The story of Laura
I am 21years old, and it took roughly five years to diagnose my condition. I suffer from extreme bouts of sleepiness throughout the day falling asleep whilst shopping, walking, gardening and watching television. Some people don’t even realise I have fallen asleep. Apparently it is a genetic autoimmune disorder passed on through the female gene.
In year 8, I began to get sick with seizures after having Epstein Barr Virus. I fainted at school and hit my head on the ground and from here on I was continuously in and out of hospital having tests done amounting to time off school, fatigue and in the end it was said the seizures were psychogenic. I have had these seizures all the way through school ending up in emergency departments time and time again.
It wasn’t until my final year of high school in 2009 that my Narcolepsy with Cataplexy was finally diagnosed by chance after a test for Addison’s disease, another rare disease, came back negative.
I had seen twenty three doctors before my diagnosis and because the condition is not recognised some doctors still seem to think I am making my symptoms up. The medication has helped loads but there needs to be more awareness out there for little known diseases. My aim now is to recover as much as possible from my physical illnesses and find an answer for my seizures, raise awareness for narcolepsy, increase awareness for alternative treatments and to continue studying.