An Insider Report - Dealing with Your Injury and MPI
In this Insider Report, you will learn:
- Why so many people needlessly suffer from headaches, neck pain and back pain following a car accident
- Why taking pills and resting may never fix your injury
- How to get help for your pain and suffering now.
- What may happen if you don't get natural treatments now.
Warning: 'Soft tissue injuries' are potentially debilitating and will strike hundreds of thousands of Canadians this year. As a result, many peoiple will suffer for the rest of their lives due to misinformation and inappropriate care. That's bad news. The good news is that you do not have to continue suffering.
'Soft tissue injuries' are often misunderstood and difficult to detect. Many car accident victims who seek out help for their pain are told to "TAKE IT EASY AND REST." This is exactly what you must not do. Just resting usually creates scar tissue and permanent damage. Science has shown that taking excessive time off from work or recreation can made it harder to get back into the swing of things.
A car accident can strike any person at any time, robbing them of their most basic and important possession: Their Good Health, both physical and mental.
Let's go back to your car accident site immediately after the collision...
Most people will tell us that they felt dazed and confused just after impact. If they were conscious, they began to realize that they had been involved in an accident. They would do a mental inventory.
- Am I okay?
- Are my passengers okay?
- Is my car okay?
- Are the other people in the other vehicle okay?
If any person involved is not suffering from an apparent life threatening injury or appears to have no broken bones or major cuts, the most often an ambulance is not called.
Here's where the problem begins. The attention immediately begins to shift toward the automobile damage and/or damage of property and, of course, WHO IS AT FAULT?
All daily habits, responsibilities, and leisure time have suddenly been wiped away by the complications arising from the accident. The prior stresses that a person was dealing with somehow do not compare to the hassles and inconveniences that an auto accident victim experiences. Not only are car accidents an inconvenience and hassle, but they suddenly do not feel like their normal selves, they find themselves experienceing pain and symptoms like:
- Muscle stiffness and spasms
- Neck pain and headaches
- Numbness, tingling, pins and needles or hot and cold sensations in the arms, legs, hands or feet
- Midback pain and lower back pain
- Difficulty concentrating
- Sciatica
- Fatigue, insomnia and sleep disturbance
- Dull memory
- Irritability
- and many other problems
Or worse, they may be injured and feel nothing at all! Either way, many of our patients first ended up in a local hospital. The emergency room technicians are trained to detect life-threatenting conditions and provide appropriate care. When injuries do not fall into this category, after the evaluation, the patients are sent home with pain/sleep medication and anti-inflammatory medication. They may even be told to "Rest and take it easy."
During the initial days of taking these medications, most people will then move on to call the insurance company to report the claim. These are very competent and highly trained individuals who deal with accident claims all day long. They know who has been to the hospital and released. They will proceed to ask questions about pain symptoms.
Oops, injured people feel less injured under the influence of pain killing and muscle relaxing medications.
Despite the effects of the medications, one can still fell injured and simply out of the norm. As each day goes by, the injuries continue to worsen as the body produces dysfunctional scar tissue at the sites of trauma. This continued incorrect healing process sets the stage for future problematic conditions, the ost common being post-traumatic osteo-arthritis. This form of arthritis can, over time, ruin posture causing slump or hump back appearance. It causes the spinal discs to degenerate and creates further scar tissue formation leading to chronic stiffness, pain, numbness and spasms.
Remember, the purpose of medication is the numb the pain, not correct or heal the site of trauma.
The next step for the general practitioner (MD) is to refer a patient who is still symptomatic to a physical and/or massage therapist. Four to eight weeks later, those programs have been completed and the patient can still be in pain and, in some cases, the injury can feel worse. At this point, the physician can be at a loss as to why his patient is still hurting. He will then refer once more, this time to an orthopaedic surgeon.
Current medical research states that most soft tissue injuries occurring from auto accidents do not require surgical intervention. Only in the last few years have facet joints been identified as a cause of whiplash pain, so not much is known about how long they take to heal after an injury. Some research shows that the facet joints may be responsible for those whiplash patients with long-term discomfort.
Again, it is important to realize that only a small fraction of all soft tissue injuries caused by auto accidents require the need for surgery. Some patients are flatly told, "There is nothing that we can do. You will have to live with this for the rest of your life."
This is a huge mistake. Don't let this happen to you!
The insurance claims adjustor receives the report and interprets that the doctors are finished. They hope your pain will eventually go away on its own. They look at the claim and realize that there have been multiple provisions for care including the hospital, physiotherapy and massage therapy clinics, medical doctors, and even specialists. While the underlying damagesand pain were hidden or numbed with drugs, fibrosis has set in and this problem is anything but resolved. Yet now there could be an insurance adjustor who isn't too thrilled about authorizing any further investigation or treatment for someone who claims to be experiencing ongoing pain, numbness, headaches, muscle stiffness, fatique and other problems (including arthritis) several months later. Nothing is more important than health...especially when one starts to lose it.
How are these hidden injuries detected?
When you have been involved in an auto accident, you need a doctor who is trained and specializes in the biomechanics of the human body. That means he or she can perform routine physical examinations with orthopaedic and neurological tests, as well as special chiropractic tests that assess those hidden functional soft tissue damages. In addition, special motion x-rays can be taken to find out if there has been any structural damage. Few health care practitioners conduct these specific examinations and x-ray analysis methodologies. Many healthcare practioners overlook many damaging injuries from whiplash. Whiplash occurs when the head and neck are thrown or "snapped" back and forth very quickly while travelling at speeds even as slow as 5mph. Whiplash is the most common injury in auto accidents.
Your neck is made up of nerves, gland, tubes, blood vessels, lymph nodes, and 48 different joints. It also "holds" your brain stem, spinal column, discs, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fluids. The chances of you becoming a whiplash victim in an auto accident are very real.
In addition to disc and other soft tissue damage, whiplash causes spinal misalignment and irritation, stretching or impingement to the nerves and spinal curve.
Whiplash is a biomechanical injury.
Proper evaluation and treatment by a chiropractor may make the difference between true recovery (healing and strength) vs. lingering pain (sickness and disability). At River Park South Chiropractic Center, we havesuccessfully treated thousands of patients just like you over the past 15+ years. We are well trained in the diagnosis and treatment of auto accident victims. Our primary objective is to give our atients the time and care that they need and deserve. We use a variety of techniqes and equipment (please see Services and Techniques) to accomplish this.
If you have been injured, and are not sure if you've suffer from soft tissue damage, call us.
If you have been injured and are not receiving the care you need, call us.
If you have been injured and are not sure what type of treatment will help you, call us.
If you have been injured and are not sure where to turn, call us.
253-6995
MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: What if my car sustained only minor damage?
A: Documented studies done by specialists Charles Caroll, M.D., Paul McAtee M.D., and Lee Riley, M.D. revealed that, "The amount of damage to the car bears little relation to the force applied to the cervical neck (spine) of the occupants. In other words, the severity of the injury to the passengers is not necessarily related to the damage directly to the vehicle. Some insurance adjusters might wish to try to convince you differently. Be careful!
Q: I've been to the hospital and walk-in clinic. Do I really need to see Dr. Toth?
A: You need a doctor that focuses in the treatment and diagnosis of auto accident injuries. Usually hospitals will check vital signs and release the patient with pain relief medication. They normally do not treat the underlying improper musculoskeletal biomechanics that can and often do lead to future pain. If you are still having problems, you should get a second opinion. If your M.D. has given you pills, you must understand that pills do not correct structural or soft tissue damage. There are special therapies designed for that, and we offer these modalities at our clinic.
Q: Do I need an attorney?
A: Manitoba has no-fault auto insurance. This means that the system is designed to take care of everyone equally and provided all the care that they need and that they are entitled to in order to facilitate their recovery. It is always important to take care of your well-being as soon as possible. Your first priority is to get checked by a doctor and begin, if needed, the appropriate treatment. For the most part, this system is not adversarial and it runs smoothly. There is great communication from our office to MPI and most often there is a cooperative effort between our patients, our doctors and the adjustors to get to the same goal. However, sometimes there are cases where entitlement is denied. People will appeal once, maybe twice to different levels of MPI to get the care or provisions they need. Hopefully, a final appeal to the Court of Queen's bench necessitating an attorney will not be needed in your case.
Q: If I need treatments for this injury, do I have to pay for it myself?
A: In most cases we direct bill Manitoba Public Insurance for 100% of the cost of your care if your claim is approved.
Q: What type of treatment will I receive if you accept me as a patient?
A: You will receive specific chiropractic spinal manipulation to the spinal joint and associated soft tissues. There are numerous chiropractic spinal manipulative techniques. The technique that is best suited for your condition will be determined to maximize your recovery. We may also use modalities such as electrotherapy, neck or lumbar traction, soft tissue mobilization and active release techniques, cryo/thermal therapy, as well as a program of rehabilitation exercises.
Q: Do I need a referral to see you?
A: No. Chiropractors are primary care givers and you do not need a referral from your medical doctor to book an appointment at our clinic.