Sleeping Too Much? See Your OBGYN

I re-started my search for a diagnosis with my OBGYN.

That makes sense right? But here's my reasoning. I had been with my OBGYN for years. I respected her deeply. I didn't want to waste a bunch of time going from doctor to doctor. I wanted to find who the 'good ones' were.

So I told her I was looking for a new GP and wanted to know who she thought were the stronger physicians in the area. Come to find out, they aren't allowed to make recommendations. Rather, she said she could give me a listing of the local physicians and I can go from there.

Fine. I took the sheet home. I discovered there were stars next to some physicians' names and some names were crossed off. Hhhhmmm........

So I called around asking if the doctors were taking new patients and after several offices telling me 'no', I found one!

At my first appointment I was hopeful this would be the only doctor I'd have to go to. But in the back of my mind, I was worried it may be more of the same.

"So, you're tired or fatigued?" the doctored asked me.

What? No sleeping pill prescription? He's not brushing me off? He's......asking questions?? Wow. This is new!

"What's the difference between tired and fatigued?" I asked.

He explained that 'tired' means I feel like I need to sleep and fatigue meant weak like you are out of energy. I understood that. Fatigued is like the last 5 miles of a marathon, tired is an hour after you finish.

"I'm tired all the time," I said. "Here's my blood tests from the last few years. We found I have Hypothyroidism. But when my thyroid levels were brought back to normal ranges, it didn't fix the tiredness."

He nodded while looking over my blood tests. "You were tested for Epstein Barr?"

"Yes," I sighed. "My previous doctor wanted me tested for that. He said that I have Fibromyalgia because I tested positive for Epstein Barr."

The doctor looked up from my file with knitted brows. "Do you have any pain?"

"No. That's what confused me. I have no symptoms other than persistent tiredness. Plus, the majority of the population carries the Epstein Barr virus. So I don't understand how he got Fibromyalgia from that."

"Yeah," the doctor replied, "Epstein Barr is not used to diagnose Fibromyalgia. So describe your tiredness. Is it all the time or does it come and go?"

I replied, "I feel like I need to take a nap....like all the time. And when I sleep, I wake up and I don't feel better. In fact, some times I feel worse! Like sometimes  I wake up with a headache. I can understand going to bed with a head ache. But you shouldn't wake up with a head ache, right?"

He nodded his head, "I agree. Have you ever gone to a sleep doctor?"

Sleep doctor? I've never heard of a sleep doctor.

"No."

"Well, you're having trouble with sleeping too much. Why not go to a sleep doctor? Waking up with a headache is a symptom of Sleep Apnea. Looking at you I wouldn't think you have Apnea. But let's have you tested to rule it out. If it's ruled out, we can then look for less common sleep issues and go from there. How does that sound?'

That sounded great! A sleep doctor? Who knew!!

I was so relieved I was being heard and relieved to find out there was more to explore. I was thankful I had a doctor who was willing to try something else. I felt like the doctor was a super hero... just for trying!

Finally, I felt hopeful.

***

Dodging A Diagnosis

I gave up.

After decades of trying to find out why I was tired all the time, I told myself that's just how I am. I didn’t understand why I had to sleep so much, I just knew I did. My friends, coworkers and even strangers would say, “I’m always tired too!” But I noticed they weren’t falling asleep at parties or having to sleep 10 hours at night and still need 2 -3 hour naps during the day. I started thinking my tired was different. But I couldn’t explain why.

I cancel last minute on plans with friends because I was too tired to join them. 

If I told my friends, “I’m sorry, I can’t make it to the get together tonight. I’m really tired.” They’d say, “Oh come on. We’re all tired from the week. It’s Friday. Come over and party!”

I would have to say I wasn’t feeling well (which was true) or I felt like I was coming down with something as that’s what I would assume was making me tired. 

What they didn’t understand is that when I said, “I’m tired” it meant I was so tired it was hard to stay upright at a party and make conversation. That trying to maintain conversations can give me headaches. There were many times I’d have to leave early because I just couldn’t stay awake any more. I could be quite the party pooper. 

As the years went on, my attacks of sleepiness occurred more often and I’d go through periods where the sleepiness was really intense for days. Though I didn’t notice this until one year when my parents came out to visit. And I spent more time sleeping than visiting with them. Their visits were the highlight of my year. The last thing I wanted to do was sleep through their visit! 

But this year I noticed I couldn’t muster the energy to get out of their hotel room. I would drag my body up and around with them as much as I could. But the intense sleepiness I was fighting through made the outings a struggle rather than a joy. 

My parents, as usual, said it was because I work so much and travel and keep myself so busy. Sounded right. Isn’t that the American way of life? I needed to slow down. So they let me sleep my way through their vacation. 

I  felt better for awhile, so I thought maybe I had ‘caught up’ on my sleep. But then shortly after my folks flew back home, it hit again! I had another several days in a row where all I could do is crawl my way to work, come home and lay down. 

I noticed these bouts would come and go. They tended to last between 2 - 5 days. Then I would feel more ‘normal’ after that. Normal to me was just being tired all day with some periods of increased drowsiness. But it was much better than the crippling sleepiness of the ‘episodes’ as I started to call them. But the fact that I would lose several days at a time because of my sleepiness, I had to face the fact: this was not normal and my sleepiness was a problem.  I needed to start looking for answers ....again.