Her first appointment with Jared Kohler ran about three hours. Multiple car accidents, multiple concussions, a symptom list long enough that he lost count of his intake pages, and a physiatrist who referred her out because he was honestly out of ideas. She had been in treatment for over two years without improving. In those two years, nobody had examined her upper cervical spine even once.
Why does a concussion workup need to include the neck?
It comes down to physics. It takes far less force to injure a neck than to concuss a brain, so any collision violent enough to cause a concussion has already whipped the neck that carries it. The two injuries produce overlapping symptoms, which is why we wrote a whole piece on why whiplash and concussion look identical. Her swallowing trouble, skull-base pain, visual changes, and unsteady gait all traced to a misaligned atlas that two years of well-intentioned care had treated around instead of examining. It's by far the most common gap I see in post-concussion care.
What about the setback?
To me the second act is the more useful half of the story. She was doing well, then got rear-ended again. Came in crying, so tender he could barely touch her neck. One precision adjustment, two weeks of holding, and nearly all of it reversed. Compare that to her original two-year slog. The difference is foundation. A body that has held a correct alignment for months rebuilds it quickly when it's disturbed, the way a paved road washes out less than a dirt one. It's also why we tell patients that the goal of care is the holding, not the adjusting.
Who is Jared Kohler?
Dr. Jared Kohler, DCCJP, practices at The Vital Energy Center on Orcas Island in Eastsound, Washington. You can reach him through the contact page on his site.