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Sarah Jacoba
USA
81 Posts |
 Posted - 11/01/2006 : 23:42:15
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Hi all!
I havent posted much for a long time because I've been doing much better. Most of my UBT as I call it ("upper body tension") which was my main problem for years has been mostly gone for several years. HOWEVER, just as things were looking good and staying good, I was in a car accident. So here I am again, looking for some feedback and advice.
I was stopped when rearended in my Accord by a van going somewhere between 15 and 30 mph (i'm guessing, I dont really know). He was just beginning to brake but hit me and pushed me into the minivan in front of me. It totaled the car but I didnt hit my head or anything. I felt fine at first but then had a burning sensation in my neck within ten minutes and was taken to the hospital. The Xrays checked out fine. I was stiff and sore for about 36 hours (went to work the next day and could function without painkillers fine). Then I felt fine, totally, for the next 5 days.
I felt twisted and painful days 6-8, then fine again basically for another week. Then I had a gig where I moved a lot of equipment fast (I'm a musician) and felt painful again after that. I'm now about a month out and I've had my worst 10 days since it happened, hands down. I helped my parents move and that seemed to precipitate this bout. I have some vertigo issues, stiffness and headaches. I'm feeling like I cant do any physical stuff (moving things around, yardwork) without precipitating headaches. I havent yet done anything PT or therapy, though my regular doctor prescribed PT, because I'm so suspicious of PT based on past negative experiences when I was battling fibromyalgia type symptoms.
While physical stuff precipitated or correlated with much of these bouts of pain, my first bout a week after the accident was not. It was correlated only with stress over buying a new car.
Needless to say, everyone and their dog has something negative to say about car accident recovery, including my favorite, from a piano teacher at my school: she knew someone who was fine then their teeth cracked six months later. (!)
Anyway, lots of nocebos about whiplash being thrown my way. The worst element about it is the validation of delayed pain response. In other words, my initial instinct about injury is that it should have hurt the most the first week and the fact that it didnt, makes me wonder. (at the accident scene, I told myself "this isnt going to be a new TMS problem", and for the first five days, it seemed to work!). But everyone says that the delay makes sense or is to be expected (versus immediate pain). Internet searches corroborate this too. (though surprisingly most non-TMS sites discussing whiplash do promise recovery within a few months for most cases).
What do you all think? Any personal experiences?
I say a post where someone said Sarno doesnt credit whiplash. In what book is this? just wondering.
--Sarah Hyacinth Jacoba
"When dream and day unite" |
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Wavy Soul
USA
779 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2006 : 01:27:00
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I don't know about car accidents, but I am Sarno-ing the intense pain from 8 hours of dentistry which felt a bit like a car accident.
If you read the thread below about teeth, you'll see that I'm attributing lots of "real" problems, like having had several root canals all at once, to TMS and someone else comes along and says the same thing from their experience.
Just mentioning this as an example where it's even TMS when you have a GREAT excuse for suffering.
xxx
Love is the answer, whatever the question |
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2006 : 09:14:47
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| Don't read stuff like that. Whiplash doesn't exist. |
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Stryder
686 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2006 : 09:56:19
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Motor vehicle encounters like the one you had are especially hard on TMSers since we tend to obsess about all the details, and replay them, over and over again. Even if you are not injured in the crash there is a post-incident psychological "crash" that can happen many days later as you deal with the stress of it all.
If I were you I would make up my mind to consciously stop "playing the movie" over and over. And as Dave says you just have to ignore any physical manifestations. Look, you've been checked out by a doc post-accident, and you are ok. Rejoice in that fact.
Take a couple days off from work and do something you really enjoy !
Take care, -Stryder |
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carbar
USA
227 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2006 : 21:08:15
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Actually, Sarno's point about the TMS nature of whiplash was one of the things that most convinced me that TMS makes sense.
In The Mindbody Perscription, he describes the phenomenon on page 91-92:
quote:
Physical incidents, like the hit-from-behind accident, a slip or a fall, doing physical work, engaging in a sport, and repetitive work motions are used by the brain as excuses to start up TMS. They are triggers, not causes, and must be indentified as such. We have incredible healing mechanisms that have evolved over millions of years. No matter how severe, injuries heal. Continuing pain is always the signal that TMS has begun. Consider that a fracture of the largest bone in the body, the femur, takes only six weeks to heal and will be stronger at the facture site than it was before the break."
Noting a study in Europe:"...the reporter noted that whiplash was unheard of in Lithuania, while in Norway it was of epidemic proportions.
Good luck in recovering and putting this all in order in your brain!!! You are healthy and strong and knowledgeable about TMS!
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armchairlinguist
USA
1397 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2006 : 10:58:32
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I agree very much with Stryder that accidents are hard things to deal with for TMSers. I fell off my bike two weeks ago, and I got checked out afterwards and my chin stitched up and elbow band-aided -- those were the only visible injuries I had. They checked for any signs of head injury but there weren't any (I was wearing a helmet). But my wrists hurt mildly for a few days, and my right ribs hurt quite badly the first day and still a little the second day, whenever I would breathe deeply. I wondered if I'd broken or bruised a rib, or sprained my wrists. I was constantly monitoring the pain. The day after the accident, after work I came home and I was just exhausted. My boyfriend listened to me talk about the accident and how upsetting it was, and then let me rest and nap while he fixed dinner. The next day I didn't feel like doing anything. I just really needed the rest, even though I'd been able to work the afternoon of the accident and the day after. Luckily nothing came of these other "injuries". I was just sore from the aftermath. But I can see how easily obsessing might have turned them into triggers had I not tried to head it off.
Then two days ago I was in a situation similar to the one that caused my accident. It was fine because it was at low speed and my brakes are working (a brake failure caused the original accident). But I immediately felt extremely scared and ended up crying and feeling like I was reliving the accident.
All this is just to say that accidents are traumatic events for our emotions and for our physical bodies. If I were experiencing symptoms now, I'd be inclined to attribute them to the trauma, that might not be getting fully processed because of its overwhelming nature. And that may be where you are.
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Wherever you go, there you are. |
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car accident
