Diagnosed With MS, Then Misdiagnosed With FND. It Was Parkinson’s.
FND Nope
Moderator
Emma Tinkler already had multiple sclerosis (MS). When she developed new neurological symptoms in 2019, she assumed her MS was getting worse. Her left leg felt increasingly heavy, and her left arm gradually stopped swinging when she walked. An MRI showed no changes to her brain scan. She was subsequently diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND).
What followed was approximately two years of worsening disability under the wrong diagnosis. Emma gradually came to rely on a walking stick and, eventually, a mobility scooter. She struggled to write, send text messages and even eat. According to her account, she was told that FND could only be treated with physiotherapy and psychology, as there was no medication available.
Then, in 2021, Emma sought a second neurological opinion. This neurologist disagreed with the FND diagnosis and suspected early-onset Parkinson's disease instead. Emma started Parkinson's medication that very afternoon.
"I started taking the medication that afternoon and it changed my life forever."
Within six weeks, Emma was walking normally again. After years of declining mobility, the improvement was dramatic. Her symptoms had not simply disappeared through reassurance or psychological intervention. She had received medication for a neurological disease that had previously gone unrecognised.
Emma herself believes her life would have been different had she not initially been misdiagnosed with FND. And it's not difficult to understand why. She spent approximately two years losing her mobility and independence while Parkinson's disease went unrecognised. Once another neurologist questioned the FND diagnosis and prescribed appropriate medication, she was walking normally again within six weeks. Nobody can say exactly how much suffering earlier treatment would have prevented, but the contrast between those two years of deterioration and six weeks of improvement is difficult to ignore.
The obvious question is how someone with an established neurological diagnosis, progressive movement difficulties and symptoms subsequently recognised as Parkinson's ended up with an FND diagnosis in the first place. An unchanged MRI does not rule out Parkinson's disease, and it certainly does not establish FND. Yet the published account describes exactly that sequence: an unchanged scan, an FND diagnosis, worsening disability and, eventually, a second opinion that changed everything.
The article does not establish what examination findings supported the original FND diagnosis, or whether Parkinson's was specifically investigated at the time. Those details remain unanswered. What is documented is that another neurologist rejected the FND explanation, identified Parkinson's disease and prescribed medication that produced a remarkable improvement.
This is precisely why diagnostic certainty deserves scrutiny. A patient can have an established neurological disease, develop additional symptoms and still end up with a diagnosis that fails to explain what is actually happening. Calling something functional does not make the underlying problem functional, and repeating the diagnosis does not make it correct.
Emma's experience also raises an uncomfortable question about what happens when an incorrect diagnosis becomes the framework through which every subsequent symptom is interpreted. If worsening disability is continually viewed through that framework, how long can the real explanation remain overlooked? In Emma's case, it took another neurologist and a different diagnosis to change the direction of her care.
Her story is not one of a miraculous cure. Emma continues to live with both MS and Parkinson's disease. Although Parkinson's medication initially transformed her mobility, she has since experienced fluctuating symptoms and faces the possibility of advanced treatments, including deep brain stimulation. The correct diagnosis did not make her neurological diseases disappear. It gave her access to treatment that made a substantial difference.
And that is the point. Emma lost approximately two years while her symptoms worsened under an FND diagnosis. Six weeks of appropriate medication subsequently restored much of her mobility. The original diagnosis was wrong, the consequences were real, and it took a second opinion to uncover the condition that had been missed.
Source: 7NEWS — Emma had blurred vision after her honeymoon. Then the unthinkable happened, Olivia Scott, published 29 June 2024, updated 1 July 2024.