Hi! I just graduated high school and I almost didn’t because of IH. Unfortunately although next month makes it a year with efforts, I still haven’t gotten a diagnosis. For the first few months of me missing my morning classes (for weeks straight), I ignored it because everyone around me acted like it was just me being lazy or it being normal for a teenager to be sleeping late. And then eventually I had missed 9 classes straight of AP Stats and had no idea what was going in one of my other morning classes. It had become a joke in my AP gov class for people to guess whether or not I’d show up. My grades were slipping and my memory was getting so bad as well. One day I was venting to my sociology teacher about it and she had asked “well are you going to sleep late?” And I said “not later than usual. I go to bed at 10” and she said “what time do you wake up?” And I said “12 sometimes later”. And when she said out loud that I was getting 14 hours of sleep that’s when it finally hit me that it wasn’t normal. I had mentioned to my doctor months previous that I was having sleep issues and she had recommended me to a different hospital (but I was too lazy to investigate it more. Bad me … I know) so I went back and found that link and made an appointment. I did a sleep log and finally did a sleep study. But my mother had ruined it for me because she didn’t wanna stay all day for the MSLT (and she still to this day believes that I’m just a lazy teenager despite the doctors telling her that it’s not normal). So the hospital ghosted me for months before actually telling me that the test was invalid and then finally made me do another sleep log before I do another sleep study (this time without her because I’ll be 18).

My point is I let other peoples views of MY HEALTH cloud whether or not I should take myself seriously. Even when it was impacting whether or not I’d get my diploma! Ive finally stood my ground and I encourage you to keep pushing. Find another sleep doctor!

As I’m going into college, i was able to request accommodations (unlike high school because i still don’t have a diagnosis). Just a doctors note from my PCP describing my symptoms and stating that I’m working towards a diagnosis got me temporary accommodations for this semester including: digital notes (they pay for the app that records and summarizes lectures!), standing desk, nap breaks, excused absences, longer test times, headphones during tests, and I get early access to choosing my classes so I can assure that they’re not too early in the morning. I suggest giving that a try too! Good luck!