Ds13 is in 8th grade and doing well academically, but he's been dealing with a mystery illness/condition, whose main symptom is overwhelming fatigue, for nearly a year. We spent months trying to get anyone to even look into it ("all teens are tired" "he's growing" "it's puberty") and then more time fixing issues we uncovered (allergies, mild anemia, mild b12 deficiency, etc) but nothing seems to have fixed the issue. We just had a 24-hour sleep study, and will get the results next week, but the doctor has basically already said she thinks it is idiopathic hypersomnia and she is willing to write him whatever he needs for school. Honestly, I'm not sure I agree (seems more symptom than cause to me), and we are continuing to investigate (echocardiogram soon, as well as meeting with a rheumatologist), but in the meantime, I'm trying to figure out what to do to make his school life easier. He goes to the HS every morning for math, and he seems to do fine without a lot of work in his honors AlgII-Trig, but the doc has already suggested dropping that (just fyi, he's not particularly hard to wake up or especially tired in the AM, but the class is early). However, HS is starting full time in 6 months either way. Do I try to get a reduced schedule? Put him in easy classes so he can rest more? Try to get the homework load reduced? He's slated right now for honors pre-calc, honors Eng, honors bio, AP World, orchestra, Spanish and PE. Intellectually, he is fine, but he comes home every day after school, sleeps for three hours, gets up, eats dinner and does a little hw, and then is back in bed by 8 or 9. He's had a few minor illnesses in the past six months (tonsillitis, viral infection) and during those, he'd sleep 18-20 hours a day... seriously, we've been charting his sleep. I look at what my current HSer is doing in terms of activities and hw, and there just aren't enough waking hours in ds13's day. Obviously, I am worried sick trying to figure out what is going on, and figuring that out is my first priority, but on a practical level, I also want to help him feel good about school. The teachers/counselor seem very supportive, and the counselor is willing to move ahead with a 504 ASAP, but I honestly just don't know what I would even ask for. Has anyone dealt with a gifted teen with health issues? Any thoughts?
