I am a couple of weeks into recovering from a whiplash injury following a car accident. I know recovery times vary a lot depending on different factors but am interested to hear from people who have had such an injury and how long was it before you could drive a car, and ride again?
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I hope you treat it as not only a whiplash injury, but also as a head injury, and have a suitable doctor give you a neurological assessment/return to play assessment.
I had a neck/head injury that really jammed up/strained my neck in 2012. It took about a month before I could ride, but I did a lot of physiotherapy, and it was a while before I could fully use my neck. I did temporarily get additional mirrors so I could drive sooner.
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Thanks CHT. I hadn’t thought about the mirrors - good idea!
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Ugg whiplash injuries are awful…….l.I was in a car accident about 25 to 30 years ago and suffered a severe whiplash,it’s what started my migraines! I still suffer with them and from then on my neck was never “quite right”. Then after a bad fall a year and a half ago, it aggravated my neck again and now I still suffer with the cervical ligaments. A CT scan now shows arthritis starting (they were at first worried my breast cancer had spread), but nope, apparently whiplash injuries can resurface years later! If mine had happened more recently, they’d have had me into much better treatments and physical therapy (back in the late 80s early 90s they just said “oh here’s a collar for a few weeks”)!
Go see a therapist that specializes in neck injuries….it will be worth it in the long run!
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I second what @eclipse said. I got rearended hard by a much heavier car when I was 17. At 65, I still have a lot of problems with that injury. I quit physical therapy because it didn’t seem to be helping, and got no further medical attention. I have lots of regrets now.
Get the best medical help you can!
Rebecca
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Definitely find yourself a good PT. I was in a bad wreck at 23 and not treated well. My C spine has been screwed up ever since (20 years).
I’d had car wrecks since them. I went through a spate of them a few years ago - 1 a year for 3 years in a row. For one of them I did go to the ER, which was borderline useless. I did give my PT a call & was in there within 24 hours.
I’ve driven within a day of getting hit. I live by myself - I don’t have much choice. I also usually drive myself home from getting a shot of cortisone in the spine too. I’m the wrong one to ask about riding - I’m screwed up enough that I just took some drugs and carried on.
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