I recently had someone hit my car on the driver’s passenger door while I was driving. My car spun left and I had my body whipped towards the left. I got out of the car with a sore left neck and the entire left side of my body started to throb that night of the accident. Thankfully, I always wear a seat belt and I felt very lucky that I was not hit directly on my driver’s door and was able to walk away from the accident. So what does a”healer” do when she gets injured? After filing the police and auto insurance reports, I went to my nearby urgent care center to get x-rays of my neck and back to rule out any bone fractures. As I was sitting and waiting for my results, I began to do manual lymphatic massage to open the drainage sites and reduce the swelling for the back and front of my neck, my upper shoulders, and where my seat belt held me. I worked on releasing tight muscles by lightly massaging and using a few pressure points to bring my body back in to alignment. I did energy work above my muscles to relieve blocked energy congestion that can cause pain and discomfort.
When I got home, I immediately applied ice to all the sore areas. My circle of friends, who are also in the healing professions of personal training, acupuncture and various massage therapists suggested I take the spice “tumeric” as an anti-inflammatory and I applied arnica gel for my bruises. I also found “biofreeze” which is a menthol based roll on gel helped numb my sore muscles. I also took Vitamin C and electrolytes to deal with the shock and trauma of the accident. I really wanted to soak in a hot epsom salt bath, but I knew no heat for the first 72 hours after an muscle injury.
I noticed that I had a slight headache, but I did not hit my head. Some of the headache, I attributed to stress, but I noticed I was not thinking as clearly. When a person is whipped around with a sharp impact, the body and brain get jostled. Imagine your soft brain bouncing around in a tight hard skull! Your muscle memory in your myofascial tissues remembers being thrown in a certain direction. I called for an appointment for a “craniosacral therapist” to settle the rhythm of the fluid around my brain and my swollen tissues. As my therapist lightly held my left shoulder and head, I felt my body “unwinding” and settling down. I left feeling calm and in less pain.
Every morning for the last week, I felt a new muscle area tighten and feel sore. I have whiplash of my neck and upper shoulders, and of my left side of my back. Some of my pain was more severe. As an “energy kinesiologist”, I tested for “reactive muscles” patterns. I suspect these patterns when you have a constant pain that lasts. This is where one muscle bullies a related set of other muscles that occurs when you have a traumatic impact. The brain thinks and sets up a new brain pathway of pain with a certain set of muscles. My painful left upper trapezius (neck and upper shoulder) when activated, affected and caused pain to my left side, my low back, my lats, and my psoas muscle . When I identified what muscles were affected, I corrected and unhooked them energetically and the persistent pain decreased. The underlying emotion I had was feeling “anger” about being broad sided by an impatient driver!
I also sought chiropractic care to have my neck, spine and hips aligned. My chiropractor took a picture of me to show me my head was stuck towards the left. I began chiropractic care the day after the accident. He used electric stimulation of my upper neck muscles, cold laser to help heal the sore muscles of my neck, and lightly used a spring loaded applicator to move my vertebrae back in to alignment. With all the guarding of my tight neck and back muscles, not much moved. It took several days to calm down the swollen and traumatized muscles.
I had an acupuncture treatment of my neck and upper back to relieve pressure and to move the “chi” away from the neck. I had massage to release the tight upper head and neck muscles. When the muscles released, I felt less pressure on the base of my skull and spine. I actually felt my spine realign and I felt my head to begin to move back in to its original midline direction!
On the mental, emotional and spiritual levels, I knew I needed to heal, relax and not work or lift anything. As a massage therapist, I could not lean forward due to the whiplash. I could not even push down on a stapler without pain. My feelings of “why did this happen to me?”, the anger of being hit by an impatient person who hit my car, and my fear of not being able to work just flooded my emotions. The stress of dealing with the political requirements of my auto insurance getting forms filled out so I can receive my medical benefits just added stress to the whole emotional turmoil. Even making the decision to buy or lease a car was too overwhelming a decision. I knew that I had to process my feelings, have a good cry to release the pent up feelings, and I knew I had to balance my emotions using some of my kinesiology techniques. The bottom line is to be kind to yourself, be patient, ask help from your friends and colleagues and JUST TAKE THE TIME TO HEAL! THIS TOO SHALL PASS!