People who have been involved in motor vehicle accidents often experience a wide range of symptoms. In Janette’s case she informed us that her symptoms were predominantly in her neck with intermittent shoulder and thoracic back pain. With whiplash injuries there is often a lack of pathology, making the treatment responses quite varied.
Often the focus is on relieving the symptoms without pinpointing the real issues. In Janette’s case, we needed to address a number of issues, the first being the longstanding fear avoidance to her neck-related symptoms that dated back to the accident in 2006. The second issue was the re-emergence of a neck complaint relating to a more recent injury while working as a nurse. The combined effect of these two separate injures, occurring over the course of a nine-year period, triggered emotional and physiological responses. Both needed to be dealt with in the overall treatment program.
We took Janette through the functional movement patterns in a step-by-step process so that she understood the distinct overuse and underuse patterns she had inadvertently adopted. This gave her the necessary degree of postural awareness and functionality, which allowed her to perform relatively simple movement patterns in a compounding manner i.e. working cooperatively rather than in isolation from one another.
This was the initial reassurance Janette needed to trust herself and develop the confidence to progress onto the relevant stretching, activation and strengthening exercises that ultimately led to successful self-management. Janette was eventually able to perform exercises such assisted chin-ups while at the same time achieving a threefold range of movement increase in all the relevant postural related muscle groups. Her neck symptoms resolved.
The turning point with Janette’s treatment was making her functionally aware enough to identify what biomechanically incorrect movement patterns felt like. Often people initially presenting with chronic movement patterns and poor postural presentation aren’t aware they are doing particular movements incorrectly. To a degree they have learned to live with their symptoms and regard them as ‘normal’. This was what appeared to have happened to Janette.
For many people living with chronic conditions there is a disconnect between what they can intellectualise and becoming functionally adept enough to transfer new-found movement patterns to real world applications. In Janette’s case, this was being able to perform her former workplace requirements.
I was involved in a motor vehicle accident in 2006. I re-injured my neck whilst working as a nurse in February 2015. I had undertaken passive treatment, which was primarily aimed at reducing my symptoms and not focusing on the underlying causal issues.
The FTM clinic offers a very positive and encouraging environment that restored my confidence in my physical capabilities and made me look forward to attending treatment.
When my doctor referred me to FTM, I was still in considerable discomfort and feeling somewhat emotional and physically fragile. Thanks to FTM and the Upper Limber Injury Prevention and Management program I was able to address the neuromuscular imbalances that I had inadvertently developed and as a result of this I was able to progress to a pain free, functional level well above my expectation. The other major benefit of the FTM program was it also addressed the manual handling requirements of my workplace duties making it a complete treatment program.
In closing, the FTM clinic offers a very positive and encouraging environment, that restored my confidence in my physical capabilities and made me look forward to attending treatment.
