Question
i'm a 20 yr old female 18 at the time of the accident my birthday is 5/31  In April of 2007 i was in a car accident where i was rearended. i was stopped at a red light. it was raining lightly that day. i had my head turned to the right talking to my sister. i was completely stopped and i saw hands flailing around and i knew he wasn't stopping and i said oh..my..God. BAM! my neck hurt immediately after i stopped shaking. following bussiness day i went to my family dr and had an xray done. which showed that i had severe whiplash that acutally "reversed the curve of my neck" this was in april of 07. i have been thru 3 different sets of physical therepy. ive seen 2 nuro surgens and 2 nurologists. just this month october of 08. i finally got mad and called everywhere i'd been and got copies of all my medical records i could get my hands on and put them all in a binder. i've been thru 4 mri's and this is what they say. Cervical spine. protruding discs at c4-c5, c5-c6, and c6-c7. with no significant compression. i also have one that said i have a protruding disc at L4-L5 of my lumbar spine. this is what my current physical therepist/Chiropractor told me. this is the first time i've ever been told i have a protruding disc in my lower back and i was also under the impression i only have 1 protruding disc in my neck not 3. all this guy wants to do is adjustments for at least 2 years and thinks this is the "only possible" way to cure something that has been left alone for almost 2 years. i don't know what i should or shouldn't be doing. i don't know what to do next. i never rested the way i've read i should have. i jumped right into physical therepy for 2 weeks and couldn't tolarate it. all they do is give me a different muscle relaxer and send me on my way. the daily symptoms i try to cope with i have constant headaches with raidiating pain in my ears and eyes and face. it hurts my entire neck to look down or to either side. my right shoulder hurt to the touch all the way from my shoulder blade to my collar bone around my chest. my lower back i feel stiff and like its not right to stand back up after bending or kneeling. my arms and legs are extremely weak and somedays i can't even wipe water out of a sink or stir a small pot. i get a very weird pins and needles feeling in both of my legs sometimes while im standing and i feel like i HAVE to move them it doesn't feel very good. and when i sit cross legged for a lil while and i go to unfold my legs and stand i don't feel very strong at all and my legs just cramp up. i can't walk for very long or stand still and sitting is quite uncomfortable. when i sleep my right arm and foot fall dead asleep. sometimes  my right pinky toe just turns a deadly color blue. even when i'm standing. both my feet turn blue when i sit. they fall sleep easily. i even fell on both my knees one day b/c my feet just went to sleep while trying to walk. and sometimes the fingers on my right hand (different fingers different times no matter if i'm sitting still or using them) just go numb. my fingers are very very very cold and white most of the time and half of all my fingers of both my hands turn blue sometimes. i have muscles spasems in different parts of my body mostly my left arm and my right foot. and just before i fall asleep or when im trying to relax my whole body tenses up and jumps. it hurts too and afterwards i take a deep breath and can actually feel my muscles trying to relax. i think that's all my symptoms. but i know something isn't right b/c from 2004-2006 i worked at a restarant from open to close on my feet all day non stop moving with not even a muscle ache or a headache. i was on my feet in school no problem standing for an hour a day in choir or running my butt off in physical education class. i enjoyed dancing. you couldn't get me off my bike or a swing. now i can't do it anymore. i would out run my father before this accident. THAT is how i KNOW this is ALL from the accident. please tell me what i should do next. please. please. help.

Answer
Hi, Ashley,

You've told me the answer to your question:  

You have a lot of muscles in contraction in your neck and upper torso from the shock of the accident.  You're experiencing, in those contractions, the protective postural reflex that saved your neck -- and that also reversed the curve of your neck and caused discs to bulge.

Unfortunately, those postural reflexes are also keeping those muscles tight, producing all the symptoms you're describing through nerve impingements, mainly, it appears.

Fortunately, postural reflexes and muscular contractions can be retrained, and that's the approach I advocate.

If you're like most of my clients, improvements can come in a few sessions, with major reductions in symptoms.  If you were my client, I would be confident of rapid improvement.

The method I practice is called, Hanna Somatic Education.  I invite you to read the article on whiplash injuries at somatics.com/page4.htm.  Then, locate a practitioner at hannasomatics.com/practitioners.  If no practitioner is available, slower-acting self-help programs are available; I don't expect you would get complete resolution from self-help, but I would expect improvement.

I practice in Santa Fe, NM and in Farmington, CT, with occasional visits to Eugene, OR.

best,
Lawrence Gold