Part of a series originally posted on Instagram (@search_for_silver_linings) for FND Awareness Month 2020.
Today I’m talking about when it all started for me. It’s a bit of a long and winding story but it really started around 2014-2016. I started having issues with my legs not responding, as well as loss of bladder control. Eventually I was given a diagnosis of FND but by then I’d already started to recover and nothing further was needed.
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I simply forgot I had this condition until last year!
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Early 2019 I was ill with a few things that left me really low but I continued to work, with only minimum time off when unavoidable. It was May last year during a particularly nasty chest infection that I collapsed at work.
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I had all the signs of a stroke and was taken into the hospital. However the doctors did an MRI which came back clear and they brought up FND from my previous issues. I couldn’t believe it as this was nothing like it had been then. I had no control over my arms or legs, my face had pulled to one side so severely that I couldn’t see out of my right eye or barely talk.
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Then the doctor simply said “It’s nothing serious, you’re just going to get better”. 😰
I couldn’t marry up what was happening to my body with her statement of it being nothing serious. I felt like a fraud, like a drama queen and so, so lost and scared.
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If you’re reading this now, please don’t ever feel that way - I am here, there are many who will be here for you, to reassure you that you are NOT alone, nor a fraud or drama queen.
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FND deserves respect for the devastating effect it can have. Don’t make the same mistake I did of thinking this was some insignificant condition.
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There are specialist treatments available but they are far too in demand and underfunded - WE NEED MORE!
