Keeping everything in balance......

Well as most of you know, back in May, Jade had a car accident. At the time of the accident her neck was sore, so they put her on the back board and did x-rays at the hospital and told her everything looked okay. She didn't think she had bumped her head, but the next day she had a big goose egg, so clearly she did bump it. She was stiff and sore for a couple of days, but things seemed to be getting better. Then summer came and she was off to Woodstock to work. She continued to get headaches, but she has been getting them for some time now....migraine sufferer like her Mum...... but when she came home in August, she was experiencing a great deal of pain and discomfort, just sitting. She went to see the doctor and he referred her to the Active Joint Physiotherapy clinic in Strathroy. She had a couple of sessions with them before we moved her to Windsor for school. The Active Joint place determined that she had some damage, so she would need physio for an extended period of time. When she moved to Windsor she found another physio clinic to continue on with her healing. They diagnosed her there with severe whiplash and she has some damage to joints and tendons in her neck. A couple of weekends ago, I was chatting with her and she had been feeling not so great. She mentioned that a couple of times she had rolled over and threw up, which was weird. She was not feeling nauseous, she just rolled over in bed and up it came. I thought maybe she just ate something that had disagreed with her, but she said she didn't have any stomach pains or anything that goes hand in hand with eating something bad. Then this weekend when I was chatting with her, she said that it hurt to move her eyes, it hurt to even touch her head and she was dizzy. I encouraged her to go to emerg. She tried to find someone to give her a ride to the hospital cause she didn't know where it was. She couldn't find anyone to take her or anyone to go with her so she decided to wait another day. Her dad called her and made her promise to go to the hospital if it was any worse the next day. She texted me the next day and said that she was so dizzy she almost fell off her chair in class. This did not sound normal. So she called her physio people and they told her to go to the urgent care walk in clinic. So she took a cab and went there. The doctor there did some tests and diagnosed her with Occipital Tendonitis - which is the result of the whiplash.
This bit I found on the web kind of explains it better than I can....
* Stiffness and pain when moving the neck/head

The whiplash/tendinitis dynamic causes your muscles to tighten up to 'protect' you from further damage.

After long enough time, the nervous system resets itself to this shortened length as the new 'normal' length. This means 'too short and too tight' is now normal.

Then, connective tissue starts shrink wrapping your muscles. So even if they could relax, they have no where to go because they are tightly wrapped.


* Headaches

The Sub-Occipital muscles at the back of the base of your skull sit on top of the Vertebral Arteries. When these muscles get tight, which they do for many many reasons including your neck tendonitis, they shut off some of the blood supply to the brain.

Hello Headache!

That is why people get Tension Headaches! Stress and mental strain (and physical elements) cause the muscles to tighten and cut off blood to the brain.

Also, because there is so much tightness happening in the neck if you have significant whiplash symptoms going on, that it sets up a dynamic in your system that causes headache.

They have also told her that her balance organ is damaged. Now to be honest - even though I went through nursing school - I don't remember learning that we have balance organs other than our ears..... Well apparently we do ......

Rotation of your head

Your second organ of balance detects rotational movements of your head. It consists of three fluid-filled loops that are arranged at right angles to each other. Within each of these 'semicircular canals' is a receptor region called crista ampullaris. It is made of hair cells covered by a gel-like cap. When you begin to rotate your head, the fluid in the canals lags behind and moves in the opposite direction, thereby bending the gel-like cap. This stimulates your hair cells, which, in turn, fire nerve impulses along your vestibular nerve to your brain.

So she is kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. She needs to continue going to physio to get her neck muscles healed....but the work they are doing on her neck, can slow the progress of this balance organ healing and can actually aggravate it into making her feel awful and dizzy. That is why when she rolled over, she threw up. Her balance organ was NOT HAPPY. The doctor wants her to be motionless for at least 5 days on bed rest, but she can't do that - she has tests and classes. So she has to be as careful as possible. No bending, no lifting, no jogging etc. She is supposed to keep her head as straight as possible......but then the physiotherapist doesn't want her head and neck in the same position for longer than 20 minutes.....it's a catch 22. He did give her some meds for the dizziness, and instructed her that if she rolls over again and throws up like before, she needs to immediately come to emerg and get on an IV.

So not the greatest news for her....but I think she is glad she went to find out exactly what was going on....instead of thinking all these terrible thoughts.
So hopefully she is on the mend and we are looking forward to her coming home for Thanksgiving and getting some rest hopefully.....mental note...tell Joel...NO WRESTLING!

So please send positive vibes to my kiddo - I want her healthy so she can focus on school and become a great nurse!
Chow for now, 
Jacqui