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At-home Deep Laser, severe prosthetic jaw pain

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Where do I even begin? I'll start by saying  that my chronic debilitating pain started out as TMJ with condibular degeneration; an osteostritic condition. The fact is that despite all the good intentions, I found myself a product of bad luck, bad genes, and bad doctors. I am in pain ALL day. This type of severe jaw pain interfers with my eating, communication, thinking and ability to live. I struggle with shooting nerve pain, white hot pain when eating or talking, a salivary gland syndrome called Frey Syndrome, Central Sensitivity, headache, immobility of my right eyebrow from lame nerve, and an undiagnosed sunlight induced salivary gland spasm and cramp like eating something VERY sour.  I learned early on, at age 13, that behaving as a mute due to pain, only got you trampled. I have always lamented that my Dad and Stepmom's commitment to my health, is the only reason I even survived.  I learned I had to "wear a mask" to disguise my pain; a sad thing to learn so young. What you see on the outside, is my greatest attempt to hide my suffering from your awareness. My big smile is usually what one will notice about me first, but that smile comes with a great cost. This mask I wear, to hide my pain, has grown very tiresome, and I am working to stop this character flaw. It's sad to decide that after so long, this is the year I lose my smile.   Fast forward 20 years, countless specialist, 8 surgeries (the last 4 done at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN), and I am left in sever pain with no end in sight. I live at a pain level of 8, and I am out of medical options at only the age of 32 (as per the Mayo Clinic). Last year I completed two surgeries; to remove my hemi-joints (partial jaw joint replacements) to take a CT scan of my empty anatomy, to then fabricate and place my prosthetic jaw joints, that were placed 3 months after.  I have found zero relief, and in fact now I have a new pain (white hot pain where my prosthetic is), in addition of new nerve pain. My Mayo Clinic doctor, Dr F, didn't seem to like the results of my surgery, he told me he had never seen a patient with "new" pain and he referred me back to my general doctor, who then told me he isn't qualified to care for me. My patient images were even archived frkm my mobile access, before even the one year mark of my last surgery.  I have exhausted every avenue, or so I thought. I finally found something that helps, Deep Laser Therapy at a place called PainFree Life Centers in Troy, MI (85 miles from my home).  I heard of it from word of mouth, a family member has found success with it, and she insisted I try it as well. During my first treatment, it felt like the laser was sewing my prosthetics in place. The second appointment, the ache was missing in my maxillary arch, from my two previous double orthognathic surgeries. By the fifth visit, I had actual change in my nerve function/ feeling. Headaches I didn't even know I had, went away.  Halfway through my treatments, I started gaining movement in my face, I haven't had function to in roughly 16 years! The laser has even shrunk the size of a cyst I have in my maxillary jaw.  Although this is all good news, I am still not able to eat without the white hot pain. I have yet to find a food worth the pain. Without regular laser treatments (4 per week), I seem to decline drastically.  I have already completed my expected 40 treatments, and I have paid for 40 more. As time goes on, we are seeing that this may need to be a life-long maintenance for me, in order to have any kind of quality of life. The owner of PainFree Life Centers has said that he would sell me one of his 40K lasers, for $25,000, in order to do life-long treatments at home.  It is really hard to ask for this, I am not one to have my hand out. All of the money from this will go directly to paying for this laser, as a part of what seems to be my ticket to life.  To anyone who donates, it means the world to me. There isn't much life outside of this pain, and I have so many more years ahead of me, I just don't want the rest of them to be this painful. Day in and day out. It never stops. I just keep chugging forward, because that's all you can really do. Thank you

Organizer

Sandra Reid
Organizer
Jackson, MI

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