Questions about whiplash (car accident this morning)

Factual Questions
1

Around 7:45 this morning (five hours ago) I was rear-ended by two eighteen-year-olds going, at my best estimate, about 35-40 km/h. Luckily, my Pontiac Grand Prix, which could pass for a Boeing 747 in poor visibility, absorbed most of the impact; however, my head did snap forward pretty severely and I probably was only a couple of inches away from smacking my forehead pretty forcefully against my steering wheel.

Right now, my neck is feeling pretty tense, and I can see it being problematic having to sit at a computer monitor all afternoon. Is this whiplash? How should someone suffering from whiplash be feeling five hours afterwards? Should I be at a doctor’s office right now?

(If it matters, I took an Advil for a headache right before leaving this morning.)

2

By all means you are describing a classic whiplash incident. Your neck will feel progressively tighter, warmer and stiffer as the day goes on, and will worsen over time if neglected. I recommend getting yourself immediately to a chiropractic physician for a complete evaluation. Do this without any further delay. The sooner you begin treatment, the sooner you can be out of pain and on your way to healing.

Doctors of chiropractic are physicians skilled specifically in dealing with this type of injury, they do it every day, and their experience is to your benefit. By choice, they prescribe no drugs and do no surgery; their painless manipulative skills are generally second to none and are recognized by the medical community as being most effective in just this type of case and low back pain. If you don’t have one already, ask around among your friends to find out whom they trust. During your examination, the doctor may detect things for which he may refer you to another type of physician, such as a neurologist. Though you may certainly use Advil or whatever to reduce inflammation also, beware of any advice to rely solely on drugs or heating pads, as these band-aids do not address the root cause of the symptoms and may make the condition worse.

The damage to the delicate posterior joints of the neck is done by the hyperflexion/hyperextension of the neck during the incident itself AND by the subsequent inflammation of the torn joint capsule fibers and ligaments. The more time goes by, the more inflammation is allowed to progress, and the more fibrotic scar tissue will develop in the area, setting the stage for (a) microadhesions of the contractile scar fibers to nearby nerve fibers, tugging on them and causing chronic pain indefinitely and (b) susceptibility to re-injury at substantially lower forces than would have normally been the case. Expect to see on x-ray some loss of the normal lordotic (forward) curvature of the cervical spine. This is usually permanent, unfortunately. However, with the doctor’s manipulations and other treatment modalities, any pain and joint dysfunction can be kept to a minimum, giving you the optimal chance at recovery.

Above all, do not discuss this occurrence with any insurance company employees until you have had a chance to discuss it with your own legal counsel to protect your rights. But first and foremost is your health, so get to a chiropractor pronto. I’ve had a several of these rear-end collisions myself, and they are no fun. Without my chiro I would be unable to work or function in daily life. Follow the treatment plan faithfully, and you will be glad.

P.S. ICE ONLY, no heat, for at least 48 hours!! And then only MOIST HEAT if you use heat. No heating pads, please. Begin a daily journal in which you record what happened and details of how you feel each day. This will help your team of professionals to help you. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

3

whoosh…

Usually cervical strain (love that term) will get really sore about 24 hours after the accident, but 5 hours is not unheard of. The pain will be bearable but quite uncomfortable along the sides and toward the front of the neck (because on impact your head actually snaps backward with more force than when it moves forward after bouncing off your headrest/getting rubber-banded forward by over tensed ligaments in the front of your neck). A killer headache is probably in the mail as well. You should probably visit your/a doctor at your earliest convenience just to get the lowdown on what to expect and to rule out more severe injury (broke neck). There’s usually not a whole lot a doctor can do except put you on the drug train to treat the discomfort. Don’t worry about insurance at this point, just make sure your health is protected–it doesn’t matter who’s right or wrong or who’s gona pay when it’s YOUR neck.

Keep some notes about how you are feeling and at what time–these may prove interesting should you chose to discuss your injuries with the other driver’s insurance company.

Chiro-man is typically your hero, but don’t let ANYONE grab your neck before they x-ray it!

Hope ya feel better soon.

4

X-ray first, pick a doc later. I prefer an orthopedist to a chiro, but YMMV of course.

A timeline is a must, including pain severity on a 1-10 scale during your “normal” activities as well as at rest. Document whenever the pain prevents you from your normal activities, this is very important.

Good luck.

5

Get an x-ray just to make sure the spine wasn’t damaged.

I would definitely see some sort of doc, especially for painkillers. You don’t have to right away but it’s safer and you can get drugs. (I did but that’s because I got taken to the hospital just to be safe.) I was sore about 5 hours afterward but it really didn’t get bad until I woke up the next day. (I felt like i had been beat up.) The sides of your neck are going to hurt the most. It’s going to be stiff and sitting up (anything involving using neck muscles acutally) is going to be painful. After my ER visit, I was told to go to the doctor if I’m still in the same amount of pain or worse 3 days after it happened.

Sitting at a computer monitor is not going to help things unless you have a proper posture, keyboard tray, and a really good chair with lumbar support. Trust me, it makes a difference.

Muscle relaxers are your friends. Flexeril is good. They gave me the 800mg ibuprofen but after the first day it wasn’t working so I got some lovely Percosets that took all the pain away and I could actually sit up for short periods of time without crying. A heating pad was also a good thing. The hospital, my doctor, and my physical therapist all told me to heat it.

I ended up in physical therapy to help my neck get better and missed 3 weeks of work. I spent most of that time flat on my back due to neck muscle pain. Some people get better quickly, some don’t.

Document everything. Keep a journal. Note how bad you feel and how you can’t do this because of what happened. This may be helpful in the future if you decide on a civil suit. Do not mention injury to the insurance people. Not even on the car papers (even though it says it’s a release and will in no way affect any other suit). Consult an attorney if you wish.

I got rear-ended by an independent cab going about 40-45mph in rush hour traffic. I had been slowing down for at least 10 sec and was going 10-15mph. My whiplash seems similar to yours- snap forward and back. Mine was made worse because I watched the guy hit me through my rearview mirror so I tensed up- NOT what you should do. You’re supposed to go limp.

My car (Ford Taurus with mega trunk space) was declared a total loss. I got hit hard, hard enough that my gas valve did its automatic shut off thing so I couldn’t start the car back up to move it out of the way. The driver (who also had a passenger) is so toast.

But best wishes for a speedy recovery. It’s gonna suck for a while though.

6

Well, it turns out I have Type 2 whiplash (pain and stiffness accompanied with limited movement), which isn’t too serious but will probably mean that I won’t be all sunny and cheerful when I wake up tomorrow morning. Thanks, everyone, for the advice.

I’m also very grateful for the extensive benefits that come with my provincial insurance right now. Should I need physio it’ll all be taken care of.

7

This is an excellent illustrative example of why one should NOT simply rely on muscle relaxers, painkillers and heating pads. They are merely band-aids which do little to move toward a successful resolution of the real root problem. You would most likely have missed little or no work lying flat on your back with neck muscle pain had you been getting the proper adjustments to the joints which are warranted in these cases. The manipulative therapy keeps the joints moving, interrupting the positive feedback loop of muscle spasm, sending continuous messages through the spinal cord to the brain that that this muscle splinting is not necessary. Lying on one’s back for extended periods does little or nothing to heal injured spines–even most medical doctors no longer give this outdated advice.

Heating pads are not good because they supply dry heat, which tends to dehydrate the tissues and make the
condition worse.

Flexeril is your friend only if you can function while rubberized. Many patients experience significant somnolence and grogginess that makes regular tasks next to impossible. Still, any pharmaceutical agents you wish to ingest with the advice of your physician are fine to promote your comfort while you pursue your manipulative therapy regimen to actually fix the problem. Remember, time is not on your side.

The first thing your chiropractor will do will be to take a series of x-rays to determine if any osseous damage to the spine has occurred. Though no soft tissue will be visible on plain films, muscle spasm will be indicated by the loss of the cervical lordosis (forward curve).

I hope you have gotten the process started by now. Every day of delay equates to many future days of pain and stiffness beyond what you would need to suffer.

Get well soon

8

Were the teens charged?