Good Morning and Good Afternoon!

Well we are having beautiful weather here ATM ...I made a huge effort and I spent 2 glorious days at my most favourite place near my home...the rock-pool....

And I just did my shopping online with woollies with free delivery because I'm finding it too hard to go shopping. Standing on my feet is a problem. And carrying groceries is too hard because I really can't carry more than a kilo or 2.

I'm going to go back to physio this week and I'm going to do hydro-therapy 3 times a week. Doesn't matter how strong I get my legs they still feel weak and I'm walking with instability...

The sun was healing for me today! Though my pain levels are still high unfortunately I'm not getting better, so I've just got to manage...a holiday would be good... B)

Its a bit quiet here ATM....where is everybody???

Eliza good on you for making the effort to get out of the house even tough pain is trying to over ride the instinct to go, as you found it can recharge the batteries so to speak.
Be careful doing so much hydro it takes a lot longer to recover when you have an injury, just do a little core strengthening exercise and then just float around and relax, over doing the exercises will only set you back, baby steps and slowly build up,
in our cases the no pain no gain doesn't apply, what we need is gain with no pain to succeed.

Don

Ms s I am very sorry to hear this.you must go to a legal advisor and get this sorted!it is just ridiculous the way they are acting and you need to stop being persecuted for doing nothing wrong.these people deserve to be dragged through the mud and there pockets emptied for this disgrace.fair work ombudsmen is around to prevent the exact thing that's happening to you.get this sorted and try not to be upset too much, you've done nothing wrong, it's there fault and if they weren't prepared for this, then they shouldn't of been an employer to start with!

Hugs, Tom

Mrs Shingles try to remain positive, you are now fighting a system that is not set up to support employees and their recovery, don't take what they say personally, you have done nothing wrong but being in the wrong place at the wrong time doing an errand for your work place.

Don

(((Mrs Shingles))),

I'm sorry you're going through such a difficult time of it. Please stop trying to handle your workplace issues and allow your solicitor to get straight on to doing their job on your behalf.

Your employers are nervous about one of two things; what they already know or what they're guessing could happen with your accident claim situation. Which ever way, they've handled things very badly, albeit the best way they know how and probably following instructions from their own solicitor.

Please make a decision to let your solicitor handle all of that workplace-employer contact in future and save yourself the angst. :blink:

Hugs and warm smiles sent your way lovely lady. ♥

Hello Mrs S
After being away for 2 weeks I am shocked to see so little improvement in your health and the horrible state of the work situation. For your own health and well being you need to concentrate on you and your recovery let the solicitors and your family deal with the work issues.
I send lots of hugs and a smile.
Wendles

Hello All,
I have made it out the other side of a 2 week in house pain clinic. As I have only been home one day I am really on settled yet so will write more later but for now I will write, that it covered everything, was so amazingly helpful in so many different ways and very intense.
More later when I feel less drained. Questions are welcome.

Hope everyone finds a smile today
Wendles

Wendles I am glad you have found the pain management group so helpful and can't wait to hear what you have learnt and how you are going to put it all into practice. It takes time to absorb all you have learnt and lots of practice to keep it all going
every day now is a step forward into a new way of controlling pain with the help of medication.
A good course like the one you have just finished is life changing, as you now take control of your pain and have the tools to live again and enjoy the good times.

Don

That's wonderful news Wendles. Well done - I am so glad that you have found the whole experience to be beneficial because I remember that you were a bit apprehensive before you left!

Can't wait to hear about it, but you have a rest first.

Mary

Great to hear you got such a lot out of the pain management program Wendles...that is really heartening news.

I put this post on the Norspan thread, but thought I should have put it over here really cos I haven't been on the forum for ages...and it's not cos I've forgotten about you lovely people or don't care how you're going.

For a while there 10mg Norspan was doing a good job at bringing jaw pain to manageable level...and I had a glimpse of leading a more interactive life.

Cruelly, over several months, the Norspan wide range of side effects started getting worse instead of settling. Pharmacist suggested it was building toxicity the longer I took it.

GP has put me back to 5mg. Pain in jaw increased a lot from lesser strength.. Hurts very much to talk especially since wrenching jaw from vomiting on 10mg a few weeks ago.

WC have declined specialist TMJ physio and pain management request. Have to fight for it now in conciliation while feeling like crap. Psychology approval has run out, but am going to have to go anyway and pay myself cos this is so stressful and depressing...but wait; how do I talk to her with such a sore jaw?????

Ps. WC asked 2 medical professionals who have both professed to have no area of expertise in TMJ (jaw) for their opinion on whether I should have this treatment for my TMJ and based their rejection on these 2 opinions. They did NOT ask the opinion of my oral specialist!!!

Feeling very down, in pain, and very angry and frustrated at a system that wastes so much time, energy and resources trying to get out of paying for treatment for people who need it....not to mention adding unnecessary stress to the person with CP's already challenged life.

Sorry everyone...."hi" and hugs to everyone who is struggling at the moment....and hugs even if you're not.

And looking forward to hear about your pain management Wendles when you're up to it.

Fee

Sorry you are having a bad time Fee. I don't understand the WC system, but I am sure learning fast from some members of the forum. It sounds like a nightmare to negotiate. I would imagine the stress of all this can only be making things worse for you.

There is another lady on her with TMJ problems now too.

Mary

My awesome new solicitor has taken the matter over and is taking it to a conciliation appeal to fight on my behalf.

I know that there are several others on the site on wc (or, as Peter refers to it; "the toilet"), and I just wanted to give you all a boost of encouragement because wc banks on us giving up because the stress of "fighting" for treatment when you already feel so unwell is just so difficult.

I am really appalled by the immorality and unethicalness of the insurance companies...and I wish I could go around to each and every employee of them and put a cattle prod to their jaw....just so they could experientially feel for a short time what it is like for the person who is waiting on their decisions and approval.

The problem is that they can't "feel"...so we become just a case number; not a person in pain.

How they lay straight in bed of a night time is beyond me...but then I guess there are always those who want to wrought the wc system who have made it so difficult for the genuine ones as well.

However; it takes less time for an insurance company to assess a car and approve repairs than approve treatment for a person in pain. Last time I looked, cars don't feel pain. However, people waiting on approvals do!

Venting,
Fee

And thanks too Mary.

If you mean bluesqueen, I have commented on her thread. Or did you mean there's someone else with TMJ?

Hugs,
Fee

Hi Fee,

Great to see that your solicitor is working well for you. It must help a little to know you have someone who is so competent taking some of the strain away from you.

Yes, I did mean bluesqueen, and I hadn't seen your post in that thread when I mentioned it!

Just a thought. Have you researched overseas to see what the latest treatments are for TMJ? I guess you probably have. I don't mean that you should travel, but if you found out anything at all, you could ask your specialist to communicate with someone from OS. We are often behind with some of the latest treatments in some areas. Sometimes we are ahead too; it just depends on who is doing the research 🙂

Mary xx

You're a darling as ever Mary 🙂

Thank you for your lovely support and suggestions.

My dentist actually started studying TMJD because he was going to specialize in it...but it got so complex and the success rate of doing anything to fix it is so low that he gave up! He said that a lot of the treatments are more along the "voodoo" lines even overseas and there have been treatments that have actually made people's problems worse.

Surgery is not recommended because of it's low success rate in this area of the body as well.

It seems like the best of a bad deal is just being able to find someone who can help with management of the condition to enable better quality of life and pain levels down to a manageable amount.

Everyone is different though and some people have TMJ for a short period only or have it to a lesser degree so it doesn't affect them so much. Just like people can have back pain which might mean a little twinge from time to time to the other end of the spectrum like Don's. Also, as you probably know from your past dental experience, there are a myriad of causes of the condition. Most people (and doctors) just think the only cause is teeth grinding and stress, but there's so many ligaments, nerves, muscles, disc displacement etc involved that dysfunction with any of these can lead to different presentations of the condition.

I found the www.tmj.org site very informative with latest treatments (it's an American site), but still, at the end of the day, the stories on the site are similar to mine and there's no quick fixes in sight for chronic sufferers. Plus there's lots of tragic stories of failed surgery and implants that people have been allergic to and have had to have removed etc.

Enough about me; I hope you are doing ok and that the fatigue has picked up.

Lots of hugs,
Fee xo