"No care for my wife"

For three years, I have been trying to find treatment for my wife, who has an Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) diagnosis. For three years, I've failed. 

Her most recent seizure was one of the worst. She hallucinated, forgot her surroundings, who she was, who I was, she couldn't walk unaided, she was terrified. It lasted ten days. I called 111 who referred me to our GP, who told me she needed to be checked for infection and to go to A and E - a traumatising experience for her, and completely unnecessary if they were at all familiar with her diagnosis. We called the crisis line, who called a member of a medical team, who then in turn....told us to call crisis line. We'd come full circle.

Most recently, she has lost the use of her right arm. She had stroke symptoms, so 111 sent an ambulance. Three and a half hours later, it hadn't come. The ambulance service rang, and said they wouldn't be able to provide one, and to get to Queens Hospital any way we could. Her information would be transferred there, we would be taken to the 'acute stroke ward'. 

It wasn't. We were asked to wait in general A&E. My mother in law cried and begged to be taken seriously. A nurse said, after taking us through, if it was a stroke we were too late - we'd passed the four hour window and damage would not reverse. We had no idea. 

The consultant asked us if she had pre-existing conditions. We said she had FND. They asked what that was. How do you describe something so complicated and varied in one sentence?

During this time she began to pass out. I knew her symptoms were probably FND related, and she was entering a seizure (she already had slurred speech) but didn't want to take chances.I was desperate for some care. I tried to tell a nurse she was passing out, but no one would look at her. No one would listen. They merely said they had a CAT scan scheduled. I said could you please look at her, she's falling unconscious. The nurse repeated that a CAT scan was scheduled.  When the nurse tried to put in a canular, they sprayed both me and her with her blood. 

We spent twelve hours at the hospital. After bloodwork, a CAT scan, and consultant and psychiatrist conversation between themselves, we were dismissed with no advice, no follow appointment, nothing. She didn't have a stroke, so it was decided it was probably her FND - a condition the doctor had never heard of, until the handover to the next consultant. 

We have no care for my wife. No psychiatrist, no GP that understands her condition, no physio - we can find nothing. Its been three years since she came into our bedroom, having cut her thighs to shreds with a razor and having no memory of it, stunned in abject horror. I have lost hope I will ever find care for her. 

One kind word, one moment of sympathy, one act of concern in the hospital would have at least made us feel like we mattered. But the NHS staff are too overworked to provide that. They couldn't even treat the problem. 

We are hopeless.