Estefy's Story Part III: Adjusting to Narcolepsy | Rising Voices of Narcolepsy Speaker Series

Estefy opened up to friends about narcolepsy, and was surprised by their reactions. Now, she is studying data science in grad school.
ABOUT ESTEFY: Estefy is an ex-medical student now studying data science. She was diagnosed with narcolepsy in 2016, and she hopes to help dispel misconceptions about this misunderstood neurological condition by sharing her story as a trained speaker with Project Sleep's Rising Voices of Narcolepsy program. In her presentation, she shares what it was like to be a medical student with an unexpected diagnosis of narcolepsy.
RISING VOICES OF NARCOLEPSY is Project Sleep's leadership training program to raise awareness about narcolepsy while also empowering a new generation of patient advocates sharing their stories via writing and speaking.
ABOUT THIS VIDEO SERIES: While our trained speakers are delivering 20-minute presentations in-person to audiences across the U.S. and internationally, we brought a few speakers together to adapt their presentations into this video series, so that their stories can reach more people around the world.
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[@gustiable]

thank you for sharing 🙌🙌🙌🙌

[@patiakreles]

Hi Estefy, I hope you got to switch your career path successfully. I'm currently waiting to get my sleep exam and what you told in part I or II about not falling asleep, but being very tired resonates with me. I feel drained. I even stopped working about 6 months ago and I thought about being unemployed and that it would help me have more energy, I thought I was tired because my job was demanding. It turns out that in these 6 months I still feel like crap when I wake up, even if I fixed my eating habits, I have good sleeping hygiene, work out (as much as the fatigue allows me to) and sleep 8-13 hrs a day. I'm preparing to study another career and sometimes I get so scared of not being physically capable of doing it. I'm fairly intelligent (and also identify as cocky myself), so I have managed to come this far in life relying on that. I wanna be a therapist so bad, I'm preparing the "SAT" of my country to do that next year. I'm sorry you had to give up on medicine, I admire you strength to keep moving and make the most out of this bad situation. That's what I'm trying to do too.

[@maggiethomas4981]

Your story has been interesting and helpful. I am a Pastor with Narcolepsy and Cataplexy. I had to give up a lot of activity even taken medication. Thanks for your story.

[@irisvasconcelos8853]

Amazing story! I really resonated with your story as I had similar struggles with the medication and having to give a lot of things up. Amazing story, and even more amazing strength that you have! Thank you for sharing! :)

[@RockynCurls]

Wow thanks for sharing. I have the same exactly story. God led me to not go to medical school though. I went into the lab. Now I’m a mom and I’m very tired caring for my kids so they are doing a sleep study on me.

[@d0job]

Estefy, mil gracias por compartir su historia! Me alegro mucho de que ud haya encontrado otra profesión en que pueda sentir la satisfacción de ayudar a la gente! Y para mí ha sido un consuelo oír otra historia de alguien quien tuviera que dejar de estudiar la carrera que fuera tu primera opción. Yo no sabía cuando yo estudiaba medicina que tenía la narcolepsia. Solo era después de recibir dos veces el permiso para ausentarse, y decidir después que todavía no era realista regresar, que unos años después recibí el diagnóstico de narcolepsia. Mil gracias... Y yo también quisiera saber cuál medicina era que la ayudó.

[@MaybellineQueen]

I have made numerous videos about having narcolepsy with cataplexy and I can get literally nobody to talk to me about it and I know there's others out there I'm not the only one so I was very happy to come across this video and also I started a new medication today which I'm super excited about but I took it 8 hours ago and I've already had two naps so I guess I'm not super excited anymore

[@80ladyjay78]

What is the name of your new medication?

[@MaybellineQueen]

@80Lady Jay I'm on 3 at once now but the new one I spoke of is called wakix . I take it at 7am then sleep for another 3 hours but I am then awake and somewhat alert for about 4-6 hours.

[@angeliqueh3523]

I would love for you to speak with my son. He is a 17yo math prodigy who recently had to leave senior year of highschool due to symptoms of narcolepsy. His story is so similar to yours. 😢

[@gustiable]

actually i had no idea what narcolepsy was a year ago

[@victorialathos8194]

What was the new medication that helped?

[@valentinakren8816]

Also what I want to know

[@80ladyjay78]

What’s the name of the med???