Falling Asleep Anywhere

It seems when you buy a new car, suddenly all you ever see on the road is the same kind of car you purchased. When you get inside information about a new restaurant or night club you assume you'll be the only one that has access to that and when you get there to see theres an hour or more wait, you feel justification to be angry with the management.
Well the same theory seems to be in place on a different level concerning the newly diagnosed Dysautonomia. Now its a daily look back in the archives of my mind and my days are filled with alot of "holy crap" moments. So thats why that happened. Now it makes total sense. Wow, I just thought I over did it. All things that went through my mind back then but as I can recall on some occasions, some early signs were present that were just missed by coincedence.
I have always been a very active minded person, even as a child I would run numerous scenarios through my mind of how certain things should play out, or perhaps run options of things that could be done that day with the criteria of time constraints in place etc... So I may be sitting there in Sunday mass but my mind at the time very well could have been plotting the afternoon out regarding friends and riding bikes. We all day dream, I just took mine very serious and thankfully the Catholic religion is almost so repetitive that you can have your mind on autopilot to run the numerous sit, stand, kneel motions.
What I am remembering as key information in regards to my activities of the day, I always had to figit. Not like an annoying type that I had to be threatened with a back hand but just simple, heel tap, or finger on leg, always some sort of movement. I was always doing that, had kids comment on it but it didnt mean anything back then. I wasnt ADHD, or ADD, nothing like that, just this constant simple movement that wasnt to any particular beat or pattern, it just had to be done. The consequence for lack of this movement was the almost immediate loss of conscious state of mind. I would drift off to sleep no matter what the position I was in at that moment and that could last for minutes or hours all depending on surroundings. I never realized that back then as a child, I had the presense of mind to realize that if I kept moving slightly, I could prevent the sleeping sensation. I still to this day do the same identical thing and I have to actually apologize to people I dont know that I move alot when seated. Of course now, the added amount of complications has amplified the simplicity of my childhood remedy so now I had to add an occasional leg shift or arm cross followed by a full readjust in the seat I am in.
I have been diagnosed with OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea), Narcalepsy, and soon by popular demand HJS ( Hypnagogic Jerk Syndrome). The OSA was determined in the mid 90's, I suddenly began to sleep upwards of 32 hours in a row, yes 32 hours, and would feel as though I hadnt slept at all. I had a terrible drinking problem during the early part of this discovery which was 1995, I began to fall asleep everywhere. I had actually fallen asleep standing up and had my friend not shouted at me when he did, I would have face planted to the cement. We all found it amusing of course, not realizing how life threatening it was. I still kept drinking and when the weekend would come I would sometimes sleep from Saturday right through till Monday morning and not at all feel refreshed. I had excellent medical insurance but hesitated going to doctor because I just felt I was drinking too much and my body was just telling me to slow it down. So I elected to back off on the alcohol. This did not come with a good outcome, I now began to fall asleep at traffic lights and on the interstate at speeds upwards of 70+ mph. I would be in the middle of a conversation and if I didnt have the infamous finger tap going or something moving while telling a story, out I went. I was now a danger and it became imperitive that I went to an ENT doctor for advice. I was advised of the procedure called a sleep study which I didnt mind having to spend the night at the hospital for evaluation. As we sat there and talked about the symptoms and how long they had been present, I had told him about my ability as a child to fall asleep virtually anywhere if I sat still for any length of time. He then mentioned Narcalepsy as a secondary diagnosis.
As my visit with him was wrapping up, one of the longest consultations I had with a doctor in my life, he saw a prescription in my hand and inquired as to what the medication was. This is where I began to doubt the Florida medical professionals. My family doctor of that time had been seeing me on a Workers Compensation case as well. So while he had made his recommendation for a referral to see this ENT that I was consulting with, he was briefed in full on why I needed to see him and he also made the referral based on his discovery of "possible sleep apnea" which is how he addressed the transfer of medical to the ENT. So prior to seeing the ENT, I stopped by my family doctor to get a prescription filled for the Workers Compensation case while I was in the same building. He wrote me a script for Percocet, 10/320 every 3-4 hours as needed for pain. I had split my sternum and separated numerous ribs moving equipment at a previous job so my pain level was freakishly high. A later post will include that injury as a part of the Dysautonomia as well, its notoriously responsible for chest connective tissue failure which would explain why no one had an explanation as to why the sternum split without impact. My injury was consistant with that of a football player being hit by another player helmut first. Like I said, diagnosis made, a lifetime of "holy crap" discoveries to uncover.
So getting back on track, the ENT almost threw his chair against the wall. He was so pissed that a doctor with knowledge of a life threatening sleep disorder would give me stimulating narcotics known to slow your minds ability to react to situation of oxygen deprivation. He was outraged. Meanwhile I was popping them like M&M's as prescribed and yes, drinking sometimes using alcohol to wash the pills down. I never said I was an inteligent alcoholic, show me one that is. I had been doing it for so long it was second nature so the thought it was related to my current situation wasnt a thought.
The sleep study was performed and on a Sunday I was contacted by the ENT that I had best be in his office  when he opened on Monday morning no if, ands or buts. A doctor calling on a Sunday usually meant you were screwed so I prepared for the worst.
I was at his office as the deadbolt retracted from his lobby door and before long sitting in front of him. He was coming unglued. Had no idea how I was still able to be sitting there alive in front of him. My sleep apnea was so severe that I essentially stopped breathing so many times through the night that the technician almost considered stopping the test. My oxygen level was at 50%, and this was all on a sober, unmedicated test night. He was beyond words with the thought of what could have been if all factors were in place while the test was conducted. He then revealed the Narcalepsy connection. My ability to fall asleep while talking or sitting still, this dating back long before the most severe symptoms of the OSA became present.
I was immediately set up for the next sleep study and this one was the corrective sleep study. It was determined that while wearing a BYPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure) machine, I was able to return to normal oxygen saturation, REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep patterns for a more restful sleep, and almost zero sleep interruptions.
It took me until 1998, almost 3 years later to obtain the equipment needed, I decided instead to eliminate the use of the pain killers and over time I found that this seemed to help. I still would fall asleep on occassion in the most unusual places, and sometimes while driving mostly at stop lights that were extended in time for traffic concerns. It seemed to me that I had improved. In 1997, I had quit drinking and I had also gained about 35 lbs so my sleep symptoms began to surface again. It wasnt until I had a severe apnea episode that had caused me such discomfort that finally sent me for the equipment in 1998. If anyone ever experiences the feeling I had that evening, I think you'll agree that it was a long overdue intervention. I can only describe it as my mind being fully alert but realizing that every signal to move an extremity was not being processed due to the total lack of feeling anywhere in my body. I was completely numb, information was being formatted but no communication with the host. I had enough time to realize I was screwed and as my mind scrambled to assess the situation, my last ditch effort was a command to breath. It was as if I had been under water for 5 minutes as I deeply sucked in air and this rush of feeling began to come back to my body. It almost hurt all the ends of my fingers and toes and it went in a very patterned fashion, down side, to legs then up other side through arm, across shoulder to other arm and then this feeling of excessive warmth in my chest. I had a BYPAP within two days.
Its the Narcalepsy thats always taunted me since I was a kid. Falling asleep in the loudest, hardest, most unpredictable locations imaginable and somewhere along the line, I was able to figure out all it took was a simple movement to distract the episode from happening. I missed my calling as an MD.
The HJS is something that usually happens when I am just drifting off to sleep and it feels as though my body has become airborn with this jolt of super muscle spasm. I have experience an upright version of this as well in my neck that literally feels as if I was shot. Its beyond painful but because I have dealt with this for over 30+ years, and the nocturnal HJS spasm is more a nuisance rather than painful, I have just blown it off until now. I can finally start to put together all the pieces of this puzzle and interlock them into my complete medical biography. HJS and Narcalepsy coexist and usually have the same nuerological disturbance pattern. I just wish after 5 sleep studies I could have had a good HJS so they could have seen me do a Linda Blair right off the sheets. I only contributed some sort of peripheral left leg spasm which turns out, yep you guessed it, another side effect of the Dysautonomia.
I havent put together exactly how many specialists I have seen over the years but its in the teens or better and it amazes me that after all the years passed, it takes all the symptoms to happen in one year for the red flag to go up and see the connection between past and present formulating a diagnosis. Its nice to know, dont get me wrong but from a progressive stand point, I have gotten so much worse that my energy levels are almost depleated on a daily basis to the point of exhaustion but my mind is wide awake.
In closing I find that my blogs have taken on a "novel" format. Its hard not to fully explain certain situations. Not only for the benefit of someone reading this who might be trying to self diagnose their issues but for my sake. I am finding certain mind functions have become difficult as well. I am losing my thought process far too often, becoming forgetful again and I think the more information I can put each post the more I have to reflect on later should I have difficulty recalling issues. Of course password retention will be key here so lets pray thats the last thing that goes. Thanks for reading