Met With Accident. Having Pain In Head, Neck, Shoulder And Back. No Sleep Due To Pain. Should I Be Worried?

Posted on Tue, 22 Oct 2013

Question: I was in a car accident last Thursday. I was rear ended, my body was slightly turned to the side and my head was all the way turned to the left. The impact was very strong but not the damage surprising. I had my foot on the break and blinker on to turn into a parking spot. I was told the pain is bad because I had my foot on the break and it makes the car jolt harder. 3 days later I went to get xrays because I get into tears by night because of the pain (im honestly shocked by this pain). My results were fine. I believe something isn't right it can't be. Will an xray show an injury that soon? Or can it take time? The pain im having is head, neck, shoulders, and top middle of my back. What really is making me question this is that the pain is now changing to other things to. I had a dull ache down my shoulders now im having a sharp knife stabbing pain in them to. Also when I open my mouth wide that bone around the entire mouth area is tight and painful....I can tell when I yawn...this pain is also new. I often feel around my eyes are tired and burning? I haven't been able to sleep more than 4 hours each night from the pain since it happened. The oddest symptom is confusion, im not paying attention its not easy to. My memorie is also terrible all a sudden. Im 31 yrs old. Please can you tell me what is possibly going on and should I be alarmed by this?

Answered by Dr. Vivek Chail (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Neck muscle spasm and ?post concussion syndrome.

Detailed Answer:
Hi,
Thanks for writing in to us.

Sorry to hear about your car accident and hope you were having a seat belt on while driving. That might have decreased the impact on you.

X rays are done to see the bony structures. You have not mentioned the part for which X XXXXXXX was taken, I assume its the neck (cervical spine region). It is important to know that the X XXXXXXX shows any fracture and dislocation of bones and the soft tissues along the spine are not evaluated distinctly.

There might be cervical muscle spasm which intensifies after a day and the pain may follow a pattern as described by you. You are right in saying that the pain is also present around the mouth when you are trying to open it wide, this is muscular pain. It usually subsides by itself in few days to a week.

It is difficult to asses the problems regarding confusion and memory impairment without a complete neurological clinical examination. You may require a CT scan or MRI scan if your problems persist. If the scans also come as normal, you might be experiencing a post concussion syndrome. The condition can cause a variety of symptoms: physical, such as headache; cognitive, such as difficulty concentrating; and emotional and behavioral, such as irritability. Symptoms can appear immediately, or weeks to months after the initial injury. Their severity lessens progressively over time.

I suggest you consult a neurosurgeon and get investigated as felt necessary after clinical examination.

Hope your query is answered.
Do write back in case of doubts.

Get well soon.

Regards,
Dr.Vivek.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar