what a difference it makes

I've been tired for YEARS. I mean, since I was still in school, and I'm not talking about college. No matter how much sleep I would get I still felt tired. This last couple years, with all the surgeries, chemo, etc, I've developed sleeping habits that basically meant I was spending more time in bed than awake. I've mentioned it to every doctor I see and we would change my medications around or to a different type to try to alleviate the sleepiness but nothing really helped. I even went to a sleep doctor and was tested for sleep apnea- and now wear a C-PAP mask to sleep at night.  Even though I sleep deeply through the night, I was still taking naps every day. (Is it still a nap at 3+ hours?) I was starting to think that this was just going to be my life, forever.  Then I met this wonderful seizure specialist- in a most round-about way- and he simply said "Why don't we split your seizure med up across three times a day instead of twice?" Holy crap! I mean, it's still the same total so I really didn't expect much difference but.... wow! I almost never take naps now. I'm sleeping about 7-9 hours a night, depending when I go to bed, and waking up feeling... awake. It's awesome. :) So. the new problem? Now that I have all of these hours to fill, what to do with them? I joined the Rec Plex so I have a place where I can go swimming or work out, take various fitness classes. Right now I'm just using the pool and the aerobic workout room (i.e. bikes, treadmills, ellipticals- those bastards :) ). I can do 30 minutes on the bike but only 2 minutes on the elliptical. So far. I'm also planning to sign up for a beginning yoga class and a belly dance class there. Ohhh la la- shake it. ;) I'm currently taking a kundalini yoga class at the local community college. It's different than "traditional" yoga. It's more about expanding awareness. And it's done sitting or lying down, so a huge plus. And, my husband and I are planning to attend an NF Forum in New Orleans next month; we're going on our first family vacation with the boys this summer, and we are already planning out of town trips to an NF2 Gathering and a wedding this fall. Not being tired ROCKS!!

I guess the moral of the story is... a tiny change can make a HUGE difference. And, of course, Never Give Up!