I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow… and I’m scared.

I really would have liked this post to have a more succinct title, but this is pretty much what it comes down to. I’m seeing a sleep specialist tomorrow, and I am scared of ALL THE POSSIBLE OUTCOMES. :P

I’m scared he will have no idea why my sleep is so weird. I’m scared he will know and it’s something bad. I’m scared there won’t be any treatment options for me, but I’m also scared of treatment options because I’ve had such awful, sometimes life-threatening, experiences with medications and side effects over the years. I’m scared that trying any treatment could make my sleep even worse – it is entirely possible that it could – but I also know that if I don’t try, things could get worse anyway. I’m scared of the sleep disorder going away completely (as I’ve discussed before there are positives to it) but this winter things just got so so bad and I simply can’t go on like that. I’m scared because I’ve done a lot of work on myself in the last couple of months and have managed to get to a really good place, and I’m worried changing things could tip me back to somewhere bad. Mostly I’m scared because despite my best efforts to not get my hopes up about what this appointment will mean... I’ve totally got my hopes up, and I’m scared that I’m going to be crushed if this doesn’t work out well.

I know I’m not the only person who feels like this before appointments. When you have chronic illnesses, this thought loop is kind of just part of the process. For a long time I didn’t realise that, and thought I was the only one having such contradictory, sometimes irrational, thoughts. While I’d never wish illness on anyone, this is where it’s been really great to read other blogs, and have friends who are going through the same kinds of things, because you figure out that all the weird things you end up feeling are just normal reactions to an abnormal situation.

I could sit here and tell myself to be positive and say it’s all going to work out fine, but… well that’s not all that realistic. I’ve got no idea what the outcome of this will be, or even whether it’s going to be positive, negative or that good old beige in-between. I do know that I will figure out a way to be okay with it whatever happens. Because I always do.

Fortunately I have some pretty awesome friends, who’ve been supporting me through all of this, and one has even made an amazing offer to stay with me if I do try medications. Having someone there would really help me out with the fear of things going wrong, and would hopefully help to mitigate the effects if I do have a negative reaction. In the meantime I’m just going to have to deal with this appointment-anxiety. If nothing else, I do find it funny that worrying about a sleep-appointment is making me not sleep well. But maybe that’s just my twisted sense of humour.

Thanks for reading, 
Little Miss Autoimmune.