Is it possible for whiplash symptoms to come back after 25 years?

Question

I was 18 and was rear ended and got whiplash. Recently I selpt with my neck in the wrong alignment and woke up in pain, It just struck me today that the pain I am in reminds me of whiplash. All I did was sleep in the wrong position. I have been keeping up my exercises for my back and for fittness so I felt pretty good before this happend but now the pain is when I move my neck in any position. I have tried gently strching it and it alomost feels better until I release the strech and that is when it hurts. It hurt to swallow because the neck is so sore.

Should I just try to imobilize the neck or should I tyr to excerise it??

Answer 1

The healing from your initial whiplash injury 25 years ago was completed a long time ago. Previous trauma to a body structure can put it at increased risk for re-injury in the future. This is most likely what happened in your case. Sleeping in the wrong position, especially if you sleep for a period of time, can put a lot of stress on structures such as connective tissue, nerves, muscles, ligaments and tendons as well as the joints. In an acute case such as this if you have pain with even gentle normal movements you may want to immobilize it for a short period of time, 1-2 weeks. Remove the brace for short periods of time to do gentle range of motion exercises in a PAIN-FREE range only. You can then remove the brace after 2 wks and resume gentle range of motion and stretching exercises. If you continue to have pain after that time I would go to your primary care doctor and ask for a referral to see a physical therapist.

Answer 2

After the accident did they do an X-Ray to confirm that all you had was Whiplash and nothing else?
You might of injured a vertabrea in your neck,and it never caused you any problems..
This also may be unrelated and you just have a kink in your neck from sleeping the wrong way...try a hot bath to relax your muscles...if that does not help go see a doctor!
If the doctor determines it is just stiffing of the neck muscle,he might prescribe you some Flexeril (Muscle relaxer)