Gerry sustained a whiplash injury, with only minor symptoms initially…
Years later, after the accident set in motion the process of degeneration, she had to have neck surgery.
Long story short, she comes in to see me, with an old injury, the surgery to work around etc…
But the power of the body to heal (when in alignment) was released, and Gerry has this to say:

Unfortunately, too often I will see a patient that comes in years after a motor vehicle accident, with significant degenerative spinal changes directly resulting from an old motor vehicle accident.
The patient had originally sought no care after the accident because he/she had only minor (or non-existant) symptoms.

This is a BIG mistake.

A spine is not made to withstand a collision with an object(s) weighing thousands of pounds,

Below is a medical study discussing this very topic.

In a nutshell, it states that while patients were coming in with significant degenerative spinal changes years after a car accident, there was no correlation between the degenerative changes seen on x-ray and the symptoms that patient had after the accident.

Stated another way, you could have no symptoms after a minor accident and it can set in motion a degenerative process that will cause permanent spinal damage unless you seek proper care.

Excerpt:
“Of considerable interest was the finding in both series that
there was no statistical correlation between the development
of degenerative changes and continued symptoms.”
Source:
Mason Hohl, MD
Professor of Surgery/Orthopedics, UCLA Medical Center

“After cervical sprain not only pain and
neuropsychological disturbances may occur, but
also the following sequelae: cervical dystonia, and
torticollis, dizziness, hearing loss for low
frequencies, dysphonia and globus.”
[Globus is a sensation of something stuck or of a
lump or tightness in the throat.]
“Except for dystonia the symptoms often
respond to manipulation of a blocked articulation
between occiput and atlas or axis and the third
cervical vertebra.”

Source: Schweiz Rundsch Med Prax.
[This is a German journal, and the article is in
German. The abstract is also in English]

Death From War v. Death From Motor
Vehicle Collisions
How many Americans have died from car
accidents since the invention of the automobile?
How does this compare to the number who have
died in wars?
ANSWER: “The comparison is stunning.
Since the start of the Revolution in 1775, about
a million Americans have died in wars.
Since Henry Ford introduced the mass-produced
motorcar in 1913, more than 2.5 million
Americans have met their deaths on the road.”

“…In addition to injuring their necks, they sprained their ankles or broke their wrists. Normal painless function returned to their ankles and wrists in the expected period of time. These patients did not complain for month after month about painful ankles or wrists, but they did still complain of neck pain. It is difficult to understand why litigation neurosis in these instances should be confined to the neck.”

-Ian MacNab
Associate Professor of Surgery, University of
Toronto
Chief of Division of Orthopaedic Surgery,
Wellesley Hospital, Toronto.

What is “Litigation Neurosis”?
Essentially, it is pain that the insurance companies have determined there is no organic basis for, to avoid having to pay for any personal injury medical bills and/or bills for pain and suffering.

Summary of the article above: It doesn’t make sense that patients would make up pain in the neck (whiplash injury) resulting from a motor vehicle accident, but be forthcoming in stating there other pain has been eliminated.
Insurance companies don’t want to pay for soft tissue injuries. No fractures, no herniated disc, no injury is what they are saying.

It’s imperative you find a Chiropractor trained to document these injuries properly so your costs will be 100% covered by the insurance policy you paid to protect you.