It's Working ....Until It's Not

The anti-narcolepsy diet has been tremendously successful....and then I cheated.

I thought the biggest difference in my sleep was cutting out protein for dinner. It's a little weird, but I manage quite well.

Then, the other night after having done homework all weekend, swimming for hours and watching too many movies about dead predators that lived millions of years ago I decided I just want some SUGAR. Everyone else has been eating it and I've been avoiding it. All week I've slept like a baby, had energy and have been feeling like a normal person through and through.

Then I ate a couple of handfuls of Red Vines. BIG mistake. I had the worst night ever! (Ok, "ever" is an exaggeration, but it was the worst night in a week or 2 and I was miserable). I was exhausted but woke up dozens of times, I had freaky dreams, I was sweating then cold, I was talking in my sleep. The only things that didn't happen are hallucinations and getting out of bed. Needless to say, when I woke up, I didn't want to get up. I didn't want to go to work. I wanted to start over.

Lesson Learned? Yes. Will I do it again? Probably. But I'll try really hard not too because I have learned to LOVE sleep and I want it so badly. Things will be better tomorrow (I hope, it usually takes 2-3 days to recover, though).

We've Created a Monster!

Des asked us if Ryan would like to come to the pool they've rented to play around a bit. I thought "Great idea, we could try him out snorkeling and see if he likes it or if it freaks him out." Little did I know...

When I told Ryan he was going swimming that day he was jumping around...but he had to get his homework done. He was sweating trying to get it finished! When we got to the dive shop, things started getting out of control.

Ryan was getting fitted for fins, masks, and then.......DIVE GEAR! WHAT!?! Diving? Um, we didn't talk about that. I don't know about that. He seemed really, really excited. Bruce thought, ok, I guess, why not. (He wasn't the one getting in the pool with Ryan). Did that mean I had to dive too!?! I didn't wanna!





We bought him a mask and a snorkel because we plan on going snorkeling this summer and we thought he could get a lot of use out of the mask because he LOVES the water. Maybe this summer he will tell us what's down there in Long Lake. Maybe it's best if the rule is he doesn't look. He may not go back in after what he sees. Maybe that's just me. Anywho, after we bought the mask he wouldn't take it off. He was just wondering around the store with it on. What a nut!


When we got to the pool, we were playing around with the snorkel gear. He put on flip flops and didn't even realize he was swimming faster. Then Mike came over and started putting the dive gear on. Here we go!

Mike taught Ryan how to clear his mask when he got water in it while he was underwater. He taught Ryan how to use his regulator if it fell out of his mouth. He taught him hand signals (OK, up, down), how to check his depth and air supply, and when to come up and be done with the tank. He taught him how to inflate and deflate the flotation around his tank, too. Ryan was a little eager and didn't always wait for Mike's directions. He also had trouble staying underwater while he was practicing. Mini freak outs, I guess. Bruce said if he had been in the water he would have just held Ryan's head down. I believe it. But I was there and I'm more patient than Bruce. He only took about 3 tries for each.

After that, Ryan was off to play around. At first he was constantly inflating and deflating the floats. As he got more comfortable he looked like an octopus underwater. All the lines were floating around him and he was upside down and spinning around.

After awhile we moved to the deep end, which made me nervous. What was I going to do when Ryan was at the bottom with the gear on that I didn't have? There was another diving learning in there and I liked that he kept checking on Ryan. If bad things did happen we had practiced me using the extra regulator and breathing off Ryan's air. We would be ok.

After some playing around, Ryan decided to bring me down - thanks to Bruce's suggestion (who was not in the water). When Ryan took me down I was a little weirded out that Ryan was better at this than I was! I was ok, but I couldn't move far from him - it was like a 2 or 3 foot line. He was cute and was using his signals on me.


When he was about ready to pull off his gear for some good, old fashioned swimming, he lost a fin. Now we HAD to go back down. He had taken off his weight belt and was too bouyant to retrieve it. I didn't think I could dive down and retrieve it myself (although, I probably could, that sort of thing freaks me out) so I put on Ryan's air and pulled him down with me. He was toooo bouyant and I had to literally pull him down so that I could get down there with the air (wimp! I know). We saved the flipper!



Afterwards we spent the next 45 minutes racing. I was getting a work out and I wanted Ryan to get one too. It was fun. I think we're going again today :)

Just a Quick Funny

Last night Bruce and Ryan were playing a game together. I don't know what they were talking about but I came back in to start folding laundry and Bruce is telling Ryan that if he got $50K he would still have to work, not if he had $50 million.
Bruce told Ryan, "We had $50K once."
Ryan: "You did? And you spent it? On what?!"
Bruce: "Hookers and Booze"
Ryan: "For Grandpa?"
I started laughing so hard. Ryan had no idea why. I'm sure Ryan has no idea what a "hooker" is, which was confirmed when he was trying to explain his answer
Ryan: "Because Grandpa likes fishing and he needs lots of hooks for that?"

He still doesn't know what a "hooker" is - Bruce! - but we got a good laugh out of it and magically distracted him with a game. He's too easy sometimes.

Sleep Update

As of January 1st, my plan was to kick my sleep disorder (SD) in the butt, get off the meds and be normal. I have reading a lot about natural remedies or daily things I can do to manage my SD. I don't want to be on meds if I don't have to and I really don't want to be on them so that I can make a baby.

As I have mentioned befire, I did this because I was talking to the doctor in December about how I wanted to get pregnant and I received some news that was a little hard to swallow. He said, no doubt about it, my SD will get worse once I get pregnant. Typically, from what I was told, a woman in her first trimester is already tired - adjusting to hormones and it must take a lot of resources to create a life! My SD will make my tiredness extremely more difficult for me to function well. Sounds sad, right? Even worse is that it won't get better during the 2nd trimester, as it would for most women, it will continue to be rough all the way through until I'm done breast feeding, the baby is sleeping through the night and I'm back on my meds every night. What to do?

I talked to my doctor about alternative methods to manage my SD. He was all for it. I love a doctor that is ok with me choosing an alternative method. It was still kind of scary hearing what he had to say. What he told me is that I have to treat my pregnancy like I'm a soldier preparing for battle. What does that mean?

That means I have to be extremely disciplined and regimented and consistent. This regimen, as I have mentioned in previous posts, involves:
1. no sugar
2. no caffeine
3. sleep at the same time each day
4. wake at the same time each day (even weekends)
5. exercise regularly
6. eat protein (meat and nuts!)only at breakfast and lunch
7. complex carbs for dinner
8. avoid herbs like cayenne and rosemary at dinner
9. take short walks throughout the day
10. no alcohol

Soooo....how has it been going. I was "good" one day of the first week of January, then it fell apart. It was still right after the holidays where people were still giving me candies, cookies and coffee cards. Also, no meat for dinner is more difficult if you eat at a restaurant or go to a social function. I had to up my dosage of sleeping pills in order to off-set falling off the wagon :)

Week 2 was better. I was "good" for most of the days. I had some bad days and I got a chai latte - not a coffee, and ate some sugar. I found that if I severely decrease my sugar intake I'm ok, but I'm still working on kicking it entirely. I discovered that the greatest thing I could do for myself is NOT EAT MEAT at dinner. Wow! What a difference it made to me. I didn't realize how much better I felt when I slept on a protein free stomach! That's still hard when you go out for dinner, though, which makes it even more obvious that I should be avoiding meats at dinner.

Then there was mama's birthday. I was all good until dinner where i ate chicken, dessert and had a small glass of wine. Boo. What's a girl to do when everyone is eating it? I have to be better to myself and make the choice for my body than my socializing.

So, as I move into week 3, I've already learned a few things. I am good about sleep/wake until waking on the weekend. I am good about eating as long as my favorite goodies aren't around (white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, chocolate covered fruit, reese's pieces). I need to check the sugar/caffeine content of chai latte's because they are yummy. No meat for dinner. I need to be stronger during social events and, lastly, it's working!

So my plan for week 3 is:
1. keep same wake/sleep cycle even on the weekend
2. just say NO to sugar even more (hey, I can try to quit cold turkey or I can wean myself, which is better?)
3. no meat for dinner is awesome for me!
4. exercise at least every other day

I think that's manageable.

Christmas 2010!

Christmas was pretty low-key this year. We did get festive and go to Stanwood Lights where there were 1.2 million Christmas lights and bitter cold. At least there was warm Kettle corn and cocoa :) We got some pictures as snowmen, since that's the way we felt :)

We did "Christmas" with Bruce's parents on Christmas Eve night so Ryan had Christmas Eve morning with his mom, then opened presents that evening, but then still got to wake up to more presents on Christmas morning! He had a lot of Christmas time over 3 days.


Bruce's parents gave Ryan huge Star Wars Lego sets which Bruce put together, mostly without the help of Ryan. Ryan likes the guys to battle so usually once their heads are on, he's off with the people to fight while Bruce is left to finish the battle ships alone. I think Bruce actually likes it that way.

In the morning Santa brought some more legos, DVDs for the family and GI Joes. Bruce got manly things like cologne and a wallet and lots of candy. I got a beautiful key necklace and Wii Party.

When we were done we headed to Mike & Des's for the Cookie Contest. I was bored at work so I made some trophies. Then I put magnets on the back so we could display them all year :) There were too many cookies, I think I may be cookie'd out. Amazingly, we all won at least one trophy. Was the contest fixed? The boys were the judges so you can never tell.

Picture of Bruce Judging the Cookies

We weren't giving gifts this year - it was supposed to be a cookie exchange. Apparently, no one can help but give gifts.


As always, Des brought life size Santa to celebrate with us. Ryan thought he was cooler than Santa, though:

When we got back home, Bruce went straight to work putting together more legos while Ryan apparently needed some quiet time and willingly (yes! willingly and without notice!) went to his room to read his new Star Wars books that were in his stockings for about 30 minutes! Unprecedented!


It's always sad to see Christmas end. We took down all our Christmas things New Years Eve - it seemed like a good idea. We didn't want Christmas to be over just like that, though, so we headed to Leavenworth for snow, sleigh rides, lights and some great people watching.

On our freezing cold sleigh ride (9 degrees!)in the sunshine :)

Not really sure why, but they had a couple of hoses shooting out water. Maybe it was so that the water could freeze and I could take a neat picture?

There were 3 sleigh rides. These are the horses behind us. It was beautiful.

Cool icy trees around:

Gobble Gobble Gobble!

It's a Give and Take

Update on my sleeping: I had a revelation the other day. Wait for it....I feel awake!

Yay, I don't get exhausted randomly and often throughout the day. I don't think "if only I had a soft pillow right now..." anymore. I don't fall asleep during staff meetings. I have a memory again! I feel alert most of the time. I think I'm normal feeling now.

I went to see my specialist on Thursday 2 weeks ago. He doubled my dosage because, although I have been feeling better, I continue to have hallucinations, sleep walking and sleep talking. The clonazapam is supposed to shut my brain's door at night so my body will stay still while my brain is actively prancing around without my body's knowledge. Since that wasn't happening, he doubled my dosage and said "Let's see!"

Well, it worked. It worked too well. Not only did I not wake up, or move, or talk or anything strange at night, but I couldn't get up to my alarm clock either! Me! Not waking up on time! What!?! That meant, the 5am wake up call for the gym turned into a 6am wake up call to get up to go to work which resulted in me hitting the snooze button 2-3 times and then I would have to scurry to get ready for work!

Before this, the snooze button was a useless button to me. Who uses snooze button, I always thought. Why prolong the inevitable. Just get out of bed and set your alarm for when you actually need to get up. Not only was I using the snooze button, but I was actually going right back to sleep in seconds. I tried taking the pills earlier in the night but the same thing kept happening. Once I was up it was ok, but getting up was so hard.

I reduced my dosage back down to half. I guess I'm just going to have some night time happenings but it doesn't matter because, overall, I have had a significant improvement in the daytime. Don't get me wrong, I still want to go to bed around 9pm, but I'm ok almost all day long. I have days where I'm tired, but it's more physical tired or mental exhaustion from work - not this unknown force that was pressing down on me that I couldn't get out from under it.

So, I will merrily go along now feeling better with the medication. Except, there's the "take" part. I don't have desire for food anymore. At first, I thought "This is awesome!" thinking I wouldn't overeat and feel bad anymore. I would just eat healthy and be fine. But then I started to realize, I don't care to eat anything which would mean I would skip a meal because nothing appealed to me, then I would get grumpy (as one would normally do when they didn't eat). It would be ok most days at work because I had a routine of eating but I didn't want dinner (it never was my favorite meal of the day). Me not wanting to eat meant not cooking for Bruce either. It also meant my stomach was grumbling around 8pm then I would finally eat but then I would not want to go to bed because I had just eaten. Also, I would rather just eat what was laying around rather than go through the effort of making food because it didn't matter what I ate since I don't care about food anyways! This means eating cookies and apple - balanced, right?

The other thing? I didn't realize how sad it would be to lose the enjoyment of food. I still know if it tastes good, I just don't have desire for it. I don't really care to try things anymore. I do it out of habit or because I think "I used to like this" but it's just not there. Who knew losing enjoyment from food would be sad - like a friend moving - you don't realize how much you enjoyed the company until it was gone.

There's hope! Starting January I'm trying to use diet as a way of decreasing my symptoms. My doctor has been supportive of it and I want to see how it goes. I read about some people who had worse symptoms than me that had changed their lives with diet. I'm already a pretty healthy person so I hope it will still change mine as drastically as these other people so that I can have a normal pregnancy (that's the goal now, be normal without medication so I can have a baby without harming me or the baby with sudden sleep attacks). The diet sounds simple too:
1. no caffeine (check, I don't typically have caffeine in any of it's forms - coffee, tea, soda or chocolate - pat on the back for me!)
2. no sugar (Ok, this is harder. On the meds it's fairly easy since I don't care about food, but we're talking about getting off them and then having the self control not to binge on the lovely tasting morsels. I think I can. I think I can.)
3. eat meat only at breakfast and/or lunch (apparently, meat, being a protein, is an "alerting" food. It's best to eat it early when you want to feel awake and energized to complete your day)
4. avoid meat at night and, instead, choose complex carbs (easy, this is the way I like to eat anyways - NO MEAT. Sadly, this will mean every meal Bruce and I eat together will be different because he has to have a high protein, high calorie diet for his health. Go figure).

My doctor told me I have to be like a soldier. He's all for me trying anything that makes the symptoms lesson, but I have to have a strict routine. That's my chance. Get up and go to bed at the same time, even on weekends. Eat a healthy diet with the food spaced evenly throughout the day. Avoid stress (hehe) and exercise regularly. I can do this, right?

Costume Christmas Party!

Yay for Stephanie! She likes theme parties so we were invited to our first costume Christmas party this year. Bruce dressed as Ralphie from "A Christmas Story" and I was the Virgin Mary. Britt and Katie came with us. Katie didn't have a "costume" so she went as Donna Reed from "It's a Wonderful Life" and Britt was "Mrs. Claus."