Ass Whiplash

So I took part in this work event called Rumble in the Park. It pits rival offices against one another in challenges. My event was called the horizontal bungee. It involves running along a jumping-castle-like-lane with a harness and three bungee cords attached to it. you run as far as you can, place a Velcro sponge on the line, then the cord snaps you back. The first run snapped me back so far that I landed on my shoulders, neck and head, then rolled backwards onto my stomach. I felt nothing then.

"Then" being the operative word.

The next morning I couldn't raise my head off the pillow. The tendons at the front of my neck were screaming, my abs (such as they are) felt strained and the muscles along my spine and neck were seized up. Cue headache. I took some Nurofen and Tanja put some Voltarin on my back which let me walk around as long as I kept my head still.

It's amazing how much your head moves when you're talking to someone on the phone while using a computer. I lasted about an hour at work before calling sick. Tanja had the number of the Sports Physio place at the University, so I booked an appointment.

Turns out I have whiplash. The Physio said I had symptoms common in car accidents Or, as he added wryly "horizontal bungee injuries." Hardy har har.

So my stomach muscles are bruised, my neck needed realignment (read: cracking) and my neck muscles and the tendons at the front of my neck needed deep-tissue-massage. Which fucking hurt. I felt ok for most of the rest of the day, the symptoms only coming back around 8:30. I have a followup scheduled today.

My neck hurts.

Also, in an odd confluence of circumstances, I hurt my nose last night. I was plugging the DVD player in behind the TV stand and I bumped the wires leading to the PS2 controllers, one of which crashed to the floor. The other, sensing what was causing danger, fell from about a 4 ft height and cracked me on the side of the nose. This, to Tanja, was the funniest thing ever. I have a bruise there now.

I'm falling apart.