State Rep. Tricia Byrnes Is Looking for the Filmmaker Who’ll Investigate FND
Facebook Stories
Social media
Missouri State Rep. Tricia Byrnes is seeking a filmmaker to investigate Functional Neurological Disorder. She says hundreds of families report children were labeled with FND before doctors fully checked seizures and loss of mobility, and that second opinions were blocked.
Maddie Aumann: From an FND Diagnosis to Maddie’s Law
FND Nope
Moderator
Maddie Aumann was diagnosed with FND before genetic testing identified a rare SCN9A disorder. Her mother, Christine Aumann, describes how the FND label continued to affect Maddie’s care even after that discovery, ultimately helping inspire Maddie’s Law.
Differential Diagnosis: Endometriosis
Christoff Trüter
Spousal caregiver
Ironically although doctors present the FND framework as a more evolved replacement for outdated concepts like hysteria, conditions such as endometriosis may still be wrongly attributed to FND, echoing the same historical misattributions that labelled unexplained female symptoms as psychological rather than physiological.
Differential Diagnosis: Wilson Disease
Christoff Trüter
Spousal caregiver
Around 1912, British neurologist Samuel Wilson described a condition he termed progressive lenticular degeneration, linking liver disease with neurological symptoms; this would later come to be known as Wilson disease.
FND: Philosophy Masquerading as Diagnosis - Part 1
Christoff Trüter
Spousal caregiver
FND is a matter of philosophy, not fact. It is a disorder that was conceptually defined into existence, unlike diseases discovered through measurable physiology. The very idea that the expression of a symptom that cannot be explained somehow correlates to a "brain software" problem is speculative and should be treated as such.
Kairos moment: Vestibular system
Christoff Trüter
Spousal caregiver
When observing my wife’s medical condition retrospectively, I try to identify what my late father used to call Kairos moments. In other words, identifying the tipping points, the moments in time that brought us to where we are now.
Medical dashboard version 1.0
FND Nope
Moderator
I developed and uploaded the first version of my wife's medical dashboard over the weekend, which highlights her medical history, such as blood tests, MRIS, etc.
Anecdotes, Bias, and the Bigger Picture
Christoff Trüter
Spousal caregiver
One of the most common and valid criticisms of a website like this is that it heavily relies on anecdotal evidence, meaning personal and subjective lived experiences. That is fair. This is, after all, a reflective journey centred around my wife’s health struggles.
Differential Diagnosis: Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT)
Christoff Trüter
Spousal caregiver
Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) is a hereditary (genetic) disorder, not dental related as the name might suggest, that impacts the peripheral nerves, that is motor (movement) and sensory (sensation) nerves in the arms, legs, hands, and feet.
I encourage you to take your website down
Christoff Trüter
Spousal caregiver
Barely a week after launching this website and I already received my first calls to take it down.
Progression Demands Further Investigation
Christoff Trüter
Spousal caregiver
As soon as an FND diagnosis is made, the patient is thrust into a multidisciplinary treatment approach, which can include psychologists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists, and sometimes speech or occupational therapists, depending on how the disorder presents itself.
Cervical Stenosis, Hoover’s Sign, and Clinical Blind Spots
Christoff Trüter
Spousal caregiver
In Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), standard brain imaging (e.g. MRI, CT) usually appears normal, showing no structural damage, lesions, tumours, or other typical neurological signs, except when FND is comorbid with an organically confirmed neurological condition, such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, or epilepsy (like saying pain occurs alongside a bone fracture).
