About this episode
The episode explores Kyla Madonna Kenney's journey with functional neurological disorder and the challenges of medical misdiagnosis.
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. Interested in more science behind medicine? Email us your questions at shortwave@npr.org . Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our…
People in this episode
Host: NPR
Guest: Kyla Madonna Kenney
Topics covered
- functional neurological disorder
- medical misdiagnosis
- neurology
- mental health
- patient experience
Keywords
- functional neurological disorder
- neurologist
- psychiatrist
- migraine
- tremors
- medical condition
- treatment
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: NPR
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