In January, I reported to the readers that I was celebrating fifteen
years without device failure of my Techmedica-made artificial jaw joints
(TMJs).  It's a bittersweet celebration at best.

And along comes March ... and I don't celebrate, I don't forget and I do
remember at this time each year that it took one terrible day to alter
the course of my life forever.  Twenty-four (24) years ago, ... at this
time, 24 years ago I had no idea that I was living the last couple of
weeks of my life as I knew life.  What was ahead of me was nothing I
could have predicted let alone imagined.

I'm not complaining really.  I'm just commenting.  

No one knows what the future will bring, of course.  And life *is* what
you make of it.  Yes, I was dealt a bad hand... it was a raw deal.  It
was everything negative I can think of except that I survived what
should surely have killed me.  So what is it that they say about that?  
I learned *how* to survive.  I didn't just survive.

Orthognathic surgery to prevent the future development of jaw joint
destruction and "terrible pain" for the rest of life, in an asymptomatic
patient (without any desire for the surgery), seemed like a good idea to
the dentist and surgeon.  It seemed drastic to the patient but the
patient was, over time, given every reason to believe that the doctors
knew better than she ... and so the patient agreed to the surgery.

The surgeon may have gotten in and out of the surgery without the
patient ever knowing *if* the surgery actually prevented the predicted
furture; because if the joints never became problematic, who could say
why that was the result?  No one could say.  *But* that isn't what
happened.  The surgeon got into all sorts of *trouble* during the
procedure, caused the patient tremendous surgical injuries... and never
intended for the patient to find out what happened in that operating
room 24 years ago.  

He was going to prevent "TMJ".  He caused "TMJ" but denied there was
anything wrong with my TMJs after his surgery.  But in his "letter" to
my insurance company which I never saw it until months after the surgery
because back then, it wasn't something provided to the patient ... too
bad too.  Had I seen it, there would *never* have been any surgery
because I would have seen his lies beginning right there on paper.  He
told Blue Shield that I had a history of TMJ pain and dysfunction ...
nothing could have been further from the truth ... and of course, he
knew it.  Back in the early 1980's, TMJ pain and dysfunction was called
"TMJ".  

The catch 22 of it all.  Did I or didn't I have "TMJ"?  I had two
healthy TMJs before the orthognathic surgery.  Nine years later, the
completely mutilated and multiply operated TMJs were amputated and for a
few hours, I didn't have any TMJs.  And at the conclusion of surgery,
more than twelve hours later, I had two prosthetic TMJs.

So, do I have "TMJ"?  

Remembering where The Webby came from,

Webby
(not proof read because I don't want to read it ... pardon any obvious
typos)