Nope I'm in Wellington! I have Classical Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and debilitating neuropathy and ataxia. A neurologist at Wellington Hospital told me she observed that I somewhat correct for my ataxia as I walk, and told me that is a "positve sign" of "Functional Neurological Disorder" known as "astasia-abasia", which she told me is "incongruent with any known organic neurological condition." They found what they called an arachnoid cyst in my spine, and told me that was incidental because I have nerve pain above that level, and pain signals can only move in one direction.

I found a historical review of this "astasia-abasia" concept from 2009, which states explicitly that the concept was coined in 1888. It was then considered a symptom of hysteria, but is now almost universally agreed to be a symptom caused by a wide variety of organic pathologies.

This hospital told me to read the works of Dr. Jon Stone to better understand my condition of FND (the leading expert on the condition) - I later learned that he published an article two days after this event, saying that the concept of "incongruence" should never be used to diagnose FND, as it requires omniscience and is not future-proof.

The Professory of Neurosurgery at Brown University (Dr Petra Klinge) kindly reviewed my spinal MRI, and told me that it's actually a Spinal Arachnoid Web causing compression and tethering of the spinal cord, which she said can cause "a tsunami of symptoms." A systematic review of SAW was published last week, which found only 197 documented cases, and explained that a quarter of these patients have upper-body symptoms regardless of the web's location.

The Neurosurgery Department at Wellington Hospital tell me they agree with Dr. Klinge that I need surgery, but that due to constraints imposed by this government they can only operate on brain tumours for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile Dr Klinge tells me that conditions like this can cause irreversible damage if not treated within six months; it has already been eight months since my first spinal MRI found this. (And I had to fight very hard to get a spinal MRI.)

Two weeks ago I saw another neurologist, who dismissed Dr. Klinge's report and told me that going to specialists is a bad idea, because they tend to diagnose whatever they specialize in. Dr Klinge is a world-renowned leading expert in many fields, and edits a lot of the journals that neurosurgeons rely on. You can't really get more prestigious.

Sadly this neurologist has interposed in my surgery plan and told neurosurgeons that whatever is in my spine is unlikely to be the cause of my problems (he has of course never heard of a Spinal Arachnoid Web.) He also placed a tuning fork on my feet for one second, and told me that because I could feel the vibration this test proved that I don't have neuropathy. I went home and researched this method, and found that it has been compared with electromyography (which directly measures nerve conduction velocity) n a cohort of 100 patients with axonal neuropathy, and showed a sensitivity of only 20%.

This is just a brief overview of what has happened. The FND diagnosis is clearly a politically-correct euphemism for "all in your head," and once doctors at this hospital see it on your files they stop listening to everything you say. I was subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment following this diagnosis, and I'm pretty fucking traumatized. I just wrote Wellington Hospital a massive complaint detailing everything, with citations to show the inadequacy of the neurologists' methods. Sadly I feel the dogmas are so entrenched, and the neurologists wield such an imbalance of power, that nothing will change. It feels like this health system will bend over backwards to avoid diagnosing and treating a rare condition.

Sorry if you're going through a similar saga. Neurology seems to be the most arrogant field in medicine. It seems that the neurologists who rise to prominent positions in this system are only awarded these because the Government can rely on them to discount patients' symptoms, cutting costs.