featuring: A Brazen Dork

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Whiplash Exercises

I was involved in an automobile accident about three months ago. I was stopped behind a car when I was rear-ended by some inattentive young arse who I think was yacking on his cell phone. He said he did not even apply his brakes when he hit me...the speed limit on that road was 50km/hr, so he banged into me quite hard.

When I got out of my car I was fucking furious. I took a look at his vehicle with it's front end smashed in and his windshield cracked all to hell from his airbags going off and berated him by saying, among other things, "Look at this piece of shit car your driving, you shouldn't even be on the road!". Of course it looked like that because he had just rammed into me, but being in kind of a daze from the accident I wasn't really thinking straight.

At any rate, I suffered a whiplash injury. I could still move my neck so I wasn't too concerned about it and as a result I didn't seek any treatment. Now here it is three months later and my neck is still sore.

I finally started some proper stretching exercises with a physical therapist a couple of weeks ago. The treatments also involved applying moist heat to my neck.
Theratherm small (7x15) model 1030

All of the exercises that the physical therapist advised me to do are in the helpful video below, which includes some other beneficial stretches as well. I also wrap a Theratherm digital moist heating pad around my neck a few times a day for about 25 minutes, which is quite soothing. It has a velcro strap on it to keep it securely in place.

(The heat pad wasn't cheap, the one I bought cost almost $100, but the insurance company of the person who hit me paid for it, so that was alright.)



PMG Rehab Self-Help. Chapter 3: Whiplash Exercises from Premier Medical Group Ltd on Vimeo.

Take my advice. If you have suffered an injury in a motor vehicle accident, kick the living shit out of the person who hit you right away...no that's not what I wanted to say. What i actually meant was, even if you don't feel your injury is that bad, seek medical help as soon as possible before it becomes worse. This is after all your own well being we're talking about here, so take care!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you SO much for this video. I got rear ended at a red light back in January (the guy accelerated too early before the light changed and hit me pretty hard).

Insurance only gave me 3 months of physiotherapy, which I finished, and I'm now doing massage therapy since I have some health coverage from school. But it's July and my neck still hurts. I'm scared this will hurt forever :(

dwdeclare said...

that sucks big time. my accident occurred back in december, so it's now been 7 months for me and my neck is still in pain, specifically along the cervical vertebrae.

there's a nasty crunching & cracking sound every time i turn my head. i honesty figured time would make it feel better but it really hasn't.

i took a $2000 settlement thinking that in a few months i'd be better...BIG MISTAKE!

i hope you at least received some compensation for your injuries from the person who hit you.

Anonymous said...

Yeah the infuriating part is that the guy's car wasn't even SCRATCHED but I needed a new bumper. My doctor told me that it was likely a soft tissue injury since I can still move my head fully. I also spoke to a lawyer and they usually don't deal with "minor " injuries, so not sure if I can sue, especially since I didn't really miss much school/work, but I've been in pain this whole time. Insurance hasn't given me any money yet but I'm reading that physical therapy + constant exercises are the best way to go. Hope you feel better soon too!

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