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Narcolepsy With Cataplexy Symptoms - HER Health Story - Julie Flygare
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Julie Flygare is a leading narcolepsy spokesperson, published author, blogger, yogi and runner diagnosed with narcolepsy and cataplexy. In this video she introduces herself and shares which symptoms she experienced before she was diagnosed.
I was diagnosed in September 2007 with narcolepsy with cataplexy and the symptoms I was having leading up to that diagnosis were excessive daytime sleepiness. I was getting really tired; studying at night, during my classes, during the day I had a hard time getting through class and had trouble driving with sleepiness. I was also having the symptom of cataplexy where my knees started actually giving out on me when I was laughing about jokes and also when I was annoyed about things and then that same little knee dip became a bigger dip and eventually I was actually completely collapsing to the ground when I experienced the motions. I was also having these experiences at night when I thought I had woken up and had people coming into my room to attack me, but I could not react to the attack and that is another I realized once I was diagnosed that is another symptoms of narcolepsy called sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations. I was really confused as my symptoms were developing, because I did not know what to make of them. My really vivid nightmares at night, I never really experienced anything like that before, but I just made lot of excuses for that, I thought this well may be go away. At one point, I asked my brother about it and he said, oh I had those same experiences in college and they will go away, so I said okay hopefully mine will go away. With the sleepiness, I just made excuses for the longest time and it was very hard to reach the point of saying I think this is a sleep disorder, it took years really and with the cataplexy when my knees were giving out with emotion, I thought that that was very strange always, it will felt like I was melting internally, so that always felt like a weird sensation and as it got worse, I got more and more scared about it.
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I am so glad I found you! Thank you so much for your explanation for narcolepsy with cataplexy. I have exactly the same symptoms It sounds like my same exact story. It is a relief to here there is someone going through exactly what I am. I have met few people with this disorder but few that I have don't have the cataplexy. My narcolepsy is totally different as well. I don't fall asleep at any given min. I wake up with no problem and if I feel sleepy I can usually snap myself out of it depending on what I'm doing. It's good to here about someone that o can relate too because cataplexy has been the hardest to deal with. It's also hard to explain it to people. And Julie described it perfectly... Now I have references that I can show to family, friends, and most of all my family. I wish I could talk to her. Or someone that is going through it like we are. Thank you again for making people aware of this. I will pass it on
November 27, 2014 - 12:21amThis Comment