Sleep Study

Last week, I had an appointment in St. Joe. I went to this doctor maybe 7 years ago, and she had me do a sleep study. She said that I fell into REM sleep very quickly which is highly suggestive of narcolepsy. She never actually gave me the diagnosis though – just prescribed me some very expensive medicine to help me quit falling asleep at work. So anyway, I was referred to her again by my rheumatologist. I'm just so sick of being exhausted all the time and I have trouble staying awake during the day no matter how much sleep I get at night. The doctor wants to do another sleep study on me. It's either that, or a spinal tap to diagnose the narcolepsy. I have to stay at the hospital during the night for the sleep study, then I have to stay the next day too so they can monitor my naps. That's going to suck. I don't know which is worse – trying to sleep with wires connected all over my head, or being away from my kids for that long. I know, I'm weird and I have an odd attachment to my kids. But anyway, the way the doctor talked, if my sleep study is highly suggestive of narcolepsy again then I will get a diagnosis.

The school year started off good. Both kids were excited about going. Even Dakota, which surprised me. But then, every morning the past week Dakota tried pretending he was sick so he could get out of going to school. Thursday night, he was positive that he broke his ankle and thought he shouldn't go to school the next day. Of course, John and I could tell his ankle was fine. The next morning, Dakota was a hysterical mess. It was awful – I need to get a video of him when he acts like that. It took John and I both to get his clothes on him, and even then it was almost impossible. Dakota is really strong. I had to have John help me get Dakota in the school. I normally drop John off at work first because they changed his hours slightly, and now he has to be at work at 7:45. Both kids ended up being late for school and John was late for work. I guess we need to start getting up earlier to prepare for when he has these meltdowns. Dakota doesn't seem to have any sense of reasoning when he is this way. Nothing we do makes a difference. We can tell him that if he doesn't stop acting like that, he won't get to watch wrestling (which is his favorite thing to do) but it doesn't matter. I'm not sure he really processes what we say. Oh, and the past 2 days, Mikayla has cried when I dropped her off. That is not like her at all. She never cried once in preschool. She never even payed attention when I told her bye. So, things are a little stressful to say the least.

The Behavorial and Developmental center in Kansas City finally called me for the phone interview about Dakota. You have to go through this interview, and then if they think your child is a good candidate for their center then you have all your child's records sent to them. Their physician's look them over, and if they think your child needs to be seen then they will set up an appointment. Right now we're in the process of getting Dakota's records and his IEP (Individual Education Plan) from the school sent to them. Who knows how long before we hear any more.