Two weeks ago tomorrow was when BeeGee bucked me off. I had to sit for a moment because the fall kind of knocked the wind out of me and I wanted to take inventory of potential injuries. Booboo on my elbow was the most obvious. So I got back on and rode to finish the exercise I was doing. Later is when the rest of the injuries became apparent: non-functional right arm, ugly bruise on my right knee and whiplash. I was able to take ibuprofen for almost a week before it started affecting my stomach. Then I had an upset stomach and a very sore neck. My right arm is mostly functional but it's crabby first thing in the morning. The scab on my elbow is healing and the bruise on my right knee is also going away.
Great but what about whiplash? How long does it take to heal and what should or should I not be doing? I've already resigned myself to riding BeeGee at the walk until my neck is better. But how long will that be? Like any curious person, I Googled "whiplash" and found this nifty brochure: http://www.bcmj.org/sites/default/files/BCMJ_44_Vol6-pp318-321-patient-handout.pdf
In part, it's nifty because it's from the Canadian medical journal and I'm a Canadian-wannabe. Also, the recommended exercises are funny cartoons of recognizable characters. If that's not motivating I don't know what is.
The psychological difficulty of whiplash is that it can take a LONG LONG time to feel back to normal. And probably two weeks isn't enough time. Here is yet one more thing that is teaching me patience. How many lessons do I need to learn patience? Probably more than I've had so far.