Monday, October 3, 2011

I've Had It!!

I've about had it, I'm at my wit's end. The TMJ issues are driving me nuts. Daily I wake up feeling like someone punched me in my face. IF I'm lucky I take a couple of ibuprofen and walk around slowly for an hour or three and start feeling somewhat human. Today is a not so lucky day the face pain is bad and it's crawling up my head and trying to feed a migraine. Once that migraine starts (which is pretty evident it's going to) I take my expensive pills that put me down like a horse tranquilizer. They get rid of the pain - thank God, but I feel as if I'm walking around in jello, and quite frankly make me useless.

Insurance can't agree that it's dental or medical - though if my knee hurt like this they'd cover it. I see a dentist who specializes in it and wear the nightgaurd splint like I'm supposed to, take the meds I'm given which those things do help, however flares happen and when they do I'm a couple of weeks or more of misery. I've tried acupuncture, chiropractors, reg MD's , pain MD's, neurologist and massage. The TMJ doc I see prescribes physical therapy which does help some, but getting there is a nightmare with kids issues and Hubby's unpredictable schedule. Not to mention the expense.

Googling on the internet shows a nightmare of treatments available all with mixed results, all with expensive price tags, all insurance considers experimental. Evidently no one with any pull at an insurance company has ever had TMJ issues before.

Sorry, nothing but venting. So if you see me looking like I'm drugged, I probably am. If I looked pissed off figure I'm sitting there in pain. I'm off to feed the little guy and find him a long lived cartoon to watch.

1 comment:

Lin said...

Keep looking for a solution. Tell everyone you know that you have TMJ (well, within reason!) and you'll be surprised that someone may just have a solution for you. Don't GIVE UP!!

I had a really weird medical issue last year and while I was depressed over the pain in my tailbone and butt, I actually found someone who knew and understood exactly what I had and helped me. I get very emotional when I talk about it because she relieved my pain with physical therapy.

Someone out there has a solution--you just have to find it. I hope you find it soon--it sounds awful.