The Diagnosis

Yesterday was D-day, the day I finally received my diagnosis. I've struggled my entire life with fatigue of some sort, but it all became too much earlier this summer when my body gave out on me. Not only was I exhausted, but my mental capabilities were impacted and I felt like I physically had the flu, with weak and achy muscles, for months. I've had almost weekly tests for months that seemed pointless along with several, misdiagnosis. It had all gotten to the point where I began to question myself. Was this normal? Was it because I was getting older and now feeling it? Was I depressed? Was it all in my head? These thoughts have run through my mind and I almost gave up on finding answers or ever feeling better again.

After being diagnosed with anemia and placed on a high dose of iron, I felt 50% better. It was such a relief, but they still couldn't explain my symptoms. The doc sent me to a pulmonary specialist who met with me for 2.5 hours. That's probably the longest a doctor has talked to me before. After going through his in-office tests and interview, he said I required a sleep study. I scoffed at him and said I didn't have sleep apnea, which was one of the possible issues according to previous docs. He agreed with me and went on to thoroughly explain what he was looking for in my test and why, so I agreed to the test, still unsure.

All of this is my long way of explaining why, yesterday, as he started to explain my test results, I nearly cried. I was finally relieved. Here was physical proof, actual brain wave activity, which shows I have a neurological disorder that explains all of my symptoms. Though there is no cure for my diagnosis, there are medicines and life style changes that can help with my symptoms. I was finally diagnosed with narcolepsy. According to the doc, it takes a human an average of 90 minutes to enter REM sleep, whereas my brain enters REM within 1-5 minutes after I fall asleep, so overly active brain, all the time.

So yesterday, I sat in the doctor's office, feeling such an overwhelming sense of relief that I finally had answers. I finally had proof and a diagnosis that something was wrong. I know it may sound crazy to other people that I was relieved to be diagnosed with a disorder, but after months of questioning myself, undergoing numerous medical tests, feeling miserable, and suffering misdiagnosis because the docs couldn't find a real answer, I finally have a real resolution.