Question
Hello, In March of "06" I was in a fairly minor car accident where I was rear-ended at a red light, I got the all to popular diagnosis of whiplash. I had an x-ray done which revealed a minor bulging disc and a mild curvature of the cervical spine. So far I have been treated by a D.O., a "sports injury" doctor and my family practitioner. Treatments included manipulation, trigger point injections,various nsaids as well as muscle relaxers and physical therapy. I wish I could say that any of these things had worked! I have severe pain in the front of my neck(at the base),in the back of my neck,severe muscle spasms right below my shoulder blades, pain in my arms, increased migraines and a very weird pain on the surface of my thighs ( feels like they are extremely bruised and the slightest touch hurts) I am only 21 years old and the symptoms continue to worsen. Personally I think something is going un-diagnosed. I do not believe that it is just "whiplash" One more thing many people have pointed out that when i lower my head and they look at my neck my spine is straight at the beginning and then one spot is over to the right and then it goes back to straight! I can feel it out of whack myself. Any thoughts would be great...What can I ask my doctor to do? tests? mri's? I feel 90 not 21! Thanks

Answer
Hi, Nikki,

Muscle spasms, headaches, and alignment deviations point to one thing they have in common:  muscular contractions.  Whiplash injuries commonly trigger them as part of a protective reflex.

What's going on in your thighs is probably from the same accident, but not from whiplash; probably from reflexive bracing with your feet the instant after impact.  Same result:  reflexive muscular contractions and muscular soreness.

None of the methods you mentioned are particularly effective for normalizing muscular behavior, i.e., freeing contractions.

May I suggest you read some articles from somatics.com/page4b.htm, which address recovery from injuries, headaches and whiplash.

I don't think there's anything useful you can ask your doctor to do, other than to write a prescription for somatic education and get it covered by your (or the other party's) insurance medpay.  It's not a medical problem, but a conditioning problem.

Read the articles; you'll learn what I mean.

with regard,
Lawrence Gold