I have noticed before that there is a certain thing about each bus driver that I like and don't like. My newest favorite obsession? Bus drivers that honk. That honk at everyone. It seriously makes me laugh so hard and makes me really like them a lot more. They honk at cars who are in the bus lane... Cars blocking intersections... Pedestrians jay walking... and sometimes birds that are in their lane. Some days you go a whole day of commuting without hearing a single honk. Somedays you hear one honk at every intersection. And while I think it annoys most people, especially those getting honked at, I just can't get enough. I think I like it mainly because bus drivers are in charge. They own the roads, so people really listen and some of these bus drivers can be pretty scary when they want to be. So I love seeing the looks on the faces of the idiots who block the roadway and how much more scared they get each inch closer the driver gets to their impatient car.
As I'm writing this post today, I am standing. Yes, standing the bus ride from Tacoma to Seattle. Why? Because when I arrived to get on my usual bus leaving at 6:40, there were at least 3 bus loads of people ahead of me. Sometimes this means they're running late, sometimes there is a bus down, and sometimes it's just because everyone and their mother decided to take MY bus this morning. I would have had to waited for the 4th bus to come, but I pulled the old trick of running up at the last second to sneak on and stand. In the beginning of my bussing, at least one man would offer their seat to me, but I always said no, because it was my own fault
I wasn't here on time to actually get a seat, so I'm not going to take theirs, but thank you. But now nobody offers their seat to me anymore. It makes me wonder if the grumpy commuter morning face has rubbed off on me and they don't think it's worthy of giving up a seat. This happened last week as well, and I was dying to sit down. I am running a half marathon in less than 2 weeks and I am NOT in the condition I need to be in, or want to be in. So the night before I stood the bus ride last week, I had run 7 awful miles and was a wee bit sore the next morning. So my already shaky tired legs were becoming more and more tired and shaky as the drive went further north. I tried to squat down to relieve some pain, but that just made it hurt worse. If standing hurt, of course wall sits on the bus were going to hurt, too.
Since my narcolepsy post I have had a lot of interesting responses from a lot of people. People who have had sleeping problems for years who haven't figured out what it really is that is wrong with them, some who have tried a ton of different things and still don't see the light at the end of the tunnel, and some who have finally found the right combination of things to get them a good night of sleep. I've had a lot of people tell me that they don't think I have narcolepsy, and all of the sudden everyone I know is a sleep specialist. Trust me, I didn't think I had it either. But having the sleep study doctors diagnose it, pass it along to my sleep doctor who confirmed it, passed it along to me (surprised), and now after doing my own research, I believe it. So many people have said "Oh, I didn't realize you were tired during the day, that's what it says narcolepsy is." Well, when you have a restless night and wake up 3,4,5 times a night, are you tired the next day? Yes! I have been exhausted... For a long time and just thought it was from frequently waking up every night, all night. But as my doctor explained, I plummet into REM sleep, which is the dreaming sleep, where your brain tends to actually be MORE active then, than during the day when you are awake. I'm not sure why, but everyone seems to think REM sleep is the gold sleep, but non-rem sleep is the good sleep that re-boots your brain and body every night. It takes most people on average 90 minutes to get into REM sleep, and they drop down for periods of 10-20 minutes, then back up to Non-REM sleep. Where I was in REM sleep within the first few minutes of falling asleep and stayed in that for longer periods of time. So, since I'm not getting that re-boot every night and my brain is super active all night, my brain is overworked and tired the next day.
There are 4 main characteristics of narcolepsy and it's less than 20% of people who have all 4. Out of the four, have two. One being the almost immediate fall into the REM sleep, Which causes the excessive daytime sleepiness. And two being hallucinating dreams. Now this isn't something I've written about on here, but have told plenty of people stories over the years. I have always walked and talked in my sleep. Am I doing it now? Not sure since I don't have my family telling me the next day how I tried to pull the stereo off the top shelf of my dresser (yes, I did that.) Or sleep walking into my brothers room when we were in high school and when he asked what I was doing, I told him I was sleeping. My last big sleep walking episode was about 2 Christmases ago (that I know of) when I was out at a friends cabin and yes we were drinking, but I went to bed on an air mattress with my friend, and woke up at the bottom of an air mattress between a MARRIED couple I had just met the day before. Embarrassing? Yes, so I snuck back across the room and slept on the floor like it was no big deal. Surely no one would know what I did. But the next morning I heard them saying "I think Leslie or Carolyn slept walked and got in our bed last night." I was MORTIFIED!
Back to the hallucinations. This doesn't happen everyday, or even every week or month, but every couple of months. But I have woken up standing up in my room searching for things. When this happens I have the hardest time differentiating real life with my dreams. So I have to literally talk and walk myself out of it and realize I'm at my house and it's whatever ungodly time in the morning and what I'm "looking for," isn't here. These can be scary and sometimes funny. This may be TMi, but I've also gone to bed in a T-shirt and shorts and woken up in a sports bra and had no idea when I did it. I've also had scarier times where I've thought there was someone in my room or outside my room and been awake, but having such a vivid dream, I've thought it was actually going on.
So that part I hadn't shared with you all, mainly cause it makes me sound absolutely insane and I didn't think they were going to diagnose me with narcolepsy, but that is one big characteristic of narcolepsy.
Turns out, they are finding out more about narcolepsy and have linked it to a deficiency of a certain protein in the brain, which is why they prescribed the stimulant. The stimulant should hopefully activate those sleepy proteins and get my brain more awake during the day, so it can shut off at night.
I started the stimulant Saturday and am supposed to take 1 pill every morning for a week, 2 pills every morning for a week, 3 pills every morning for a week, and 4 pills every morning for a week. Obviously If I feel it working before 4, I can just stick with 1, 2, or 3 every morning. So far I don't feel any different, but will surely keep Y'all posted! :)
Sincerely,
The Narc who loves honking busses
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