Just over ten months ago, I was involved in an automobile accident. More precisely, I was rear-ended by a truck travelling at a high rate of speed on the freeway heading home from work. Another truck had lost a load of insulation on the freeway ahead which caused traffic to slow to a crawl.

I was driving my 2014 Mazda 3 Sport that I’d owned for approximately 9 months. I slowed down to match the rate of speed of the rest of traffic ahead of me however the truck behind me did not. The truck impacted my car sending me into the rear end of the truck in front of me and then careening off into the ditch.

My car was damaged beyond repair. The trunk and back seat were flattened to the point of being non-existent and the front end was pushed in approximately six inches as a result of the impact with the truck in front of me.

Fire crews and paramedics arrived on the scene within minutes. As they were unable to ascertain whether or not I had a spinal cord injury as a result of the violent collision, the proceeded with caution and opted to use the Jaws Of Life to cut my now demolished Mazda apart to extract me from it. I was then carefully lifted onto a spinal board where they immobilized me before lifting me into the awaiting ambulance.

I was taken to the hospital for an X-ray and kept under observation for a couple of hours. After my doctor reviewed my X-ray results, he deemed me to have no spinal cord injuries and he released me. This would begin the long process of rehab; nurses at the hospital advised me that the immediate pain would subside over a couple of days and that I’d probably experience soreness and aching that would last for some time.

I went through months of rehab that would often leave me with an aching neck or shoulders as well as a headache… but as the saying goes, “no pain, no gain.”

Eventually, my insurance company would cut off my rehab appointments. And, at first, I felt ok and my neck did not feel too bad. I was optimistic about my long term prognosis!

Over the past two weeks, however, this optimism has faded. This past two weeks have been… painful. I don’t want to call it ‘agonizing’ as this would be melodramatic but having a persistent headache and daily neck pain changes my day to day outlook.

I’ve come to grips with the fact that, as a result of this accident, I will never be the same and will require constant rehab to stave off headaches as well as neck and shoulder pain. How I’m going to pay for it, however… that’s another issue.