can re-order my medicine. I get my medication through mail order through my insurance and so it will take about 2 weeks to get it. Plus, I may still need time to make an appointment to see my doctor.
I'm not going to spend a bunch of money ordering 3 months worth of medication that I may not be taking after I get those results back and talk to my doctor.
I'm running out of my medicine, so I really need to get this taken care of. I've explained this. But, still no results.
So, now Jerrod is going to have a chat with them. Somehow when Jerrod chats with people they always seem to listen. He's good at these things.

No sleep test results yet. They said I should have them by Monday....and being it's Tuesday, I do not. I called and they said at least by Thursday.

I find it really frustrating. I mean, that's fine if it's going to take a week (or over a week as seems to be the case) but just say that! Don't keep tell me 3 days, if you can't deliver. Then I just worry about getting them and feel like I have to keep calling about it, which I really don't like to do, because it makes me feel like I am being obnoxious. This is the 2nd time they've done this to me, so I'm getting pretty irritated. I expressed this concern and was told that the first time it was just some "miscommunication" in the office that caused it. Well....what is it this time?

So, I have had a pretty bad week...and have done basically nothing, literally, because I have been so tired, it's painful.

I actually had to have a second sleep test scheduled so they can try to figure out why I am so tired during the day. As of the first study, they were leaning towards the possibility that I may have Narcolepsy or Hypersomnia. The second test is a daytime test, so in order to prepare for this test, I had to completely go off one of my medications and as a result, I have been so tired, I'm half dead. I really didn't even have energy to type anything. I was a whole week without my medicine and it was a painful experience.

Today I finished my second study. When I finally got to take my medicine after it was done today, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude to be living in a time where we have modern medicine to help us. Since I'm reading and thinking about history a lot, the thought came to me: "What if I had lived in Elizabethan times, or something like that, and had this condition?! How would I survive?" It made me sad to think of how terrible it would be to live like that...I guess even though I am usually pretty tired, I have now been made painfully aware of how tired I naturally am without any medication to help me.

I won't know all the results of my study until probably at least Monday.

So, I'm still waiting to get my sleep study tests back. I think it will probably (hopefully) be Monday. It takes them a few days to go over them. I read somewhere that a single sleep study generates 800 pages of data.

I'm very anxious about it, because, I didn't feel like I slept the same at the study as I normally do. I didn't think I dreamed as much and I definitely didn't get to sleep as long. I didn't fall asleep until 1:00am and they made me get up before 6:30am. Normally I sleep at least 10 hours. So, I just really hope the results will be the same as they would be on a "normal" night....or at least that they got all the information they need to make an accurate diagnosis.

I had a migraine the next day and just felt so frustrated about it the next day because they won't tell you any results at the time. I guess because the technicians aren't doctors, they can't. But, I know they know more than they let on. And they try to ask you all these tricky questions to see what your perception and interpretation of your sleep is, so see if you are accurate or not. I was just irritated that I couldn't find out right away what I need to do next.
I do think that I am going to have to go back for another test where I will stay one night and then one day and have a daytime test.

I just am really anxious about all of this because I would really like to find a way that I can feel better...and I've tried so many things already, it would be nice if this was finally the answer to what is affecting me.

Tonight is an exciting night for me. I'm going to go have a sleep study done.

I have had trouble sleeping almost my entire life. Even when I was little, I didn't ever want to go to sleep. Now, not only do I have terribly bad insomnia, I have chronic daily fatigue which never seems to go away. And the problem is, when you are sleeping 10-12 hours a day and then spending the rest of the time just feeling tired and/or sick and tired, you can't accomplish much.

So, I'm hoping that my sleep study will give me some insight into what might be wrong with me that I am not well. It would be great if they could help me. I feel like I've tried so many things already...I've wanted to go have this done for awhile now, but I thought it was going to be kind of expensive. Turns out, insurance is going to cover me 100%! I am so happy about that.

So, I go stay overnight there tonight and possibly another time if they need to get more results. I really hope they can tell me something that will help! I'm exhausted!

I think you know that when a person is this excited about getting a bunch of medical tests done they are getting desperate!

I haven't much to say recently. The past few days seemed to have slipped away in a daze, as my sleep has been considerably more messed up than usual this week. I struggle with insomnia every night, of course, but sometimes I go through periods where it is worse than others. I have very intense dreams that make me so restless that even the sleep I do get, does not leave me feeling rested. Hence feeling the need to sleep 12 hours a day on a regular basis. (And no, I don't enjoy sleeping this much. It does make it surprisingly difficult to accomplish anything, thanks for asking.)

I wonder what must be going on in my mind while I am trying to sleep. Not much resting, I think. And this, is the problem.
I keep wondering if maybe I should go to a sleep study and if they could help me at all...

Look at this: One of those little online quizzes asks whether you are a morning or night person. It tells me I am a night person and it's officially not my fault.

You Are a Night Person

For you, there's nothing worse than having to get up and moving early. In fact, you probably don't hit your peak until well after the sun has set. So if your struggling to make it on a normal schedule, realize it's not your fault. You just weren't meant to do anything during the day!