He’d come home and fall asleep on the couch for hours and hours. We would try to wake him up but he wouldn’t even budge. When he finally did wake up, he had no idea where he was or what he was doing there. He traveled across the country to doctors all over to see if they knew what was wrong. He missed so much school he had to get home schooled. I missed my energetic brother that was full of life.

Alex was in junior year of high school. He would come home completely out of it from being so tried. The second he hit the couch he would be passed out until later that night. We thought it was just a phase until he started missing multiple days of school at a time.

Our first thought was mono but then he was tested negative. Our next thought was Narcolepsy. No doctors here could find any trace of it so he went to Stanford University in California. Even the place with the best doctors for Narcolepsy couldn’t figure it out.

Since Alex wasn’t getting any better, he made the big decision to become homeschooled. It did help him because he got to sleep but when it came to taking the SATs, my mom had to put up a big fight. She would fight for hours with the board trying to let Alex get extra time and take the SATs later in the day. Finally, she got it for Alex and it helped him so much, he did amazing.

He finished his junior year being homeschooled and was ready to push himself to do his senior year at school. Alex wasn’t getting any better but he pushed himself so much he made most of the day. Since it had been two years and Alex wasn’t getting any better, my mom decided to apply him to the hospital, Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Mayo Clinic is a hospital where they accept patients with an odd case that they have doctors for.

When they accepted Alex, we were so excited since we thought this would be the end. After two visits to the hospital, not even those doctors could figure it out. All out of ideas, we never gave up. My brother missed a lot of school but graduated. He even got accepted to amazing colleges.
He chose to go to Drexel University where he would be in the Honors College. When he left in September to go to college, we were all happy and worried at the same time. The fact that he made it through and was ready to go to college was a miracle. We were worried because we didn’t know how he would adjust to the new environment.
Alex has never been happier now that he is in college. He has never missed a class and makes it on time every day. We never knew what he had but whatever it was is gone. The transfer of being home to college cured him. He is so much better and he is happy and that is all that matters.