When it all began

I can remember the start of it all quite clearly. Eddie had been complaining of being really tired all the time and decided to take some time off work at the beginning of 2008 from his job in security and door stewarding.

Then one day after him catching our kitten in the act of weeing on a pile of washing...damn cat...he came in and complained of a feeling that he was 'losing control' we talked about it more and he explained that when he felt angry with the kitten, he felt like he was going to collapse.

From then on more symptoms popped up, he tried going back to work but he was just constantly tired and the episodes of being close to collapsing became more frequent. He had always suffered headaches, but these got worse.

As the episodes developed into actual collapsing, we decided it was time to go to the doctors. Initially the doctor said he didnt have enough oxygen in his blood and there was nothing he could do. We moved, and the new doctor was slightly more concerned.

He referred Eddie to a neurologist to discuss the 'episodes' which by the time this appointment had came around were kept company by several other symptoms such as falling asleep uncontrolably, collapsing when laughing, blurred and double vision, slurred speech amoung some others. The neurologist diagnosed Narcolpesy & Cataplexy, but explained that its unusual for these conditions to come on suddenly and sent him for an MRI.

The day he got his results was a scary one, he went to the GP complaining of worsening of his headaches and the doctor told him the results of the scan which showed a 'cyst' in the brain. He was referred back to the neurologist for the results, who explained it wasnt a cyst, but infact a build up of fluid and he was then referred onto a neurosurgeon.

The waiting was killing him, not knowing what was wrong or why it was happening. Having something wrong inside your head and worried what the outcome could be. I could feel how it was affecting him. This strong man, always working hard was reduced to sleeping all the time, in pain, being confused and not even able to laugh or feel normal emotions because it made him collapse.

Just had to wait on the neurosurgeon appointment...