More Catalepsy

I'm convinced fatigue creates the perfect conditions in my body for catalepsy. I was very exhausted on Saturday night and several times through the night I awoke with awareness but no power over my body. I think this happened perhaps 3 or 4 times, and at least one of those times I noticed my head or jaw was shaking very minutely as a video paused between two frames.

The difference in this last experience was that it occured in other sleeping positions. Previously catalepsy only seemed to occur when I was lying on my back. However, in this instance I was lying on my stomach and on my side.

Should I be concerned at this stage? I've noticed a renewed frequency of catalepsy, and this is the first time that:

1. It has occured in these different sleeping positions;


2. That it has occured a number of times in succession;


3. It has occured during the night (where it would usually occur either at the beginning or end of a sleep cycle)


4. It has happened without warning, for which I could adjust my position to avoid it

I'll keep an eye on it!

Just... things

An entry about nothing in particular

I'm sure if I had something greatly important to announce the headline would have already drawn a large readership. However, I was just sitting here tonight pondering upon... things. With nothing else to do, I decided to write what I'm writing now in my blog.

Indoor Cricket
We played indoor cricket tonight, and most of the team were absent (as has been the case this past season). We managed to field a team of 6 against a full team of mighty Nunfa warriors (someone needs to call them that... just for encouragement). We did what we could with 6 players but we only managed 1 skin and we lost the game by about 15 runs.

God Stuff
After cricket, I arrived home in the dark driveway with Sons of Korah playing on the CD player. I stayed in the car, closed my eyes and listened to their beautiful musical/lyrical interpretation of Psalm 73. It was a peaceful time alone with God. I need more moments like these!

I took the time to read this Psalm just now - yet another thing I need more of! The Psalm is by Asaph (another Psalmist with David) and reading it rang very true with my experience and the words answered a cry in my own heart. Amazing how God works...

Psalm 73 ends with these 5 beautiful verses (though it's worth reading all 28):

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

27 Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.

Catalepsy is it?

I wish I knew what this was...

(Note: there seem to be varying interpretations on what "catalepsy" really is. I haven't found any official definition yet)

I've been indulging in a LOT of reading of late. This means going to bed way past midnight and feeling rather zonked the following day. From previous experience, this state of extreme fatigue, in conjunction with sleeping on my back, proves to be perfect conditions for what I believe is catalepsy.

This morning I was lying in my bed, mostly still asleep, but slightly aware. I was still in my dreamy state and I was dreaming that I had a very old book from the early 1900s (fashioned like these old Salvation Army bandmaster's score). This booklet had a table of contents that gave suggestions for coming out of catalepsy (can I call it a "cataleptic episode"?).

WARNING! Usually if you are on the outer edge of sleep dreaming about something, it can often be something that is really happening externally. For example you might be dreaming that a tarantula is crawling across your face, when in reality your kids are tickling your nose with a feather.

So at this point, I should have realised that I was teetering on the edge of another cataleptic episode.

However, as often happens, in my dreamy state I believed this was a real book and I read the table of contents. One of the items on the list was a song you could sing in your mind to pull yourself out of a cataleptic episode.

So... in the real world I let catelepsy take hold. That's the point where I woke up and was fully aware. But for anybody who has heard about catalepsy, you know that during an episode your mind is fully active but your body ceases to respond.

Luckily, this was a friendly episode, as I was still breathing. (When you stop breathing, that's when panic can set in!) Since I was still breathing, I relaxed and waited for the episode to end (which was about 15-20 seconds later).

I could feel my jaw quivering, and that was all. I tried to talk, but could not. I tried to open my eyes and could not. I tried to tell my body to move; roll over or something! But catalepsy is like the mind is disconnected from the body. There is full awareness of the mind, but the usual cooperation of the body to the mind's commands ceases.

Occasionally in previous episodes of catalepsy my breathing stopped as well. This was quite scarey. Trying to scream with your mouth, only to hear the sound echo in vain through your mind only, is a terrible feeling that I can only liken to wanting to breath when you're underwater. INTENSE FRUSTRATION. That's the kind of thing I never want to experience again.

I am extremely fearful of one day falling into a cataleptic state and not coming out!

LINKS:
- http://www.ellenwhite.org/refute5.htm - Some person explaining almost EXACTLY what I have experienced, including hallucinations (which happened in my first experience when I was 15).
- http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/c/catalepsy/intro.htm - one of the medical definitions I found that closely match my experience.

Note to family: Make sure I really AM dead when you bury me.

Lucky Little Lambies

Mum and Dad have been keeping a mother ewe alive for weeks now, giving her injections etc and trying to keep her standing so that she doesn't die.

She was having twin lambs, which apparently can cause problems in sheep - a disease called Pregnancy Toxaemia (or commonly Twin Lamb Disease).

Well it was coming close to the due date of the little woolly nippers, but it didn't look like the mummy ewe was going to make it. If she died during the night, then it meant the lambies died too.

So tonight mum and dad had to make the difficult decision, and they shot the mummy. Dad went to work quickly and got the baby lambs out of the mum's body, and here they are... happy and healthy!



If mum and dad didn't care, the could've let the ewe die a couple of weeks ago and write off their losses. But they didn't. Now they have two little lambs to feed every 2 hours. I hope their hard work pays off and these little guys grow up big and strong.