Chronic Pain since Accident

[lolah95]

I had a night-time head-on collision with 2 cows almost 2 years ago. Was care-flighted to a trama hospital where the dr's & nurses told me I was extremely lucky coming out of that accident with only a break in my C6 & C7 and a traumatic brain injury.
Later, I attended physical therapy for my neck until my insurance funding for this was exhausted. Another MRI indicated no problems with my brain, but shortly afterwards, 6 months after the wreck, we moved 3 hrs away. I did continue the hydrocodone for occasional headaches from the neck tension & Zoloft for anxiety & mood swings while my brain healed.
I haven't done anything else for myself since.

I'm now having pain & stiffness all over - I haven't really gone 1 day without pain since the accident and it's wearing on me. The pain & stiffness started in my neck, of couse, then it travelled down to my shoulders over the course of time. Now it's in my elbow, hands & fingers with swelling in my fingers. It is also in my hips/lower back, my knees & feet. I've been seeing a chiropractor & a therapeutic massage therapist who says my connective tissues are stiff & "stuck".
Not only that, I continue to have short-term memory problems, trouble with "finding" words I want to use in the course of a conversation & sometimes have trouble speaking (jumbling words around).

My attorney says I really need to see another neurologist for my memory problems & possibly a psychologist for my continued fears of driving at night - I haven't driven at night since the accident.

I would love to find out what is causing this & if it's curable.

[SoFla]

Yes, you need to see a neurologist to get to the root of your troubles. Make some calls and ask if they speicialize in SCI and TBI. I would be afraid to have any chiropractic adjustments to my neck under your circumstances, until the neurologist gives the okay. They are learning so much about traumatic brain injury since this darn war has left so many wounded. Sorry you are feeling so badly. Hope you get some relief soon.

[David Berg]

SoFla is dead on target. You are beyond the realm of a typical chiropractor or massage therapist. You need a neurologist with significant experience in SCI. Even if this means traveling for a bit to find someone skilled enough, it would be well worth it. Please, please see a qualified medical specialist, and consult with them about any other treatment you plan to get.

[Lee555]

You might take a look at what you resting heart rate and BP when you have times of more severe pain. The stiffness is what happened with me, and it turned out my tachycardia was causing hypoxia at the cellular level. This is due to the pain response and my adrenal gland triggering a stress hormone dump of catecholamines. My body was able to deal with it until the pain got so bad from the spasms and then I would have an episode of sweating, tachycardia, BP dropping and the most intense crushing pain all over. When this wasn't happening, I was getting stiffer and stiffer, and my pain Dr prescribed Inderal, a beta blocker, and this is what saved me. And it made a difference with only one pill. At this point, 45 days later, I am dealing only with the Occipital Neuralgia and neck muscle spasms. However, the stiffness still comes back just to the left foot when I have a really bad pain episode in the neck.