A 34-year-old model and writer describes her experience with both narcolepsy and cataplexy to New York Magazine.
Can you describe what happens to you during a cataplexic episode?
First, I get a heavy pins-and-needles feeling in my legs. Next, I get tunnel hearing. Then, my body temperature changes dramatically: I’ll either get very hot or very cold. Then I have to give in. I just have to let my body go. I can hear what’s going on around me but I can’t communicate and I can’t move. My eyes roll back. This is very unattractive and unpleasant to say, but when it happens I lose all my muscle power.What does that mean?
I often throw up. I can’t control my bowels or my bladder. Everything isreleased.How often do you have these attacks?
It really varies. When I was first diagnosed I had two episodes of cataplexy within two weeks. I wasn’t even doing anything unusual.
This is absurd, cataplexy is not syncope. It’s a transient loss of muscle tone, usually facial muscle weakness, or hand weakness or leg weakness. It’s not loss of bowel and bladder function. If that was the case then every time we go into REM sleep we would urinate and defecate ourselves in bed. Somebody should consult a sleep physician before printing such nonsense.