Hey y’all.  My name is Gina and I’m a PWN (person with narcolepsy).  But I’m also a member of an FWN (family with narcolepsy).  Not only do I have narcolepsy but so does my mother, my ex-husband, and my son.  Yeah.  Let that sink in a sec…. To say that I’ve seen this disease from all angles is an understatement but I have to say that as rotten as it is that I’ve been hit with it from all sides, I’ve found ways to turn this into a blessing rather than a curse. 

You see, Mom and I were plodding along with conventional methods of treatment, and honestly not doing so well at it, when BAM!  My son was diagnosed.  Moms, y’all know what happens when our kids get sick… Mama Bear comes out and all of a sudden you’re all teeth and claws, right?!?  Right. 

That’s straight up what happened.  And guess what?  In typical Mama Bear fashion, conventional treatment for narcolepsy wasn’t good enough for my son.  Mom and I had been down the “life with narcolepsy” path and we wanted better for him. 

Hours, days, WEEKS of Google searching and I’d found nothing that seemed to have any promise except this one zany site called the Zombie Research Institute.  The author of this site, Heidi Lindborg, was talking about changing our diet to help mitigate symptoms.  “Yeah right” was my first thought and, honestly, my thought many more times over as I continued to somehow find myself right back on her site reading her words over and over.  Half of me still had a “yeah right” attitude but the other half had hope… hope I hadn’t had in a long while. 

I’ve tried more diets than I can count and figured I’d give Heidi’s suggestions a try.  Little did I know that this one step of faith would change not only my life but my mom and son’s as well.  I did the diet first and when I saw success with it I brought my mom along with me on the journey.  When my son saw our success, he decided to join us.  

Three generations went from barely surviving narcolepsy, and life in general, to THRIVING.   

One evening while re-reading a book by one of my favorite authors, I came across a quote she used that had always resonated with me but on this particular night it was like a spotlight on our journey: 

“I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.” 

 – John Quincy Adams 

Yes.  So many times YES.  This was exactly how it felt for us and I was inordinately proud to have a mother that was a warrior, that I could be a merchant, that my son could be a poet. 

If you’d like to hear more about our story, check out this video from the Madcap Musings series. 

I couldn’t sit by and watch my fellow PWNs suffer.  So, lit by the fire from my family’s successes, I created this website in order to bring our message to the narcolepsy community.  And to make sure I spoke from a solid foundation of health and wellness knowledge, I went back to school to become a certified health coach. 

In the 8 years since making diet and lifestyle changes, I’ve been blessed to be able to bring the message that diet and lifestyle changes can have a mega impact on narcolepsy symptoms to thousands of other people with narcolepsy: 

• Narcolepsy Network Presenter (NN Conference 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) 
• F.A.C.E.S. of Narcolepsy Presenter (2019) 
• Narcolepsy Network Newsletter Contributor (2019) 
• Wake Up Narcolepsy Presenter (2019) 
• Wake Up Narcolepsy Podcast Guest (2019) 
• PWN4PWN Advisory Panel Member 
• Narcolepsy Atlanta Presenter (2018) 
• Sleep Review Journal “Food as Therapy for Narcolepsy Patients (2018) 
• Sleep Tampa Bay Presenter (2017) 
• Narcolepsy Ireland/S.O.U.N.D Keynote Speaker (2017) 

Y’all, I see life as a journey.  With diet and lifestyle changes, it has become a journey OUT of narcolepsy and INTO life for me, my family, and thousands of other people.  

I ask you…. Warrior?  Merchant?  Poet?   

Hmmm… which will you be? 

XOXO, 

Madcap Gina