This medical condition stumped doctors for years
5/5/202614 min
One morning, Kyla Madonna Kenney woke up and her world was turned upside down: The room was spinning, she had a splitting migraine and one side of her body was shaking. Her tremors and migraine lasted for days. And for years afterwards, doctors would ask her: Did anything upset you recently? Are you stressed? Have you talked to a therapist about your anxiety? She underwent surgeries and took medications that were, in hindsight, unnecessary. It wasn’t until seeing Dr. David Perez, a neurologist who is also a psychiatrist, that she finally got the right treatment for her medical condition, functional neurological disorder. Today, we dig into this disorder – what it is, why it’s so unknown despite being a top reason people seek out neurologists and what this condition reveals about the consequences of siloing medicine.
If you liked this episode, check out our previous one about a new approach to brain health.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDavid Perez· Guest0:00
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Emily Kwong· Host0:16
[instrumental music] You're listening to Short Wave from NPR.
Kyla Madonna Kenney· Guest0:21
[bagpipe music] October 8th, 2016, that's when I woke up and everything changed.
Emily Kwong· Host0:27
Kyla Madonna Kenney is a musician, and that day she was supposed to sing at a wedding. But when she opened her eyes that morning- The room was spinning, and I was shaking, but only on one side, and I had a migraine that was so bad I felt like I couldn't even function.
Kyla Madonna Kenney· Guest0:44
And I remember saying to my husband, "Something's really wrong with me." [violin music] I, uh, somehow managed to get to the wedding, and I was singing the meditation songs, and in the middle of that one song, I felt like I was blacking out.
Emily Kwong· Host1:01
Days later, the symptoms were still there. [instrumental music] Tremors on one side of her body, her right side, that she could not control. And within her body, it felt like an electric current.
Kyla Madonna Kenney· Guest1:13
It made me feel unsteady, like, to walk, to see things. And the migraines came through where smell, sight, sound, touch, if anyone touched me, it would hurt.
Emily Kwong· Host1:26
Kyla went to a doctor who