A pain in the neck

                               http://www.preventdisease.com/home/muscleatlas/shtraplat.shtml


I've been up now for almost a half hour; I'm waiting for my headache to go away.  Headaches suck, they make working out very difficult and are sadly all too common for me.  I have been involved in a total of four rear end collisions in my life.  This has left me with a bum neck; it bothers me often and can definitely put a kink (pardon the pun) in my working out.  My first rear end impact was when I was only 16 years old and I guess that got the ball rolling as far as my neck goes.  The next three have been since living in California and I really hope that I don't keep counting.  None of the accidents have been a fault of mine; but I have suffered the repercussions.

The second hit but first one in California was due to a new sixteen year old driver who says he didn't see me in the left turning lane.  As a result he hit me at full speed as I was stopped waiting for a green light to turn.  That sent me into the van in front of me and her into the car in front of her.  It was quite a mess and my neck suffered.  A couple years later I was in the car with my husband and we were stopped at a light.  A woman in an Escalade smashed into us as she "apparently" reached down to stop a water bottle from rolling around her feet.  She never saw us but we sure felt her when she hit.  The last and hopefully final impact was caused by a little dog running around the street.  A woman decided that she should stop in the middle of the street so that other cars would stop and the dog would be safe.  Well, I stopped easily when I saw her but the woman driving the van that hit me did not.  I truly believe that she was texting but it was apparently never looked into.  I heard her coming, her tires locked up and the screeching was something that you never want to hear and see behind you.  I looked into my rear view mirror and braced for impact; hoping with everything in me that she would stop before getting to me, nope. 

So I have a very bad neck which I have to deal with.   There is no other choice but to deal with it.  Sure it makes me very angry that I have to deal with it and as I sit here waiting for me Advil to kick in; I have time to write.  I have headaches, neck pain that goes down into my shoulders and impacts my trapezius dorsi.   I do a great deal of stretching for it and if you happen to see me at the gym you will often see me hanging around trying to stretch the kinks out.  The accumulative effect has caused issues all down my back which really benefit from the heavy stretching. I hang on the pull down bar and use the cables to stretch out my entire back, neck and traps. 

No matter what you are dealing with; and almost everyone is dealing with some sort of health or physical issue, there are ways around it.  It is all about what you want to do; how much you want it and how you go after it.  For me, I'm now ready to hit the gym; headache gone for now so I'll take advantage of the moment.  Have a great day.