This year, as I enter my second month of physiotherapy, I’m making New Year’s Rehabilitation—not Resolutions—a priority.
I was proceeding through a green light one morning in late November last year when a DO2V (translation = Driver Of Other Vehicle, because I wish to remain polite and earn a G rating on this post) ran a red light and hit the rear passenger corner of my little red Kia Soul. Am I sensing a subconscious hostility to the color red, here—or a serious lack of caffeine, which impaired cognitive processes on the part of the DO2V?
Regardless, the impact sent the car, and me, into a spin! I ended up in the middle of the road facing the way I’d been coming from.
I walked away—in a state of shock. And while the insurance company has classified the results in the Minor Injury Category, there’s been nothing minor about the recovery process.
I became well acquainted with the Epley maneuver. Used to reduce or even eliminate dizziness, it helped during the next several weeks that my brain felt like it was back in that spinning car. I still get dizzy spells when I overtire and now do daily exercises to retrain the receptors hidden at the back of my head near the top of my spine that help with balance.
I was also diagnosed with whiplash, which has affected the entire left side of my body from neck to thigh. I’ve since discovered areas of my body I didn’t know I had and wish I’d never met (stifled yelps of agony during physio sessions aren’t a pretty sound), like the IT (iliotibial) band, a group of tough fibers that run along the outside of the thigh. The IT band acts as a stabilizer during running, so many runners suffer from pain in that area due to inflammation of said IT band. My rotator cuff (the muscles and tendons in the shoulder that connect your upper arm with your shoulder blade) has also been protesting ever since the accident.
That said, I’m feeling much better and, per instructions from the Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist and Kinesiologist, I’m slowly but steadily resuming daily routines—punctured by lots of breaks and my daily exercise regimen. But success has also led to setbacks. I now have de Quervain’s tenosynovitis, diagnosed via the Finkelstein test.
De Quervain’s is caused when the tendons located on the wrist below the thumb become irritated and swell. 
Oddly enough, this is a common condition among pregnant women and people who perform repetitive activities—like typing, which is my current problem! However, I believe my wrist was initially strained because of the fierce grip I had on the steering wheel during that spin. I can now discuss the merits of ultrasound and paraffin wax treatments (neither helped) versus acupuncture (which has).
So there you have it—medically speaking.
