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Personal Space

Christoff’s Space

Spousal caregiver

For my wife. For answers. For as long as it takes.

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Welcome

Welcome to my little corner of FND Nope. I'm Christoff, the person behind FND Nope. This is where I share my thoughts, investigations, frustrations, occasional sarcasm, and whatever else catches my interest. I'm sceptical of medical dogma, allergic to unquestioned authority, and firmly believe that no diagnosis or idea should be beyond criticism. You don't have to agree with me. Good arguments and evidence are always welcome.

A Tale of Four Neurologists

Over the years, navigating my wife's extremely complex medical journey, we have met a lot of doctors along the way: some great, some mediocre, and some negligent. Looking back retrospectively, there are a lot of things I wish we had done differently.

Differential Diagnosis: Endometriosis

Ironically although doctors present the FND framework as a more evolved replacement for outdated concepts like hysteria, conditions such as endometriosis may still be wrongly attributed to FND, echoing the same historical misattributions that labelled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

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

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

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.

Anecdotes, Bias, and the Bigger Picture

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)

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.

Progression Demands Further Investigation

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

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).