Let's Talk About Whiplash: The Car Accident Thread

Snowcone · June 2007

Last Thursday, a brilliant young lad decided that he would watch cross traffic instead of the car in front of him and slammed into the back of my car. Aside from jacking up my ride, I am concerned about long term injuries. I got checked out by a Dr who said I seem to be fine, but I also talked to someone who works in auto insurance that said whiplast can take up to a year to manifest itself. I am no longer sore in the neck/back area, but as a young parent (26) I am going to be pretty goddamn pissed off if I suffer long term physical disabilities over this.

That said, anyone suffer from whiplash? Was it immediate?

embrik · June 2007

I've not had it myself, so all I have to go on is what I read. How fast were you traveling? How fast was he? How much damage was done to the car? If it was a really low speed accident, I'd say you're probably safe. That article says that it may show up several days after, but mentions nothing about months or years.

Snowcone · June 2007

I was at a standstill looking far over my left shoulder. It was a right turn yield ramp so my car was maybe 30 degrees rotated from the road I was getting on and I was looking way back over my shoulder. He hit me going maybe 25-30mph if I had to guess. My trunk is all crunched and pushed in.

embrik · June 2007

Well, if you've been checked out by a doctor, then you're probably okay, but if you're really concerned, you could opt to get an MRI.

Snowcone · June 2007

I'm not really feeling any pain at present. I was more concerned about something developing later and was curious if anyone else had any first hand experience with this.

nexuscrawler · June 2007

Reason whiplash is such a hot lawsuit item it it's medically very hard to diagnose since it is a soft tissue injury. if it's been a few days you're probably ok.

Snowcone · June 2007

The ambulance chasers wont' stop calling my house.

Serphimera · June 2007

I got whiplash a few days after I was rear-ended. It wasn't bad, mostly just uncomfortable and was gone by the end of the week.

embrik · June 2007

Snowcone wrote: »

The ambulance chasers wont' stop calling my house.

Are you on the Do Not Call list? If so, that's sure seems like a violation, and you can try telling them so (if you actually answer the calls, that is).

Snowcone · June 2007

embrik wrote: »

Snowcone wrote: »

The ambulance chasers wont' stop calling my house.

Are you on the Do Not Call list? If so, that's sure seems like a violation, and you can try telling them so (if you actually answer the calls, that is).

I am on the DNC list and i answered just one call. I let the machine get the rest of them.

Sarcastro · June 2007

It can take a while, I was in a pretty nasty crashy-rolly thing in my early twenties, but my shoulder/back pains from where I smashed into the overhead light while flying around the inside of the car didn't really start showing up until nearly six months later during swim training. It's still with me, years later.

My advice would be to work that area a bit physically and see if you get burning, tearing or tingling sensations. It can be tough to tell if there's damage there if you're not working that muscle group. Mine didn't show until I actually put those muscles to the test, and then it came up as an issue in a hurry.

Snowcone · June 2007

Sarcastro wrote: »

It can take a while, I was in a pretty nasty crashy-rolly thing in my early twenties, but my shoulder/back pains from where I smashed into the overhead light while flying around the inside of the car didn't really start showing up until nearly six months later during swim training. It's still with me, years later.

My advice would be to work that area a bit physically and see if you get burning, tearing or tingling sensations. It can be tough to tell if there's damage there if you're not working that muscle group. Mine didn't show until I actually put those muscles to the test, and then it came up as an issue in a hurry.

Thanks. I think I'll play some bball and see if I can work those muscles.

Wezoin · June 2007

My only experience with whiplash is my cousin in the UK faking it for insurance money (she actually had it once, but has been in 2 or 3 car crashes since and has just faked it.) Although I'm not suggesting you fraud an insurance company, it really makes you wonder how serious it is if someone can fake it well enough for doctors to believe it.

Sentry · June 2007

The guys insurance will (or should) cover medical expenses... you might consider seeing a chiropractor (not a shill, a real one). This happened to my friend two years ago... the insurance company paid for the medical visits, the rental car, and threw a 10,000 dollar settlement at him.

Pheezer · June 2007

I've been in a number of accidents of that nature and one or two significantly faster ones without any lasting damage whatsoever. It's not by any means something that'll happen any time you're in a crash.

Wezoin, your post isn't helpful.

Whiplash isn't something you can x-ray for, it depends largely upon patients providing accurate information about what hurts and what doesn't. In many cases where it is actually present, it really can be a very serious problem. However, because of this it is easy for unscrupulous individuals to abuse insurance companies.

Snowcone · July 2007

So after playing with my Son this weekend my neck and mid back got very sore. It didn't really hamper my movement any, just made it painful. When I woke up this morning my neck was killing me and as I stretched my head/neck from side to side my spine sounded like it was grinding. Definitely not a good sound. I'm going to look up a good chiropractor today and get an appointment.

Dog · July 2007

Chiropractors are great, but before starting with one I would go to a regular doctor first. Make sure you get X-Rays and a proper diagnosis to use in a lawsuit or whatever means you wish to pursue, and check with the MD on whether they think you should go Chiro. Once that is taken care of THEN go to the chiropractor.

Chiropractors offer great relief of pain for the short term, but if you stop going, its going to start hurting again, and you are probably not interested in spending years on treatment when your MD reccomends something else.

embrik · July 2007

robothero wrote: »

Chiropractors are great, but before starting with one I would go to a regular doctor first. Make sure you get X-Rays and a proper diagnosis to use in a lawsuit or whatever means you wish to pursue, and check with the MD on whether they think you should go Chiro. Once that is taken care of THEN go to the chiropractor.

Chiropractors offer great relief of pain for the short term, but if you stop going, its going to start hurting again, and you are probably not interested in spending years on treatment when your MD reccomends something else.

According to Wikipedia (which is usually reliable for this kind of thing), X-rays aren't enough.

Wikipedia wrote:

Because whiplash may be caused by damage to the soft tissues of the spine (ex: tearing of a disk), these injuries often cannot be seen on an X-ray machine, and an alternative type of scanning machine such as an MRI is used instead.

Snowcone · July 2007

robothero wrote: »

Chiropractors are great, but before starting with one I would go to a regular doctor first. Make sure you get X-Rays and a proper diagnosis to use in a lawsuit or whatever means you wish to pursue, and check with the MD on whether they think you should go Chiro. Once that is taken care of THEN go to the chiropractor.

Chiropractors offer great relief of pain for the short term, but if you stop going, its going to start hurting again, and you are probably not interested in spending years on treatment when your MD reccomends something else.

I went to an MD who concluded I was fine because I had no impeded movement and no pain from the things he had me do.

Penny Arcade

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