Hi again Jim.

I just wanted to add something to my original reply. Your posts really struck a cord with me. You reminded me of my 8 year legal battle and I can really identify with what your going through. I can really feel the stress and prolonged suffering.

The 8 year legal battle I went through was so long, and so damaging, and so deeply wounding to me, that it completely changed my life and how I see the world. I still feel the effects of it now, even 5 years after I won my case. It was just insult to injury, over, and over, and over again. I had never before felt so unjustifiably attacked in such a callous and hyper-repetitive manner. I had been physically attacked before, but this was worse, it was institutional, endless, unjustified, and on top of that it was by the very institution that was supposed to be helping me.

What I wanted to say, was that if I had to go though it all over again, the one thing I would do differently (the only thing I could do differently) is to create boundaries, to separate the stress of the prolonged legal battle from the rest of my life. Without boundaries, the prolonged legal battle, which was so invasive, and so on going, ended up permeating every aspect of my life.

After 8 years, I ended up with post traumatic stress from the endless stress and emotional trauma that my legal battle caused. This was made worse since I was in severe physical pain the entire time I was fighting my legal battle. It also didn’t help that I was increasingly isolated due to the treatment, surgery, and worsening CRPS.

To this day, even with the knowledge that I won my case, I still cannot turn on a computer, check my mail, look at my desk, go to certain places, or do any number of other things without feeling the lingering effects of the post traumatic stress relating to my 8 year legal battle.

So my (long winded as usual) point is, if I had to do it all again, I would try to make separations between my life and the legal battle as early as possible. I would do this to try to prevent the legal battle from contaminating the rest of my life with negative associations.

If I had to do it all again, I think I would try to have a space set aside, that I only used to fight my legal battle and for nothing else, so that I did not associate all my living space with the legal battle. I think I would delay opening my related mail until I was in that legal battle space, so that I did not associate opening all mail with the legal battle. I also think I would only work on my legal battle at designated times, so that all my time is not associated with the legal battle, similar to people who work at home and separate their work time from their home time.

I did eventually do all of these things, but I did them too late and many years into my legal battle and CRPS treatment. But if I had to do it all over again, I think I would try to do these or other things as early as possible, to try to protect myself from the lingering negative association and post traumatic stress that I still suffer from today.

I sincerely hope this may have been helpful, at least the idea if not the actual suggestions. Best of luck to you and your wife, and may God Bless You.

Bernclay-