Kimberly B.

The Interview (22-year-old engaged female)

Name, Sex, & Age: Kimberly B.	Family stats: Engaged
Website: None	Twitter: None

1. How are you related to the PWN (person with narcolepsy)? Fiancé.
2. How long have you known your loved one?2 years
3. Has your loved one been diagnosed with narcolepsy by a doctor or did they self-diagnose? Doctor
4. Do you know their score on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale? (If you would like to get your score, click HERE). No.
5. When, if ever, did you first realize that something was wrong with your loved one? Explain. He automatically told me before I had a chance to even realize anything was wrong. He was completely open about it.
6. Was their diagnosis a relief, a surprise, or a disappointment? A relief.
7. Have they ever had a sleep test? Yes.
8. Does anyone in your family have a sleep disorder? No.
9. In what ways has narcolepsy negatively impacted your life? Not a lot of us time, he’s very unhappy and depressed. Always having to work around his nap.
10. In what ways - if any - has narcolepsy positively impacted your life?We are probably closer than we would have been if he didn’t. It forced him to be completely open about it and he’s just been open about everything else also.
11. What aspects of narcolepsy bother your life the most? His depression, I’m always scared he'll just give up one day.
12. How does your family and/or friends cope with knowing that your loved one has an incurable illness? They are completely happy about it and think I should really consider marrying him.
13. How do you cope with knowing that your loved one has an incurable illness? I just try and make sure I find out as much as possible about it and try to be as positive and patient as I can.
14. How does narcolepsy affect your relationship with your loved one? We don't get a lot of us time. He's working when I sleep (he works 4am) and sleeps when he gets home and I'm waking up that time. He's antisocial and doesn't like going out like I do so it's forced me to be home more.
15. How does narcolepsy affect your parenting and/or work skills? the only thing it's really affected is when I work. I make sure I work when he's off so he can focus on our daughter and the days he does work and I also do I make sure he has time to nap before I go to work.
16. What medications has your loved taken for narcolepsy? What are they currently taking? Provigil (now), Nuvigil, Cymbalta (now), and Xyrem (now)
17. What lifestyle changes have you and your loved one made to deal with your loved one’s narcolepsy? Work schedule and we live day by day vs. planning ahead since we never know how he will feel.
18. Do your loved one’s medications or lifestyle changes have any side effects? HEADACHES! He constantly is getting migraines from his medicine.
19. If there was one thing you could get someone who doesn’t understand narcolepsy to understand, what would it be? Be patient, if a normal person stayed up to the point of barely able to hold their eye lids open then maybe they would have a small glimpse of what they feel like every day.
20. In a perfect world in which your loved one would not have narcolepsy (or any health problems) what would you like to do with them that they can’t do now? Go out more and travel.
21. Is there anything else you want to say about narcolepsy that wasn’t included in this interview? People told me that I shouldn't get involved with him cause he has narcolepsy but to me that’s stupid, to me that's like divorcing your spouse after so many years because they were diagnosed with a horrible disease! At least I knew what I was heading into for the most part.