Relief of my whiplash

Written by Julie Taylor

Relief of the whiplash pain in my left neck and shoulder, resulting in an increase in the range of motion.

I will talk about one of the several areas that Martin has visited with me recently and which made a difference - a huge difference.

For just over 3 years I have had a very painful left shoulder and neck and I've been unable to turn my head to my left to look over my shoulder. It was definitely a whiplash injury and gradually appeared during the week following my fairly minor fender-bender accident.

ICBC, who is the insurance company, have consistently refused to help me (or believe in my whiplash) even though within a couple of months I was unable to work at all and at one point I was bedridden for several months. For over a year I had migraine headaches which lasted all day on a daily basis - one of the most debilitating things I have ever experienced.

Eventually, because of my previous brain injury and their involvement with that, the local hospital enrolled me in their neuro-rehab program which got me back on my feet (although still not very functionally).

It was at this point that I started my website www.ReBuildingYou.com because I realized that there was so little available to help people recovering from stroke, head injury, car accidents/whiplash and the like and that I was able to change this and for most of the people I met there, it was just too difficult.

My chiropractor could clearly feel the 'whiplash muscle' which was sore and tight and my left shoulder and left side of my neck was obviously injured. My massage therapist was also able to feel the tone of these whiplash muscles too when he massaged me. They could both press on - or rub - certain areas which caused excruciating pain to shoot up to my head, in the same place where my migraines lived.

The odd thing was that this lasted so long? Whiplash pain that is 'minor' usually clears up within a few weeks or months. Whiplash pain that is incredibly 'major' usually only last a couple of years at most. And yet this was dragging on?

Martin Guay (of Total Biology) and I talked. At length. He helped me make a long chronological list of all the traumas in my life from birth to the present day. It took a while to do as it's very important to make this list as accurate as possible in terms of dates. And it's easy to forget little incidents that are, in fact, quite traumatic. Even the evens that don't seem so traumatic may be important...

Eventually, after 2 or 3 sessions, Martin arrived at a conclusion. I had been resisting all along, saying that the injuries I had were purely physical and from an external source and so he could not possibly help with his therapy and counselling. I truly did not see how something like Total Biology could possibly help? This pain had ruined over 3 years of my life.

I was even more upset, as you can imagine, when Martin declared (like ICBC) that my injury was not whiplash ...

Despite the physical pain. Despite the migraines. Despite the total disruption to my life for 3 whole years.

Gently - and over and over and over again... And visually demonstrated so that my brain could fully register what it was hearing - Martin 'showed' me what he saw.

He showed me that the physical movement of my neck during the accident was similar - even the same - as the physical movement of my neck during the head injury 25 years previously that had almost cost me my life and had landed me in a coma for weeks.

He explained that the physical movement had recreated in my mind an unbearable conflict: how could the mind (as executor of my body and responsible for my life) best protect me in this instance? The mind's experience was that the movement 25 years ago had failed because I had still ended up badly hurt. In fact, in reality, without that movement I would definitely be dead. There was no other movement that could have saved my life or done a better job. So the movement was, in fact, a great success.

But in my mind's 'eye', the movement was a failure. Because the result was that I had been hurt.

And so when the exact same movement came up again, the mind couldn't decide what to do. Move. And be hurt. Or stay. And ????

Which resulted in an incredible stiffness and inability to move that part of my neck which in turn put pressure on nerves that caused migraines.

This injury was easily documentable by an experienced chiropractor and massage therapist. They couldn't explain why such a small accident has caused such major damage. But the damage was there for all to see and feel. Over the months several other qualified massage therapists and a second chiropractor confirmed the physical findings.

I stared at Martin. I understood what he was saying. It even made sense. But what difference could this make now? Today. My neck was frozen in place and had been for over 3 years. How could this 'energy medicine' help in the case of a physical injury like this?

Martin asked me to try and look over my shoulder: to turn my head. At first I insisted that doctors had tried to do this, over and over, and couldn't. What was the point?

Eventually I did.

I was able to turn my head and look over my shoulder. The movement was sore but possible. I felt tearful and emotional.

On the second day I went to see my massage therapist and explained what had happened. He was fascinated and started to tell me of many similar stories he'd encountered over the years. He examined me and found that the muscle tone was indeed much more relaxed and softer. He was able to massage areas he hadn't been able to access for 3 years.

A week later I visited my chiropractor who had similar stories to tell me and made similar findings when she explored my neck and shoulder. There had indeed been a physical change - a dramatic physical change. By this time - a week after Martin's original sessions with me - there was little soreness left in my neck. Although it still 'crunched' a little when I turned it.

My neck and shoulder are still sore sometimes and Martin advises that we need to work some more on the emotional trauma connected with this scenario until it's completely resolved. We will.

For now, I marvel. And notice that on days where I am tense there is more soreness. On some days there is almost no soreness and although the range of movement is still not full, it's pretty good.

Of course, I think that something like this would only work with whiplash if the whiplash were 'not real'? However, in every single trauma injury I think - by the very nature of the injury itself - there will be elements of 'mind' or 'energy' or 'psychological' injury on top of whatever is really there... Let me explain: There will be the original injury. Which will cause some pain. But on top of that, there may well be secondary pain from the emotional - and very real - impact that the injury had. That is what Martin, the 'right kind' of counselling or Total Biology can help to heal.

Carr accident insurance companies are just very hard-nosed businesses, not (as I naively believed) actually concerned about us. ICBC (Insurance Company of British Columbia) and the other private insurance company refused to accept my injuries and were willing to play a dirty game in court to avoid responsibility: I was told "not to take it personally" and that "this is about 'risk management'. Rather than the truth about whether you life is affected and making you better".

No-one at ICBC accepted that, whatever the cause, I was in pain and my life had been altered and we needed to find a way to heal. Isn't that what we pay liability and 3rd party insurance for? I know it is for me. To pay for someone to be healed and returned to their life if I should accidentally hurt them.

Instead of immediately offering me the money - that it cost them anyway in the end - they chose to pay each other - lawyers and doctors. Money that I would definitely have accepted - and that is intended by those who pay it - to seek therapy to try and heal. Instead they decided to defend this action, causing me further pain in terms of having to defend and try and explain every little totally irrelevant and private aspect of my life. Instead they feathered the nests of their lawyers - and mine - and paid massively inflated legal and medical costs. One doctor charged $4,500.00 for one hour of his time...

As a consumer - someone who buys insurance to genuinely pay for what I might damage - I am speechless. I was told that if I chose to pay and help heal someone I'd hurt, I would be personally liable and the insurance company would not help me . It was in the small print that they were entitled to play their game of 'minimizing risk' rather than just get on with the real business of returning the person to health.

This insurance issue is aside to the issue of my actual 'healing' - a term I'm still not comfortable with! Eventually I will find a way of bring this insurance company's behaviour to the attention of ordinary people. Who I hope will be as outraged about it as I am - and refuse to let it continue? For now, I thank you for indulging me and letting me express my upset.

Julie