I am a 41 year old female in nc. I was involved in a car accident and was rear ended while I was sitting still at a stop light. When i first went to the doctor the next morning my left hand and arm was actually numb, and i could not move my neck or lift my arm. I had my left hand on top of the steering wheel and was turned talking to my son. I have a knot next to my neck that actually makes my collor bone hurt when it swells. I also have a knot in my shoulder and i have pain that goes down my arm when i use it alot and i have spasms in that arm and shoulder. I also get sudden head ackes. I have been put on muscle relaxers, pain pills, epilepsy medication, and was recently told by my doctor and a chiropracter that it is permanent damage. Its been seven months since my wreck. Can anything be done to help this problem, or will i just have to take medication when the pain gets bad.

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Dr. Joshua’s Answer:

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Your cervical (neck) spine was in an unfortunate rotatory position when it happened, so you’re lucky not to have had a more serious injury. When you first had the numbness and weakness of the left arm, it could have been caused by injury of the nerve plexus which is located in the shoulder-neck region, or it could have been due to traumatic cervical (neck) disc herniation (though it seems somewhat less likely in this case), or then again by just muscle injury + resulting stiffness. I don’t know whether an MRI was done but it would have been informative. Anyway, you don’t have those symptoms any more. However you have pain and muscle spasms - those could be the result of nerve or muscle injury. Also, you have headaches. These may be due to whiplash injury, which is notoriously difficult to treat. However, before making that sort of diagnosis, a clinical examination and radiological (x-rays) investigations of the shoulder, neck area, possibly ultrasound of the muscle and rotator cuff region would be informative. The medication you’re on sounds adequate, and since you are being treated by doctors, all I can say is talk to them, and once it has been ruled out that there’s nothing which could be surgically treated, a pain specialist referral might be in order.