Dave Miller spent 14 years being told by doctors they didn't know what was wrong with him. Phone calls and medical appointments sent him around in circles. But a paper trail was building.
Miller's entire working life involved using manual machinery, equipment that was loud, heavy and vibrated.
His symptoms were slow and not obvious at first. Weakening grip strength, tennis elbow, hand injuries and his fingers would go white in cold weather.
They got worse — Miller struggled to grip even light, small objects, and couldn't feel hot or cold temperatures with his hands. He was eventually diagnosed hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS).
The symptoms feel like when you hit your funny bone, he explained to RNZ's Nine to Noon
"You get that sensation of tingling and aching in your periphery, well, I have that constantly now. That is in both arms, and it's constant, it goes away slightly, but it's always present."
In his work first in the navy, then as an aluminium joiner and finally as qualified builder, Miller was always on the tools, he says.
"You'd notice you'd go to work, you'd pick up your tools, your hands are white, you overcompensate and grip things tightly to hold on to things.
"And you'd go home, you'd think nothing of it, and then you'd be awake at night, in the middle of the night when your hands start tingling to the point where you're having to rub them, you think it's your circulation, that type of thing. But it just slowly got worse and worse."
Early on, when symptoms started to appear, he was diagnosed with some "slight nerve conductivity" problems, he says. But, at work, tools were falling out of his grip and he was picking up injuries.
"You just don't think anything of it because you don't know what it is at the time, and you just carry on working."
In 2015 Miller was diagnosed with fibromyalgia – not covered under ACC. But as he continued to consult with doctors for various injuries and had surgeries for problems like carpal tunnel syndrome, a medical paper trail was building.
"But [I] had nobody to actually put the jigsaw together," says Miller, now based in Tauranga.
Until eventually, Miller's wife Jax, found an occupational medicine specialist called David McBride in Otago via LinkedIn.
"He was absolutely amazing. He wrote the most amazing report, pretty much said that it was one of the worst cases he had ever seen. And it was fairly obvious to ACC after that."
ACC then agreed to cover 80% of Miller’s income.
His advice to other tradies is see a GP as soon as any symptoms or injuries crop up, and build a medical history.
"And a lot of us guys – builders, tradies – we take that cup of concrete and say, she'll be right.
"And you might be right at the time but, 10 years later, when the symptom comes, you've got nothing on record."
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