Back pain due to riding injury.

[sophiekate]

I apologise in advance if I have posted this in the wrong place, but I find all the technicalities a little bewildering.

When I was 15, I fell from a large horse, landing directly on my Coccyx. I blacked out temporarily at the time of injury, and I was immobile for a couple of days. When I could, I went to see my GP, who referred me to a chiropractor. The chiropractor went to work on my back. I'm unaware if this is wrong or not, but I did not receive and xray from my GP or the chiropractor. It seemed like after such an injury, I should have been.
The injury was less painful for a brief period after my first session with the chiropractor, but it soon returned to normal. It was an aching with alot of accompanying cracking, which varied on the weather. I got used to the pain, but I stupidly repeated the same injury to a lesser extent a couple of years later. The damage wasn't as bad.
My problem is that now the pain has moved from my lower back right up into my neck and shoulders, which seize up. My hips will often lock or seize up also. I am constantly straining and craning my neck to relieve the pain, which actually intensifies it. It's a losing battle!
I have ignored this problem for 6 years now, I hate to trouble doctors, but I think the time has come to do something about it. The problem is, I have no idea what that something is.
I would be very grateful of any help or advice!

Thanks.

 

[Megss]

Well I think you need to see a doctor, and have an x-ray and an MRI done. I especially wouldn't let a chiropractor work on an injury like that without knowing what exactly the injury is. I did and my situation has only gotten worse. Are you still riding? Please go to your doctor! You won't be troubling them at all... thats how they make money

 

[SpineAZ]

It could be a separate injury from the same accident. Pain in the coccyx wouldn't cause neck pain. Years ago I fell one evening and landed hard on my left elbow. I had a few days of neck and elbow pain but it subsided gradually. For years I'd have the occasional "pinched nerve" pain but it would never last for long.

Fast forward about 15 years and I had severe neck pain. I just woke up one morning and had neck pain - after seeing multiple doctors my current doctor said that if I had no injury just before this pain - it's possible my bad fall in teh 90's caused some disc damage in my cervical spine. Not enough to, at the time, cause ongoing pain. But as my body aged the disc became more damaged and some minor turn/stretch finally caused the disc to herniate and sit on the nerve - thus I had continuous neck pain (with pain through my shoulders and down my left arm).