Car Accident Doctor in Olympia WA

At our chiropractic clinic in Olympia WA, we here this story all the time. You pull up to a traffic light that just turned red. You're patiently waiting for the light to turn green so you can make it to work on time. Then BOOM!!! You're jolted forward unexpectedly. The vehicle behind you was distracted for just a brief moment, didn't see you stopped and before he could hit the brakes, he collided with you. You get out of your vehicle and assess the damage, exchange insurance information, and then you try to salvage the day thinking "it wasn't that bad." or was it?

What just happened to you in Olympia WA?

Modern vehicles are designed to crumple and absorb as much of the force from the collision as possible, diverting it away from the people in the vehicle. Unfortunately, it is impossible to completely keep you from taking some of the impact. Even in very low impact collisions around 5 mph, your body absorbs enough of the impact to cause harm to soft tissues of the body such as ligaments and tendons.

In just a blink of an eye, your body slides upwards in your seat. This is called "ramping." Then your head impacts the head rest or worse, bends over the top of it. Your seat belt tries to restrain you but by doing so, it puts a lot of force into your shoulder and across your chest and lower ribs. Your hands on the steering wheel instinctively react by gripping harder, putting a lot of force through the small joints of your wrists and hands. Your foot is on the brake which causes a lot of force to travel up your leg and into your hip joint which then travels into your pelvis and lower back. All of this happens before your brain is even aware something is happening.

What should you expect?

It's VERY common for people to not feel anything initially after the impact and then the next day or even sometimes a week later, everything becomes sore and it's hard to move. This is because initially after the collision, your body immediately goes into a state of "Fight or Flight." This is when adrenaline floods your body, preparing you for danger.  Adrenaline also interferes with pain signals, making you unaware of the damage done to your body. As you begin to calm down, the body is able to give the brain a "damage report." Often times pain presents itself a week later because you unknowingly try to avoid movements that hurt. This then puts strain on muscles and joints that are trying to pick up the slack from the damaged tissues.

What should you do?

DON'T HESITATE! Come into Evergreen Family Chiropractic and let us use our sophisticated instruments and skills to assess the damage and show you how we can help you recover and get you back to a pain free life.