Hi! I'm Caroline! I am an 18 year old college student in the heart of Georgia. I was diagnosed with Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD) in January of 2004, at the age of 13. I decided to start this blog for three reasons:
1) To vent my frustrations about my disorder.
2) To educate the general public about this debilitation condition.
3) To reach out and connect with others in a similar situation.
That being said, here is a brief history of my experience with PLMD!
Though I was diagnosed as a teenager, in hindsight, I have likely suffered from this condition my whole life. However, my sleep/wake problems culminated when my mother was no longer able to physically drag me out of the bed and force me to get dressed for school. I would wake up sobbing that I had just fallen asleep. I was referred by my pediatrician to a local sleep clinic which gave me my diagnosis. I was found to have PLMD with an average of 63 significant leg movements an hour. A signifiant movement causes the brain to shift from a deeper level of sleep to a state close to wakefulness. In essence, my brain was waking up 63 times an hour without me ever knowing about it. I have had several more sleep studies since then, including a narcolepsy study, in addition to many rough years adjusting medications, attempting to explain my condition to my peers and trying to keep up with all the school work I was forced to miss over the years. I am now in an environment in which the school is much more understanding to my 'disability' and my fellow students are much more sympathetic. This is likely due to increasing maturity levels, but that is a subject for another day.
I implore anyone who is suffering for PLMD to contact me. I would love to hear your story and share mine with you.
Check back soon, I have many intriguing ideas just ready to be written out!
Sleep Well
Caroline
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)