I have a chronic illness or two, this is how it all started.

You never think when you wake up that this might be your last day feeling "normal". When being sick becomes the new normal, when doctors diagnose and re-diagnose you, and some have to google your diagnosis because they've never heard of it before.

Some illnesses are slow building, and you can look back and see the evidence of it coming on for years prior. Narcolepsy was like that with me. I was the sleepy one, the lazy one, the one taking all the naps.  It was all I could do to not nod-off while sitting up in High School (even though I adored school) and in university I scheduled my classes so that I could take naps in between them. Lunch breaks at work were always a battle between my hunger and my exhaustion, where usually the exhaustion won out.

I thought this was how everyone felt, and I was just not strong enough to fight off the need for sleep. I thought that every morning when people woke up, everyone felt as un-rested and drained as I do. Everyone said I was lazy, so I just figured maybe I was. Sadly, these were the good days. Around August of 2012, it got worse.