TMJ Support Group

Hi everyone! I found this site because I have been doing google searches of TMJD for the past couple of hours.
I was diagnosed with TMJD over 25 years ago. It seems to have been caused by Wisdom Teeth removal when I was 19. I did all of the treatments that they had: soft diet, PT, hard and soft mouthguards, Valium therapy (slept through work on that one), different anti-inflammatory meds, etc. I finally had surgery, which I thought would "cure" everything! The only thing that I got out of that was a droopy eyelid and left forehead does not move at all. I sometimes joke that I should get Botox in the other side and I'll be even. I had another surgery and that didn't work, either. Almost had a third, but insurance fought it and thankfully, because they wanted to give me the Teflon implant that was recalled.
Anyway, I also had surgery five years ago for a C3-4 herniation, which did not alleviate the pain in my neck and upper back. I went for another MRI about a year after that surgery and they found that my C4-5 was herniated. I decided on no surgery and live with the pain. Now, my hand is constantly numb. I won't get surgery until I absolutely have to. I only got it last time when my hand was so weak that I started dropping things.

I'm really sorry that I'm so long winded, but I get that way when I take Vicodin for the pain. I also feel like I have nobody to talk to that can understand what this is like. My husband is a nurse and is very caring and understanding, but I still feel like I'm really burdening him so much (he's the one who has to pay for everything, since I cannot work). I feel like I'm at rock bottom right now. I've taken so many different medicines and tried so many things and 25 years of headaches is really getting to me. I've truthfully had a bad headache or migraine since March 9th of this year. I can't sleep right now because I cannot get comfortable. I actually saw a post about a pillow that I bookmarked, but I have to save the $80 and hope that it doesn't get handed down to one of the kids because it doesn't work!

I tried the search on this site for the local TMJ "specialist" and the only one near me is a guy that I dated when he was in dental school! No way I'm going near that,lol!!!!

Anyway, I don't really know why I posted on here, but just needed to get my story out. I'm really sorry to be such a downer, but I'm really hurting!

I'm glad that I found this site and hope to be able to give advice some day. Thanks for reading this, Karen
Posted on 10/07/09, 05:10 am