Everyone in the St. Louis metro carries a camera now, and after a crash most people use it for one thing: the cars. The other bumper, the plate, the intersection at Lindbergh and whatever cross street it was. Almost nobody photographs the person who was in the car. The Lab's suggestion for the week after is modest: take a few careful, repeatable pictures of how you are standing, so that you and the clinician have something to compare against later.
This is a field protocol, and like every protocol in the notebook its value comes from repeating it the same way. A casual mirror selfie is a snapshot. Four photos taken the same way on day three and again on day ten are a set of readings.
Why a baseline, and why now
People are poor witnesses to their own posture. You cannot see your shoulders from behind, and the body you feel from the inside adjusts so gradually that a head carried forward or a shoulder held high feels normal within days. The guarding entry covers how protective posture after an injury turns into the new normal when nobody records it.
A photo does not feel anything. It shows where a body stood at one moment, in one light, against one doorway. That is all it shows, which is why the method matters so much.
The setup
You need a helper, a phone, and a spot at home you can return to. The helper matters: a photo you take of yourself in a mirror is reversed, shot from an angle, and your raised arm changes your shoulders.
- Pick one doorway or one plain wall. A door frame gives the photo straight vertical lines to read against. Stand a step in front of it, not leaning on it.
- Fix the light. Same spot, same lamps on or off. Daylight changes by the hour; indoor light in the evening is more repeatable.
- Fix the time of day. Many people are stiffer in the morning and more tired by evening. Pick one and keep it.
- Mark the floor. A strip of painter's tape where your heels go, and another where the helper stands. Back the helper up far enough to get head to feet with the phone held level at about chest height, not tilted.
- Dress the same. Fitted clothes, shoes off, long hair pulled off the neck. A bulky sweatshirt hides the readings you want.
The four views
Stand the way you actually stand. Do not pull your shoulders back for the camera. Breathe out, let your arms hang, and look straight ahead at something at eye level.
- Front. Facing the helper. This view shows whether one shoulder sits higher, whether the head tips to one side, and how the arms hang.
- Back. Facing the door. The same questions from behind, where the shoulder blades are easier to see.
- Left side and right side. Both, not just one. Side views show how far forward the head sits over the shoulders and how the upper and low back curve. After a crash, the two sides are not always alike.
Take two of each and keep the clearer one. That is eight taps and about three minutes.
Labeling, so the photos mean something later
A photo without a label is a picture of a person in a doorway. Rename each file, or keep it in a dated album, with three things: the date, the view, and the day count since the crash. For example: 2026-08-27 day 3 left side. Phones store a date automatically, but files get copied, texted and re-saved, and that date can change along the way. Writing it in the name keeps it with the image.
Add one line of context in the notebook for each set: how you slept, how the day went, anything that hurt while standing for the photo. A set taken after a bad night and a long drive on I-270 is not the same reading as a set taken after a quiet day at home.
Repeat the set once a week, or when something clearly changes. More often than that tends to produce noise, not information.
What photos cannot show
This part deserves plain language. Your photos are not a diagnosis, and they are not a measurement tool. A phone lens distorts at close range, a helper holds it a little differently each time, and a body stands a little differently every minute. You cannot calculate angles from them that mean anything clinical, and an app that claims to score your posture from a picture is not doing what an exam does.
Photos also cannot show pain, stiffness, how far your neck turns, whether a nerve is irritated, or what is going on in a disc or a joint. They cannot tell a crash-related change from a posture you have had for twenty years. The desk years entry deals with that question, and its answer is the same as this one: an exam is the instrument that separates them. A photo is a supporting note that helps you describe what you have seen change. That is the whole job.
Bringing the set to the first visit
Put the labeled photos in one album so you are not scrolling past crash scene shots in the exam. Tell the clinician what the photos are before you show them: "These are my own posture pictures, same doorway, taken on day three and day ten." Let them decide whether the pictures help. The first exam protocol covers what the visit itself involves: a history, a physical exam, findings written down, and a written plan.
North county readers are closest to the Hazelwood office at 14 Village Square Shop Ctr, (314) 627-1411. Hours are Monday to Thursday 9am to 6pm and Friday 9am to 12pm, and every office closes daily from 12 to 2 for meetings. Missouri Injury Clinic reserves same-day appointment times daily for car accident injuries, so call in the morning or after 2. The other two offices are on the office index.
Book an exam and bring the photo set
One boundary, stated the way the Lab always states it: chest pain, a sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is an emergency room trip now. No photo session comes first.