I had a person in recently who was very upset after a car accident ten days previously. She could not maintain eye contact while speaking and looked stressed and tired. She described pain spreading over her head and behind her eyes as she waited (shock horror) to be seen in hospital. Headaches started to come on, the pain spread down her shoulders and pins and needles began in her hands. She then told me it was just like the other times.
Car Accidents
It turns out she had, one more minor a reversing accident and a second, a similar rear end type collision. All three times she had no thorough examination in hospital, no scans and sent home with painkillers and ‘rest’. Argh.
Headaches
By the time this person saw me she said headaches were much worse and feeling in hands almost gone. The pain was from her upper posterior thorax to the neck and across her shoulders. She had also developed low back pain. I used my trusty chart to map it our for her to visualize and agree and scored the pain, which I don’t always do. She told me it was constant; she wasn’t sleeping and was very distressed. She also kept alluding to the poor treatment in the hospital. I underlined this. She also said she was anxious as it was going to ‘be like before’. She said everything was worsening since this accident and was understandably focused on the negative. She also, like many, was not referred by the doctors but because her insurance company said it was available and I was on the list.
Back Pain
She said last time she was off work for 3 months; she saw a doctor who said it would take at least 6 and to go back to work after another month. She said she listened to the advice, it wasn’t better and that once very ten days she would have to take a day or two off work and after a year was working without headaches. The person told me she spent a ‘small fortune’ on a chiropractor that didn’t help. The chiropractor told her ‘The accident has put you neck, back and pelvis out of line’. She said it felt good after but the session kept getting shorter but the cost didn’t reduce. She told her there was always more work to be done so she kept going. She was advised by the chiropractor to stop walking and was afraid to be on her feet for more than thirty minutes.