Old Whiplash Injury, Hip Arthritis, electric jolts in the neck, could these be connected?

by Whiplash Mom



I have suffered Whiplash injury twice.

Once 10 yrs ago and another just over 2 years ago.

I started with a unrelenting headache for about 4 months, did PT and finally the PT said I needed massage and chiro.

At that point I could not turn my head to the left and tipping to both sides was stiff and painful.

The chiro adjusted both what he said was C1 and my atlas(?) and although sometimes I would get some pain relief between the two, massage seemed to make the most measurable difference.

Now 2 years later I have some stiffness in my neck at further reaches when turning that way.

Right side is OK. My neck muscles that the massage therapist is working on are what he called insertion points.

They are mucles that seem to have gone hard.

Although my neck hurts I would have to crush them to get them looser.

After I go for a while and MT also does some traction the muscles soften and then I get a LOT of muscle spasm pain all over, even the front of my neck. (the big fat muscles running down to my clavicle. Also injured in the accident was my sternum which no one would touch - everyone said just leave it alone.

Now Im getting electrical zaps at the base of my neck (no pain and this is new) and sometimes down my left arms into pointer and baby finger.

Also I woke up one night with crazy itchiness on the inside of both arms only on the inside and only from armpit to elbow... I am being investigated for a hip arthritis (I'm 36) that was found on a bone scan.

I was very fit and have lost that mobility rapidly. I'm wondering if this is all connected?

Would MS or Lupus mimic these neck issues. Most of my pain (unless a nerve zap or sting which I can identify) has to be crushed with an extreme amount of pressure and pain before the area will sink into extreme soreness and then finally relaxing. No one has even mentioned my tendons in any respect to these problems.

Do you have any advice or suspicions here? - I'm to the point where I can work M-F but have no life outside that and only leave the house if I absolutely have to (single parent:)


Thank you so much for a page where people can get help from someone who really listens.



----



Joshua Answers:


Hello. You're welcome, and thank you for the kind words. I love a good physical (injury) mystery, and at the heart of it all is a great desire to help people live better lives.

It looks like you are hurting, let's see what we can do about that.

Right
off the bat it looks like you have two main things going on.

You have an old Whiplash dynamic, and it sounds like it was a significant injury.

What you have described, even up to the electric shock, but not the itchyness, is par for the course for bad/old whiplash. Nothing really surprising there.

Whiplash doesn't just heal like we would expect it to. If you don't get it taken care of the RIGHT way, it can haunt you decades later, as you are experiencing.

And it tends to get subtly worse as your body compensates.

So there's the whiplash and neck pain, and then there's the hip. Probably they're not related, certainly not directly. But you have the electric pain and itchy sensations in the arm too, which may or may not be related.

I wouldn't necessarily worry about MS or Lupus, though you definitely have some nutritional deficiency going on.

For instance, the neck spasms after massage and traction could be all or partly from Magnesium deficiency.

And/or the massage therapist isn't actually getting to the specific sites of ligament damage and helping it to heal, such that the muscles, that are tight for a reason, are forced to relax and the body then thinks it's in danger and thus spasm and pain.

Possibly you have a more significant spine injury that the body has been 'guarding' with tightness, that explains the response to relaxing muscles.

I'll say more about all that later.


Overall, I need more information. Let's investigate.


Questions:

1. Please describe both whiplash causing accidents. Just enough to give me an idea of how bad they were and what they would have looked like if I were watching a movie of them.

2. How bad is the hip. How fast did that develop? What stopped you from being active, exactly?

3. When you say you only leave the house for work, is that because of hip pain? Neck pain? Both, something else?

4. Overall health?

5. How are you energy levels?

6. How is your digestion?

7. Allergic to anything?

8. How many kids?

9. In front of a computer job? Something else?

10. History of other illness or injury?

11. Anything else I might want/need to know?



Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com
















Subscribe to The Tendonitis Expert Newsletter Today!

For TIPS, TRICKS, and up-to-date Tendonitis information you need!


Email


Name



Then



Don't worry -- your e-mail address is totally secure.

I promise to use it only to send you The Tendonitis Expert Newsletter.






























Comments for Old Whiplash Injury, Hip Arthritis, electric jolts in the neck, could these be connected?

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Aug 09, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Old whiplash injuries as well.
by: diodock

I can so relate. I suffered whiplash (auto accident) 11 years ago that was never addressed because I was 7 months pregnant and they were more concerned about my baby.

Then, almost 2 years ago, I fell skiing and hit my head. I could not move my neck for days.

I've had neck pain since my first accident but the back of my head hurts to the touch and I now have a persistent headache. I get massages, go to a chiropractor, use heat and sleep on a special pillow at night but still can't seem to get steady relief. Oddly enough, I suffer a weird itchiness on my legs after a shower but more importantly, also have itching on the inside of my arms to my elbows.

I can't tell you how good it feels to hear someone validating what I've been experiencing all this time! I am so looking forward to hearing what you think!


----


Joshua Comments:

Hi diodock.

Assuming you're talking to me, I'd be happy to tell you what I think.

But ask me some (more specific questions) to respond to, otherwise I'll just launch into a diatribe on the topic of you being left without treatment because you were pregnant.



Dec 14, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Headache 4 mos. with electric suboccipital severe jolts
by: Joe

Hello, CNMT looking for suggestions. Client headache 4 mos. Severe electrical jolts/spasms at right sub-occipital. Hospitalized 2.5 weeks on pain meds/muscle relaxers.

Then went to Mass General for 2.5 days as they detoxed him. Suffered terribly in hosp. Head thrashing to left. Dx'd "stress" and released to return to work after neg MRI, nerve conduction and other tests. Boss called wife asking if poss. nervous BD because of head movement/electrical spasms. Sent home. 1st session w/me today.

Loosened all traps and gradually loosened post cerv and scalenes. Friction all tendon atts through out cerv/cranial. Prolonged static pressure to right sub-occs w/friction. No noticeable relief.

Will work on him pro-bono 3x weekly since he cannot work. Applied hot towel. This was 1st session so didn't want to over do it. Any suggestions? Please help. No traction yet. Showed him self-care gentle stretches and how to apply static pressure and wet heat. Thank you.


----


Joshua Comments:

I replied to Joe privately, but the bulk of the conversation for the above scenario is to make sure the nutritional bases are covered.

No amount of masssage is going to help if the symptoms are causes partly/primarily by nutritional issues. Not enough magnesium means that the muscle CAN NOT operate properly.

Joe's client started having these pain and massive twitch symptoms 'out of the blue'. Meaning, no car crash or falling down the stairs.

But he'd had some bad accidents/injuries many many years earlier. That sets a person up for a variety of issues farther down the road. So while it may seem 'out of the blue', that's NEVER, never the case.

Pain etc always shows up for a reason. The body works in predictable ways. SOmetimes it's just a matter of investigating and covering the basics. That helps up gather more information so we can fine tune along the way.



Dec 17, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
update
by: Whiplash Mom

Holy cow - had no idea anyone had even responded to me when I got the updated email here.

My post was so long even #2 was too many characters.
I saved what I wrote so if you're still out there and want to know my status and how bad things are - I can send you an email and maybe you can post here as an admin?

Let me know - I have much to tell you


----


Joshua Comments:

Go ahead and use the contact form to send my your status and I'll post it here.



Click here to add your own comments

Return to Ask The Tendonitis Expert .





Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.