Wasserstein Philip MD

Dr. Wasserstein changed my life.
In eighth grade I had a gran mal seizure. Full on unconscious, frothing at the mouth gnarliness. No underlying cause could be found and I haven’t had one since, but after that I started having these small «episodes» where my muscles would tighten uncontrollably when I started to walk or run. Unless I stopped and/​or leaned on something, I would fall over. It would last for 5 – 10 seconds and then go away.
The neurologists I saw in New Jersey, where I grew up, didn’t know what was happening except that I had irregular EEG (brain-​wave scan) results. They said it seemed seizure related, but it wasn’t epilepsy. They prescribed phenobarbital which helped the EEGs become normal, but didn’t do anything for my symptoms at all. At least I could get hopped up on barbiturates, if I was so inclined (I wasn’t).
I came out to California for college and a couple years in I decided to see a Neurologist at Stanford to see if they had any ideas. At that time, Dr. Wasserstein was heading the Motion Disorders Clinic at Stanford, though as you can see from the listing, he has since moved to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
I described my symptoms. He nodded and said, «It sounds like you have PKC (Huh?!?) or Paroxysmal Kinesigenic Choreoathetosis. ([slaps forehead] Of course!!) It’s a movement disorder. Not very common, but I’ve seen several patients with it…» Yada, yada, yada.
Long story short. He ran some tests (sleep deprived EEG’s are the bomb) and changed my meds and I haven’t had an episode since! (well as long as I don’t forget to take them (Bad, Andrew!!)) That was 17 years ago.
Now I don’t have to take awkward pauses when I start to walk and have to explain why over and over again to quizzical friends and acquaintances or keel over in a crosswalk whilst grabbing a random person next to me for support (it’s happened). Wooo hooo!!!
Sometimes seeing a specialist isn’t enough. You need to find the specialty within the specialty. Motion Disorders? Who knew? Thanks Dr. Wasserstein!