Watch the parking lot at Village Square on a Saturday and the notebook's favorite subject walks past a dozen times an hour: a person carrying something on one side. A purse strap over the right shoulder. A backpack slung by one strap. A two-year-old riding the left hip while the right hand digs for keys. Nobody thinks of these as posture. The Lab does, because a one-sided load is a small experiment people run on themselves all day, and after a car crash the results of that experiment change.
This entry is a field note, not a set of rules. The Lab does not tell anyone to stop carrying their kid. It records what one-sided loads tend to show in the weeks after a collision, and what is worth writing down before an exam.
The ordinary reading, before the crash
Most people have a carrying side and never chose it. The dominant hand holds the phone, so the bag goes on the other shoulder. The hip that takes the toddler is the one that has always taken the toddler. Over years the body settles around that habit: one shoulder rides slightly higher to keep a strap from sliding, the head tips a few degrees away from the load, the trunk leans a little to counterbalance. None of that is a flaw. It is a body adapting to a daily job.
The trouble with that baseline is that almost nobody knows theirs. The Lab's working assumption is that you probably carry on one side, you probably do not know by how much, and that is fine until something changes.
What changes after a wreck
After a collision, soreness in the neck, upper back and low back commonly arrives over a day or more rather than at the scene, which NINDS notes in its plain description of whiplash. As it arrives, the body starts to protect what hurts. The guarding entry describes that response in detail. One-sided loads are where guarding becomes visible, because a load asks the body to do something extra and a guarded body answers differently.
Some of the readings people bring back from the first week:
- The side switch. A purse that has lived on the right shoulder for ten years suddenly feels wrong there, and it migrates to the left without a decision being made. That is a reading. Note which side, and the day it happened.
- The shrug that holds the strap. The shoulder under the strap hikes toward the ear and stays there, even after the bag comes off. A shoulder belt crosses one collarbone in a crash, and soreness along that line is common.
- The hand carry. People stop using shoulder straps at all and carry bags in one hand, arm straight, or clutched against the chest. The neck is being kept out of the job.
- The toddler on the other hip. Parents report that the child who always rode the left hip now rides the right, or gets set down sooner, or gets lifted with an odd twist to avoid bending.
- The backpack cinched tight. Straps pulled short so the pack sits high and still, because a pack that bounces is a pack that pulls.
Each of those is the body choosing a path of less resistance.
Why the reading matters for the exam
A clinician examining a sore neck or back after a crash starts with a history: what happened, what hurts, what makes it worse. "It hurts when I carry things" is a true sentence and a thin one. "Since the Tuesday after the crash I cannot keep my purse on my right shoulder, the right side of my neck aches by the time I get from the car to the store, and I have been carrying my son on my left hip instead of my right" is data. It tells the examiner which side, which activity, and when it started, before anyone touches anything.
The same load also tends to bring on the same complaint reliably, which makes it a useful comparison point later. If a strap that bothered you on day four stops bothering you by week three, say so. If it bothers you more, say so sooner.
A carrying log for the notebook
One line a day for two weeks is enough. The Lab's suggested columns:
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Date | The day, and how many days since the crash. |
| Load | Purse, backpack, laptop bag, child, groceries, work tools. |
| Side | Which shoulder, hip or hand, and whether that is your usual side. |
| What you noticed | Where it pulled, ached or tingled, and how long after picking it up. |
| What you changed | Switched sides, set it down, carried by hand, asked for help. |
Do not test yourself to fill in the log. The point is to record what ordinary life already asks of you, not to add a heavier bag to see what happens.
What this entry is not saying
It is not saying a heavy purse caused anyone's pain, or that switching sides solves anything. It is not saying one-sided carrying is bad posture. The Lab does not grade posture, and a load you carry every day is part of your life, not a mistake. It is saying that after a crash, the way you carry is a sensitive, everyday instrument, and its readings belong in the history.
Numbness or tingling that runs into an arm or hand deserves a mention on the phone when you book, not only in the notebook. Weakness on one side, a sudden severe headache, chest pain, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is not a carrying observation at all. That is an emergency room trip right now.
Where the notebook goes next
Bring the log to the first visit. The first exam protocol explains what that visit covers: a history, a physical exam, findings written down, and a plan you can repeat out loud. Missouri Injury Clinic lists back and neck pain and numbness or tingling in the extremities among the auto injuries it treats, and it reserves same-day appointment times daily for car accident injuries.
For north county readers the nearest office is Hazelwood, at 14 Village Square Shop Ctr, (314) 627-1411, open Monday to Thursday 9am to 6pm and Friday 9am to 12pm, closed daily from 12 to 2. Tesson Ferry and O'Fallon are on the office index.