We had a little too much excitement over the weekend. In keeping with our "Let's be healthy" theme, Walt and I went for a walk in the park, which is absolutely gorgeous with fall color. On the way home, we were hit head on by a drunk driver, who promptly shook it off, threw it into reverse, and ran. A chase ensued, in which I am informed that I was spewing a string of curse words that rivaled the dad in "Christmas Story" when he tangled with the furnace. We were able to get his license number and the make and model of the car which I called in to the Lakewood PD. While we sat in a parking lot and tried to metabolize all of the adrenaline we had generated, they went to his house (he went home) and arrested him for DUI and fleeing the scene of an accident.
It's funny, the car has minimal damage. My bumper did exactly what it is designed to do - absorb the brunt of the impact. It really falls into the "fender bender" category, if not for the added excitement of the Dirty Harry car chase that followed. When the adrenaline wore off, we both discovered how sore we were, and we were even more sore, stiff and achy the next day. I think it would have been even worse if not for icing and massive doses of MonaVie active...antioxidants and plant based glucosamine. We're always looking for an excuse to drink more of it because it tastes so good, and this seemed like a good reason to polish off a bottle in a couple of days.
Still, Walt is really feeling it in his neck and shoulders, so it's off to the chiropractor today for an evaluation and treatment. It made me think about what I know about soft tissue injuries, and how important it is to treat them. If we are this tender from such a small bump - no air bags deployed - then how much trauma occurs in a really big crash? In my years in practice as a massage therapist, I've seen a number of people who did not treat their injuries following an accident only to have them return later, sometimes, years later.
The body does all kinds of things to adjust. Trigger points -small areas of muscular dysfunction - form, and can be active or latent. The active ones will cause pain, often referring it to some place other than the actual location of the trigger point. Those are the ones that are likely to make you seek treatment now. It's the latent ones, the sleepers, that can be activated at some future date due to additional stress on the body. Trigger Point Therapy is very effective in treating post-accident muscle pain, whether it's done immediately after the accident or later on.
The other thing that often happens is that the neuro-muscular connections of one or more muscles become compromised. Those muscles don't function as well as they should, and other muscles have to pick up the slack... this causes a sort of chain reaction of dysfunction that can continue to grow over time, involving more and more muscles as the body keeps on trying to compensate and keep on truckin'. The only way I know to fix this is be treated by someone like my friend Kim, who is a Muscle Activation Specialist. She practices Muscle Activation Technique which was developed by Greg Roskopf to treat athletes. Fortunately it works equally well on the athletically challenged.
What's best is to get treated right away and avoid needless suffering, and all of the additional compensations that the body creates when muscles are not able to function the way they are supposed to. The good news is that it's never too late to seek treatment. Even if it's been years since the damage occurred, you can get better and feel better.
