Joe has an appointment date for Papworth and it can't come soon enough. Tuesday April 5th he will stay overnight with lots of wires attached to monitor his sleep in every possible detail, then next day there'll be more tests before, hopefully, an answer.
Meanwhile, we have the scary dreams.
I used to have them and only once the narcolepsy was diagnosed did I understand why. I remember waking up thinking someone had broken in to the house Andy and I shared and sure they were still there. I put my coat over my pj's and took a taxi to the nightclub where he was working so convinced was I that it was real. But at least at 20 years old I could understand why it happened!
Joe has always had them and I have always worried about why. Now it looks likely it is a sleep disorder causing them. If they're the same as mine, which I suspect they are, he'll start to dream before he enters full sleep, so the dreams are reality to his mind. He will scream, cry, kick, bang his head on the wall, and although he seems awake he cannot be comforted. If you try to give him a cuddle or talk to him he lashes out, thinking you're part of it. I've discovered that if I hold him very tightly, lift him out of bed and take him to a brightly lit room away from his bed it seems to calm him quicker and he comes out of the dream. He doesn't realise it was a dream though and will often talk about it like it is still happening.
Sometimes we go months without any but this week it's been every night for 4 nights so far. On Wednesday night I found Joe banging his head on the wall. He was sure there was someone or something hiding in the shadows and would not be convinced otherwise. He insisted on me walking backwards out of the room and he kept turning to check all around us for the "creature". He slept in my room with the lights on full. Tonight I heard a very loud, sudden, high-pitched scream. I rushed in to him, grabbed him and took him downstairs.
As he sat with me his first words were "there was a hedgehog in the hole". He has since told me that "it's very naughty really, hedgehogs aren't supposed to make their houses in people's beds" and "the creature is very spiky and the spikes hurt, it's the one from last time mummy". Makes absolutely no sense and there were lots of other random parts of sentences too.
He's calmed down now (with the aid of recordings of Little Charley Bear) and we'll head back to bed soon, but whoever or whatever this hedgehog creature is, I really wish it would make its home somewhere other than Joe's bedroom for all our sakes!
Let's hope April brings answers, less hedgehogs and more sleep.......
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