Whiplash

Anyone got tips and home remedies to help speed up recovery of whiplash? I can’t sleep as the side I tend to sleep on is my affected side, I can’t lift anything without my shoulder giving me grief,I even struggle to hang the laundry on the line 😢

Reply 1

Muttly

I presume you have already sought professional medical advice and are in the painful recovery process? Do make use of pain relief if you need it. If you struggle with the pain go back to your Gp and get some better pain relief, and you might need this before you undergo any physiotherapy.

The only good thing I found was a bean bag shaped like a travel pillow. You put it in the microwave and heat it up and lay it around the base of your neck and over your shoulders. The weight of the bean bag helps all of your shoulder muscles to relax and in turn helps with pain reduction. The weight either side of your neck gets your shoulders down and relaxed away from your ears. You can buy these neck bean bags from a physiotherapist.

If you are just sitting get someone to stand behind you and put one fist either side of your neck and on your shoulders, keeping a gentle but constant pressure over the top of your shoulders. Eventually your shoulder muscles will 'submit' by relaxing to the the natural weight of the hands.

I also found a deep massage by physiotherapist very helpful at freeing up the muscle spasm.

Sadly there is no quick fix. Keep a diary of what you can and can't do on a daily basis. You might need this diary later down the line.

The tiny ligaments all around your neck vertebrae have all been stretched. When you sleep they get 'stuck' and it is only when you get up and start moving they free up again. Bizarrely you might find your pain increases as the day goes on. This can be caused by muscle spasms from all the muscles around your neck and shoulders. But keep reminding yourself you were one of the lucky ones. You can still walk and are not confined to a hospital bed living the rest of your life with a spinal cord injury.

Keep moving, and keep using your neck. Sadly it is the 5kg bowling ball on top of your neck that causes all the problems. Be ready for the long haul as well, sometimes neck injuries are a troublesome thing to get rid of. The soft tissue symptoms will ease in time but it can take 12 to 18 months to get better fully. In the initial stages of your injury everything is new, and different and you expend a lot of energy fighting pain, and also of realising the inconvenience of everything you can't do. Suddenly you have 'lost out' on so much in life because you physically can't do things, and are totally fed up with the continual pain, coupled with the everyday restrictions, and lack of sleep. Sometimes people get an episode of deep depression around the six months time after the injury. It is like a dark cloud just to add to the insult but it will go eventually. If you don't get any depression that too is very good.

Do positive things. If you were injured in a crash take independent legal advice from one of the specialist injury solicitors - look at those working with fatal collisions. The specialist solicitors do the serious injury work regularly and know what they can achieve for their clients (and more) It doesn't matter that yours is not a 'serious' injury you are injured and that is all that matters. This specialist advice can help you access so much more private medical support (physio's, hydro, consultants etc) if the circumstances of your injury permit that. I would not use generic 'TV' no win no fee solicitors nor any provided by your own insurance company. Any solicitor will offer you half an hour free consultation so make the most of that offer. You want someone who fights every last corner to get the best support for you and not a firm which is working to minimise its payouts in partnership with any another financial or legal service.

I hope you can begin to feel better soon. One day you will suddenly realise it doesn't hurt and that is a most wonderful moment. You will get to that point eventually but it is an 'interesting' life impacting journey and not one for the faint hearted.

Whiplash

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you