New painful update

It has been a few weeks now since I have updated this diary. The reason is I did not really see the point doing it. Symptoms have been more or less stable. Some days are better other worse. It seems clear at this point that my shoulder muscles and my neck muscles are all messed up! My neck still hurts in the back-tilted position of the head. Physio is working a little bit I suppose. At this point in time I do not see yet a steady and regular improvement over time.
This last week has been really terrible. I do not know for what reason but my neck muscles and shoulder are really sore and this prevented me from doing my usual physio exercises. It is maybe due to a short session of acupuncture I had last Tuesday. I am not sure. I do hope to post as soon as I can better news.

Strappy me

In a desperate attempt to alleviate my discomfort, my good physiotherapist decided to try out something different the last time we met. He decided to strap my left shoulder in order to ease off the stress on the shoulder muscles caused by the weakness in the neck muscles. He put strapped me and I took the strap on for more than 2 days, just to try things out.

It wasn't comfortable and a bit itchy but bearable for a couple of days. It Didn't actually do much for my shoulder pain nor made it worse though. However the first night I took it off it backfired and caused me a terrible pain in the left shoulder. It was like having continuous cramps... not nice. (by the way my shoulder hairs didn't like it either when I removed the strap).

Shoulder discomfort is now swapping regularly from right to left shoulder. It comes out normally after half a day of work and forces me to leave my chair for good. I am fine if I walk but not if I sit down for more than on hour. At home is better because I can lay down on the bed or the couch and completely take some weight off my neck and shoulders.

CT scan results

I knew I had to end up showing some intimate image of me but it is for the sake of knowledge. The picture that accompanies this post is my actual neck a month after the accident. Can you see how straight it is? It is not suppose to be like that. There should be a gentle curvature along the profile of the neck.

That straightness is due to muscular spasm. This means that there has been a damage at a muscular level and some of the neck muscles are abnormally contracted due to this damage. That explains also why I am having all these problems of back pain and shoulder pain. Back and shoulder muscles are all linked and a dysfunction in a group of muscles causes a re-arrangement of a connected group in an attempt to counter-balance the dysfunction itself. This causes abnormal contraction of muscular groups that eventually leads to pain and discomfort.

According to the report there is no evident bony damage, which is good I say.

mid term disturbancies of whiplash

Now this is getting really upsetting. I have taken my usual amount of nurofen and started the working week with the hope that I would stay relaxed and pain free for the day. well. it's not the case.

I have been sitting all morning, writing, in front of my computer and at lunch time already I have my shoulders and upper back really sore. It's a deep, i believe, muscular-related pain but it's there and it's not letting me go.

It is really affecting my life. I might be better off not focusing on it but it's impossible. This sensation starts as a discomfort and keeps building up. Now I feel it much stronger than a couple of hours ago. My neck movements are more restricted as well and I already know that I will find relief only on my bed at home. I shall try increasing the Nurofen dosage.

Thank you, Nurofen

I have been taking Nurofen, twice a day, almost every day since the accident. I have stopped it for a few days during the second week after the accident and it turned out to be a bad idea. I experienced discomfort, neck pain, heaviness of the head and even nausea in that week.

I am diligently taking it since than twice a day, again, after meals.

Doctor and CT scan

On last Wednesday I saw Dr Chris Andrews to have a second assessment of my neck and on why this pain is not settling properly after more than three weeks from the accident. He checked my reflexes and asked me to take a CT scan to rule out any possible involvement of bony tissue in the injury.

A CT (computerised tomography) scan is a special kind of X-ray. The scanner, instead of sending out a single X-ray through your body as with ordinary X-rays, sends several beams simultaneously from different angles. CT scans are far more detailed than ordinary X-rays. The information from the computer images can be reconstructed to produce three-dimensional images by some modern CT scanners. They can be used to produce virtual images that show what a surgeon would see during an operation. So, a lot of information there.

I have taken the scan the same day and the results should be already on the doctor's table. I'll book an appointment with him next week.

Sympthoms (2)

I have been to physio today for my weekly appointment and I've endured some serious neck-manipulation this time. I felt immediately relieved after the manipulation and the soreness and stiffness of the neck seemed to had vanished when I left the physiotherapy room.. but I suspect something didn't go perfectly well with the massage because when I came back to my office and started working at the computer I started feeling an unbearable sordid pain in the shoulders and back.

There was no way I could stay in my chair for more than 10 minutes without this pain underlying whatever position I was experimenting in the attempt to alleviate the discomfort.

After a couple of hours of pointless twisting about on the chair I just gave up. Printed a few scientific papers (to have something to work on) and went back home where I laid on my bed to ease off the muscular pain. And this is with Nurofen. I just do not want to imagine how it would be without it.