Question
Sometime back in late May 2003, my family and I were on our way back home from visiting family in Chicago and while I was listening to music I was rocking back and forth and we hit a bump in the road and when we hit the road bump the force of it was enough to throw my torso area forward and afterwards the middle part of my spine hurt just slightly and because it only hurt a little bit I didn't say anything and the pain eventually went away. But on and off for the past five months(February 2013-present)I've started feeling slight to moderate pain in the middle of my spine. When I feel the pain, it feels like a combination of a stinging pain, a stabbing pain, and a tingling sensation in the middle of my spine. Whenever I do feel the back pain it causes me to worry that I'll becomed paralyzed and unable to walk again. So my question is; 1)Did I possibly injure the middle of my spine when my torso area jerked forward from hitting the road bump? 2)If the pain continues, will I, in fact, become paralyzed? 3)Does it sound like maybe this cracked a vertebrae or slipped a spinal disc?

Answer
Hi, David,

An event like that is much too mild to cause damage.

Your back was tight before that and the event was sufficient to trigger a spasm and that's what you're feeling.

Please see the article:
http://somatics.com/wordpress/chronic-back-pain/

All you need is to get control of your back muscles to be able to relax them.

You may start with this somatic education exercise:
http://somatics.com/video_pages/12-Minute_Back_Care_video.htm