Hi everyone,

i've never done anything like this, but i'm so desperate that I don't know what else to do. I've been suffering with what started two months ago as severe pressure behind my eyes. Then it became this constant headache, all day and every day, as well as pain around my temples, cheeks, and around my eyes (like the eye sockets I guess). After about a month or so it progressed to what felt like a lot of pressure around the bridge of my nose, so I thought maybe all of this was my sinuses acting up. Sleeping was a nightmare, especially when I lay flat and didn't prop my head up (and that barely helped). I've always had a history of nasal allergies (i.E. Cats, dust), but the weird thing was that I never felt like I had a cold or post-nasal drip or anything like that - one day, my eyes just randomely started feeling really weird. More recently, I thought my ears were starting to bother me, and I thought maybe it was that if I had an infection somewhere in my respiratory system, that it had spread to my ears and that I was just getting worse. But just today I realized that actually I think that that pain is stemming from right in front of my ears (where that jaw joint is I guess). I had noticed some discomfort in my jaw area earlier, but I thought it was unrelated, or else maybe just part of the stress associated with this constant discomfort. When I try to read, or frankly do anything that forces me to strain my eyes too much, it's is so unbearably uncomfortable and almost painful that it makes me nauseous. I've also noticed that my eyes have become more sensitive to light.

So far, i've been to an eye doctor, a neorologist, several internists, several "naturalists" (one put me on a strict food diet vitamins), and two ent doctors. The eye doctor said there was nothing wrong with my eyes, the neurologist said there was nothing wrong with my nervous system. Most of the doctors so far have sort of guessed that my sinuses are the problem, but none of them seemed all that confident about it. My ct scan showed a little build up of fluid in my sinus behind my left cheek, and for a little bit I felt a little more of the headache on the left side of my face (esp my left eye), but the other side of my face still felt far from great and so i'm still not really convinced about a sinusitis diagnosis (at least not only that). The treatments i've been given for sinusitis include amoxicillin, prednisone, claritin benadryl 9 ibuprofen/day sudanyl, and now moxifloxacin (aka avelox). The moxifloxacin helped with the pain around the bridge of my nose, but the constant headache and eye pressure is literally driving me crazy, and nothing helps. It even bothers me when I try to just close my eyes and/or sleep.

Today I went to the second ent doctor, and although he informed that I have a deviated septum, he said my sinuses didn't look inflamed and that he really doesn't think that's the source of the problem. He was the one who suggested that what I might have is tmj. This was the first time I had ever heard of the disorder, so I know very little about it.

If anyone who reads this has any information - if you have had/are suffering with the same thing, you think tmj might finally be the right diagnosis - please please please let me know!!!

I'm desperately hoping I don't have to drop out of school this semester because of this...

Thanks,
vickie