Hi! My name’s Leila. I’m 15. And for 2 years, I have been balancing between sleep and being awake. The thing is, I have narcolepsy. It’s a disease where a person can fall asleep suddenly at any time of the day, regardless of any factors. Narcolepsy doesn’t affect health and life expectancy. But it spoils its quality.
In fact, I can fall asleep on the bus, on the way to the store, at the dining table or even in the elevator, for example.
"The doctors don’t know where I got this disease. But they think it was caused by my stress during the exams."
They say, I would feel only worse. In medicine, there haven’t been any cases of a cure for narcolepsy. But there are drugs that will help keep the disease under control. Unfortunately, they are very toxic and affect the liver. So, I refused from taking them.
People around me are often scared during the fits. Or they think I’m a drug addict. Imagine - you go to the store, and there’s a teenage girl standing in a way and sleeping... and standing... What would you do?
Since my disease is very rare, many people don’t even know it can be. And they don’t know it’s enough to shake my hand or shoulder, or just call me, for me to wake up.
And because of this, I sometimes sleep for several hours in some ridiculous places until I wake up or someone finally thinks of waking me up.
Once, I prepared a report on law at school. My teacher liked it very much, and he invited me to make this report at the upcoming state conference. Some young lawyers took part in it.
Without hesitation, I agreed to take part in the event. Though I thought I could have another fit at a midpoint.
That day, there were speakers and a lot of spectators in the conference room. There were also many journalists and even high-rank officials. I was very excited. And when it was my turn, I went on the stage, greeted the audience and... fell asleep...
The people around didn’t understand what was going on. It seemed to them I bent my head and looked in my notebook. But after a few minutes, someone suspected something was wrong. And they woke me up.
I was so ashamed I ran away from the stage, covering my red face with my hands.
My teacher was in the room too. He came to support me and was very upset that I ruined his plans.
After that, my parents and me decided to change my school. The law teacher started complaining about me. Maybe, he decided to take revenge for my failed speech.
Since then, I promised myself not to take part in any large-scale and responsible events anymore - not to disgrace myself and let other people down.
Once a very unpleasant thing happened. I fell asleep, standing at the door of the bus and getting ready to leave at my stop. I woke up already at the end station. It was the last bus. I had to call my mum. She was on the night shift. I asked her urgently to come and take me.
After that, either parents or grandma try to accompany me everywhere. At least, one of my friends always accompanied me to wake me up.
But it didn’t cure my disease. Recently, I started confusing dreams and reality. I even started to beat my mum up right on the street! I fell asleep and saw the robbers attacking me. So, I decided to fight back at that very moment when my mum was waking me up.
Since I used to do karate, I made her some serious injuries. But, fortunately, I was waken up.
0 Comments