How it all began... So I thought...

My Name is Jen,

This is how my journey with Functional Movement Disorder, FMD began:

It was Saturday morning, January 27, 2018, I woke up at 7:45am, got out of bed and felt a pain in the back of my right calf.  I walked downstairs to get a shower and get ready for work, when the pain suddenly worsened and moved slowly up the right side of my body, by the time I walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror, I realized my lip was drooping, I walked into the living room and asked my boyfriend, Jayson of my face was drooped, he agreed and my speech began to slur and my entire right side became numb.  It was at that moment we realized that I was showing symptoms of a stroke, so he called 911.

An ambulance arrived shortly after the call was made and off to the hospital I went.  Shortly upon arriving at the hospital, I was being admitted for further testing.  The next morning I was greeted by a neurologist, who explained that he saw something on the MRI that was not supposed to be there and that I needed to have a repeat MRI to see what, if anything else was happening.  I had a second MRI first thing that Monday morning and the spot the neurologist saw was still there.  I was diagnosed with a small stroke and a blood clotting disorder known as factor 5 Leiden mutation.  Upon being discharged, I was told to follow up with him and my primary care doctor.

In the days that followed I had my follow up appointments and had developed a terrible headache, in fact the worst headache I had ever had, that absolutely no pain medication could touch.  The pain was across my entire forehead, it went in a horseshoe shape from ear to ear, if you have ever bumped your forehead on the door of the car when getting in or hitting your head off a cabinet door that you accidentally left open, that was the pain I felt.  The headache lasted for two months before finally letting up a bit and eventually, several months later, weakened off enough that I no longer had it.

Two weeks after my first stroke, I was told I could return to work.  I returned to my job as a hairstylist.  Things were looking up and it appeared as though I had gotten past the worst of what had happened.  I was feeling good, I was back to work, a little tired, quickly fatigued and a massive headache, but overall I was ok and happy that I had come out of this all relatively unscathed.  The worst was behind me, so I thought.