FND Awareness Day UK | 25th March 2022 | Courtney’s Story

I was healthy and fit working full time in a special needs school, going to the gym everyday. Then in July 2020 everything changed over night.

I started having blackouts and drop attacks until September 2020 when I had my first seizure, and back and forth from my local a&e. I had every test under the sun done from CT to MRI to EEG. Everything came back normal and I was diagnosed with non epileptic seizures disorder and sent home. Everything settled down and I went back to work, only part time until July 2021 when I had appendicitis and had to have emergency surgery because due to the pain I lost feeling on my whole right side of my body (pain is one of my triggers).

I ended up spending 8 months in hospital, 4 in a acute medical setting, having physio, OT and psychology. Then 4 more in the Wolfson neuro rehabilitation center in London ( an amazing place where you’re understood and recognised as having a condition and not told it’s all in your head) relearning to walk and have full function in my hand. They also helped me understand my FND and taught me different techniques and strategies on how to deal with my symptoms, to make sure my chances of having a really bad relapse is very slim.

I’m currently home now and can walk with crutches, but I still have sensory loss on my right side and I have lots of seizures weekly. I’m under my local community neuro rehab team having physio, psychology and OT in the local community, and currently waiting to start trauma therapy. I’ve given myself a year to recover, rest and do lots of self care, and hopefully be back to work in 2023 even if it’s part time.

FND does not define me or control me. It is just another part of me that makes me a strong and determined person.

Written by Courtney, West Sussex

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