Need cheering up...

[Catrin]

I need some cheering up. As you may remember, I had a small fall on the trail in mid/late October. It was just a freak fall, and I came out of it with a significant case of whiplash. It took me a few weeks to see that it wasn't going to heal itself and I started the doctor/MRI/injections route, and started PT the first of January.

While my neck is a mess - most of it existed prior to the fall and isn't really responsible for my stiffness and pain - almost all of that is STILL due to the severe muscle strain (sternocleidomastoids are severely strained, as well as the scalenes and the sternohyoid). These muscles are extremely tight and not healed as of yet. My PT is working to manually loosen and stretch these muscles and, when they have healed more, will start strengthening them. He is afraid to start the strengthening work too soon for obvious reasons.

There is progress, the constant headaches are gone, the muscle spasms are basically gone, I am now sleeping well (finally), but there is still pain with all of this.

Part of me is starting to worry that if it is still like this after 3 months, that it may not heal enough for me to get back on the trails. Now, I know that is an irrational fear, but it would be encouraging to me to hear about others who have had similar injuries and are back to their mountain bike. So, please share your stories if you are comfortable doing so.