Everywhere I look there's something to learn, a sliver of truth from every bridge we burn

Last Thursday my primary physician finally told me what no doctor in the hospital did: I have whiplash. So for those playing at home, at no point did a physician in the hospital tell me that I had a concussion, even after I asked, nor did any of them say a thing about whiplash.

My physician was quite annoyed that not one even advised me to be prepared for the signs of whiplash, as with the way I flopped around the car, he said he’d be surprised if I didn’t have whiplash.

So now I am learning exactly how frustrating & annoying whiplash can be. At any given moment, a sharp pain could shoot through my neck into my head, whether I turn my head or not. Any given morning, no matter what I do at night to prepare myself for sleep, I could wake up with a headache that both throbs and pierces from the neck into my head. I have to immobilize my neck when sitting watching television and when I am sleeping, in the hopes that it doesn’t get worse. At the end of the evening, especially after working 10 hour days in front of the computer keeping my head up, which is 99% of my job, I am so exhausted that I have little energy for anything else.

My upper back is starting to develop pains using extra muscles, or maybe it is pressure from the neck brace, or maybe that is just another fucking problem from the car accident.

And, on top of all of that, my physician doesn’t want me to use anti-inflammatory medicine, even over-the-counter stuff, because that masks pain and with neck problems, you can do more damage when the pain doesn’t tell you to stop.

Well, he didn’t’ tell me not to ever use, but he recommended that I let my body’s own defense mechanisms, pain, work to help me know when I shouldn’t use the neck muscles. I have taken this as an attempt not to use any of the OTC drugs at this point in time.

And, finally, I get to start physical therapy on Friday. For a few weeks, at least, 3 times the week I will go down to PT and they will do whatever it is that physical therapists do to create more pain. At least, that is my impression from the last time I went through PT. I had pulled a muscle in my back, and after 4 weeks of PT, I was in much more pain than I was before the PT, and that is when my physician gave me Vioxx...you know, the drug that was pulled off the market in 2004 for fears it caused heart problems with long term use. Granted, I only used it for 7 days, so no worries for me, but it gets me thinking how this one car accident could cause problems that could linger for years.

Oh, and my physician did point out that they did full body CT scans on me and I have a kidney stone and diverticulosis. If I pass a kidney stone, I’ll know it, but he doesn’t think that this is positioned to be passed. The diverticulosis will cause some minor pains & discomforts in the abdomen, but if they become infected then it develops into diverticulitis, or I got bigger problems.

Oh, and I’m not allowed to run on the treadmill. My doctor wanted me to get through PT and allow them to tell me when to start running again. I guess all that running can cause some jostling of my nck and can exacerbate the whiplash.

So things are going fucking great with me (although they ain’t too bad since the Pirates won last night!)