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Jacqueline
by phil (no login)
there were 2 news stories on the net about Jacqueline
both in scotch news papers if I remember correctly
YOUNG Jacqueline Liddell looks forward to each Friday night, waiting eagerly for the start of her favourite TV comedy show, Friends.
But instead of relishing each moment of the programme, there are times when the youngster can't remember much beyond the opening titles.
Jacqueline is one of the youngest people in the country to suffer from a rare condition called cataplexy which causes her to collapse suddenly.
The condition brings about a sudden loss of muscle control whenever she is excited, angry - or whenever she's been laughing.
In addition to the problem, Jacqueline, 12, also suffers from the acute tiredness disorder, narcolepsy, and falls asleep frequently. Only four in every 10,000 have the disorder.
On the trivial side, the illness means that it can take more than a dozen attempts for Jacqueline to take in an episode of her favourite TV show.
But, from a more serious perspective, she could collapse in any number of situations - at school, while riding her bike, or even while crossing the road.
Mum Zoe said: "It was a real shock at first to find out what was wrong with Jacqueline. It's such a rare condition and we didn't understand at first what it would mean.
"The slightest thing can make her collapse."
Jacqueline, of Kilmarnock, was diagnosed at Glasgow's Yorkhill hospital four years ago.
After being referred to the hospital for tests, she fell asleep during a brain scan. Suspecting cataplexy, doctors tried deliberately to make her laugh and, when she collapsed, the diagnosis was made.
Since then, mum Zoe, 42, and dad Henry, 47, have had to make major changes to the family's lives to cope with Jacqueline's illness.
Zoe said: "I'm used to the attacks now, but Henry still panics.
"Before she collapses, her cheeks wobble, her mouth drops open and her eyes roll.
"When Friends is on, she misses half the show. Sometimes the attacks last seconds, other times minutes.
"When she gets back up, she carries on watching it as if nothing has happened."
Zoe has learned to be calm if her daughter suffers an attack at home - but she worries about Jacqueline every time she leaves the house. She's often been called to collect her daughter from school after she's suffered a bad fall in reaction to her friends saying something funny.
The attacks can happen up to 45 times a day and have left Jacqueline with misshapen knees that are always black and blue.
Zoe explained: "She has bumped her head quite a few times. But my biggest worries are when she is crossing the road, riding her bike or on an escalator."
For the first few years of her daughter's life, Zoe believed doctors when they told her Jacqueline was simply a sleepy baby.
But Zoe knew there was something wrong when the phase never passed.
When she started primary school, Jacqueline was constantly sent home after falling asleep in class.
Her condition was so bad that teachers had her sitting on a mat on the floor so she wouldn't injure herself when she nodded off.
School staff often found Jacqueline asleep in the playground and carried her into the medical room.
Zoe said: "It got to the stage where teachers didn't want to let her out at break time because they were afraid she would hurt herself.
"But it's been better since she was diagnosed and her work has never suffered - her reports have been great."
Everyday situations can bring on an attack for Jacqueline.
ON her first day at high school, she left her bag on the school bus. After laughing at her absent-mindedness, she collapsed off the coach and hit her head.
It is such accidents which worry Zoe.
She has had to ban Jacqueline from going anywhere near a fairground after she went on a twisting ride with her dad and flopped unconscious.
Henry was left desperately clinging on to his daughter to prevent her slipping under the safety bar to her death.
Even bathtimes can be dangerous. Zoe used to sit outside the bathroom yelling to her daughter in case she fell asleep in the bath. She was so worried the tub has been removed and a shower installed for safety.
Despite her bizarre condition, Jacqueline is determined to live as normal a life as possible - and Zoe is determined not be be too protective.
When Jacqueline announced that she wanted to learn to swim, Zoe backed her all the way - even if she really wasn't too keen on the idea.
She also insisted her daughter be allowed to take part in science and cookery lessons even although the school at first expressed reservations. Jacqueline is now top of her class in science.
The determined youngster takes medication to keep her awake during school and has found staff and most of her fellow pupils to be supportive.
However, it's not been an entirely easy ride.
A group of pupils once taunted her, trying to force an attack.
Jacqueline, a second year pupil, explained: "There were about 15 of them - but luckily, the teacher put a stop to it.
"It annoys me sometimes when I fall down and everybody is sniggering. I can't see when I collapse, but I can hear.
"My friends have accepted my condition and, although some of them are naturally funny, they don't make me laugh on purpose."
Jacqueline tries as far as possible to be just like her friends. She goes to a dance class once a week and has won several honour certificates for her ballet, jazz and tap routines.
And, although she may not get to see a whole film, she still enjoys going to the cinema.
Zoe added: "The illness can be really difficult to cope with because I can say something that will make Jacqueline have an attack without even realising it.
"But she just gets on with it - she copes really well.
"Hopefully the cataplexy attacks shouldn't be as frequent when she's an adult."
WHENEVER teenager Jacqueline Liddell hears something funny she falls over laughing - literally.
The pretty Scots student suffers from a rare disorder which makes her collapse every time she gets a fit of the giggles.
But Jacqueline, 17, has refused to let her debilitating condition, called cataplexy, ruin her life and has fulfilled her lifetime ambition to train as a professional dancer. "Some people might think being a dancer will be too difficult for me but cataplexy is something I have learnt to live with," she said.
Jacqueline was diagnosed with the condition, a rare side-effect of the sleeping sickness narcolepsy, when she was eight.
At school she had to sit on the floor in case she nodded off and fell from her seat, and at break times teachers would often carry her indoors after she was found asleep in the playground.
Staff, who thought she wasn't getting enough sleep, often sent her home with notes complaining that she had nodded off in class.
But her mother Zoe knew this wasn't the cause of her daughter's affliction.
A brain scan finally revealed Jacqueline was suffering from both narcolepsy and cataplexy which afflicts only a handful of young people in the UK.
But she has battled valiantly against the condition which can blight victim's lives.
Next month she will leave home in Stevenston, Ayrshire, to start a dance course at Telford College in Edinburgh.
Jacqueline, who can suffer up to 45 attacks a day, said: "It can happen at any time. The last time was this morning... my sister was copying me and I started laughing and I just collapsed.
"It is like I faint but I am still awake and I can't see anything.
"As I got older I learned to control it. Now when I start laughing I am usually able to get to a seat before I fall over.
"Sometimes if I am with my friends they will hold me up before they make me laugh and keep my legs straight so that it is only my top half that drops.
"But once I fell over in the street. A man came up and tried to put me in the recovery position because he thought I was drunk.
"My friend tried to explain to him, but he thought she was drunk as well because she was babbling so much."
Jacqueline added: "I am excited about going to college not least because I am going to have to cope completely on my own. It's a challenge.
"It might be difficult because at the moment I have lots of friends who all know about the cataplexy, but when I go to college I am going to have to explain all over again.
"My mum and I are going to Edinburgh before I start and work out bus routes and things like that. I am frightened of falling asleep on a bus or a train and waking up not knowing where I am or how to get home, but I definitely want to do this.
"All I have ever wanted to do is be a dancer, and don't think having this condition should stop me."