Kim

I have done my best to deal with life's curveballs as they have arrived. In 2020, I was just graduating from college, I was turning the big 4-0, I was restless (it was right after COVID), I was confident and was ready to start making a difference in this world. My day began with a 2+ mile walk on the beach to watch the sunrise - my 5 sensory rejuvenation to start the day off right! When I wasn’t working (I have been known to be a bit of a workaholic), I was always busy doing something - cooking, cleaning, gardening, going to explore different parks and finding ‘hidden gems’. To sum it up, I was very active. In my opinion, I was a strong, independent woman who loved to laugh and make others laugh, known for my caring nature (I am called “Momma Kim” sometimes) and positive energy. 

 

Then, in Sep. 2021,… BOOM: I was thrown one of life’s curveballs. I was hit with that dreaded ‘C’ word - cancer - I had breast cancer. After getting over the shock (which, of course followed the ‘no way, not me - check again, are you sure?’ phase), and after getting through the feeling sorry for myself stage (why me?) I picked myself up, knocked the dust off of me and straightened my crown, and put on my boxing gloves, ready to fight. I told myself that I was going to fight it, and beat it, whatever it took. So I went through chemo and radiation, as recommended (I won't go into details here, but we will just say that my body and the chemo medications did not agree with each other). When I finished the cancer treatment in the summer of 2022, I cannot tell you the relief I felt. Not only was I deemed to be in remission, but this meant I was on my way to real recovery and getting back to myself, my life, and my goals. Gradually, my symptoms effected me less and less, and I eventually got to the point where I was ‘only’ having a ‘bad day’ once or twice every few weeks or so. I was able to get back to work part time, start doing some basic workouts and go on short walks, I was able to cook again (hooray!)... the simple pleasures in life! I was slowly getting back into my normal routine, and I assumed that the symptoms would eventually go away altogether. I was anxious to get back to my morning sunrise walks, back to working full time, and back to focusing on my goals since I had finally knocked THAT curveball out of the park! Or so I had thought...

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In the beginning of 2023, things changed. I’m not sure what the proper medical terminology is for whatever changes my body decided to go through at that time, but my personal professional description of the changes is that my body decided to go crazy. I began to have ‘bad days’ more often. I thought I was just overdoing it, so I cut back on some of my activities. But the symptoms still increased (gradually, at first). In the next year, I had more than 10 visits to the ER, saw multiple doctors and specialists. I had blood work galore done, I had multiple CT scans done, I had MRIs of both the head and neck, I wore a heart monitor for 2 weeks, I had an ambulatory 72-hour EEG, I had an EMG, I had a tilt table test, I had an echocardiogram… and probably more that I have forgotten in this moment. While I was borderline on many of the tests, I was told that everything came back “within normal range”, that the things that were found ‘were of no concern’, and that nothing in the results would explain the symptoms I had been experiencing. I had been given a variety of opinions and possible diagnoses by the various doctors, some even saying that I was faking my symptoms or told me basically it was all in my head. Finally, I was given the diagnosis of functional neurological disorder (FND). 

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Now, I share my story to show the world that FND is a REAL illness happening to REAL people in REAL life all around the world! I am currently working on creating a personal blog called 'The FND Ride', focused on finding humor in the FND journey because I think it is essential in our healing journey! It is a part of my own way to spread awareness.