Bright line

Chest pain, a sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, a loss of bowel or bladder control, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is an emergency room trip right now, not a call to a clinic.

Emergency? The ER, not a clinic. The list

Where bones meet · St. Louis

Joints keep honest journals. A crash writes in all of them at once.

The Journal covers the hinges: shoulders that braced against a wheel, knees that met a dashboard, wrists that took the airbag, necks that took the whip. When a crash writes those entries, the reply is an exam with a written plan at Missouri Injury Clinic, three offices across the St. Louis metro, one of them on Tesson Ferry.

Ask for an exam this week Call Tesson Ferry (314) 530-5480

A documented exam this week protects your health and your options. Why the date matters

A brass caliper beside a cloth-bound notebook on a slate table. — **Plate I**The Journal's two tools: measure the joint, then write it down.

The entries

Eleven entries, one prescription.

Start with the inventory and the exam. The joint entries are the Journal's specialty pages; the desk entries tell you where to go, when, and who is paying for this publication.

Entry 01Start here

Inventory every hinge, then get the exam

The Journal's crash protocol, joint by joint: what to check over the first three days, what stiffness is hiding, and why the list is not a reason to wait.

Read the entry

Two hands gripping a steering wheel at a rainy intersection, brake lights blurred ahead through the windshield.

A chiropractic exam room with a padded table, a steel tray holding a goniometer and a reflex hammer, and a clipboard on the counter.

Entry 06The first visit

What the first visit actually is

History, an exam of how the neck and back move, findings, a written plan. The Journal walks through the exam at Missouri Injury Clinic and what to bring.

Read the entry

Entry 02Joints

The seatbelt shoulder

The belt that kept you in the seat also loaded one shoulder. How that joint complains, why it waits a day to do it, and what an exam looks for.

Read the entry Entry 03Joints

The dashboard knee

A knee that met the dash at low speed can feel fine standing still and wrong on stairs. What the exam tests when the bruise has already faded.

Read the entry Entry 04Joints

Wrists and the wheel

Bracing on the steering wheel sends the hit up the wrist, the elbow, and the shoulder in one line. The entry on the joints nobody thinks to mention.

Read the entry Entry 05Joints

The neck is a stack of joints

Whiplash is a joint injury before it is anything else. What the small joints of the neck take in a rear-end hit and why the morning after is when they speak.

Read the entry Entry 07Protocol

A journal without dates is a rumor

What a dated injury exam is and is not. The record is a care document first, and that is exactly why it holds up.

Read the entry Entry 08Geo

South County notes

Tesson Ferry, Lindbergh, I-55, I-270, and Gravois. Where the Journal's readers get hit, and the office on Tesson Ferry that can see them this week.

Read the entry Entry 09Desk

Three offices, every hinge

Addresses, hours, and phones for Tesson Ferry, Hazelwood, and O'Fallon, the midday close, and how to pick the office you can reach this week.

Read the entry Entry 10Desk

Asked at the desk

Twelve questions people ask after a crash, answered in the Journal's voice: dashboard knees, brain fog, scheduling, and what this desk is not.

Read the entry Entry 11Desk

About the Journal

Who keeps this desk, what it covers, how facts are sourced, and the advertising relationship with Missouri Injury Clinic, stated plainly.

Read the entry

The crash's favorite joints

Three hinges that take the hit and report late.

Bracing on the steering wheel drives force up the wrist, elbow, and shoulder. Dashboards find knees. Seatbelts load one shoulder and the ribs beneath it. All of them share the crash's signature delay: the complaint arrives a day or three after the impact, once the adrenaline is gone and the joint has had a night to stiffen.

The shoulder

The belt's shoulder, the bracing shoulder. A ball-and-socket joint held together mostly by soft tissue, which is why a belt load or a braced arm leaves it sore, weak overhead, and reluctant to reach behind. Entry 02

The knee

A hinge that met the dashboard, the door, or the floorboard. Often fine standing still, wrong on stairs, clicking by the weekend. The kneecap and the ligaments under it are what the exam loads and measures. Entry 03

The wrist

Eight small bones and a stack of ligaments, locked straight against a wheel when the brake lights ahead stopped moving. Wrist pain after a crash is routinely blamed on sleeping wrong. It is the Journal's most under-reported joint. Entry 04

The standing prescription

Examined this week, documented from visit one.

Joints stiffen and compensate quickly. A shoulder that guards itself for a month teaches the neck and the opposite arm to cover for it, and compensation patterns are easier to prevent than to unwind. That is the clinical reason the Journal keeps repeating one line: get the exam this week, not after the bruise fades.

The dated record that results is a care document first. It exists so the next clinician works from facts instead of memory. If a claim is ever part of your story, the dated record from that first exam is what everyone will ask for. Same paper, two jobs, and you do not need to have decided anything about a claim before you get examined.

What the first visit includes · What the record is and is not

A wall-mounted lightbox in a dim clinic hallway with a radiograph of a shoulder joint clipped to it. — **Plate II**The ball and the socket, lit from behind. A clinician orders imaging when a finding calls for it. Ask the clinic what it does.

The clinic in the Journal's margin

Missouri Injury Clinic

Putting the CARE back in Healthcare

Run by Joseph L. Hollingsworth, DC, a chiropractor. The clinic publishes three lanes, and the Journal's joints sit inside the first and third: auto injuries, with diagnosis and a written treatment plan after a crash; TBI and concussion rehab; and sports injuries. Sports joints and crash joints get examined under the same roof, which suits a journal that cannot always tell whose entry is whose.

Lane 1Auto injuries: diagnosis and a treatment plan after a crash
Lane 2TBI and concussion rehab, including oculomotor and cognitive rehabilitation
Lane 3Sports injuries and return-to-training care

Nearest for this desk

Tesson Ferry

11144 Tesson Ferry Road, Suite 200
Saint Louis, MO 63123

Mon to Thu 9am to 6pm
Fri 9am to 12pm
Closed 12 to 2 daily

(314) 530-5480 Ask for an exam at Tesson Ferry

North County

Hazelwood

14 Village Square Shop Ctr
Hazelwood, MO 63042

Mon to Thu 9am to 6pm
Fri 9am to 12pm
Closed 12 to 2 daily

(314) 627-1411 Ask for an exam at Hazelwood

Lake St. Louis

O'Fallon

2163 West Terra Lane
O'Fallon, MO 63366

Mon, Tue, Thu 9am to 6pm
Wed, Fri by appointment
Closed 12 to 2 daily

(636) 280-0990 Ask for an exam at O'Fallon

Every office closes from 12 to 2 each day. Call in the morning or after two, say it was a crash, and ask for an exam this week. If you already have an attorney, bring their contact so records can be sent where they need to go. Full office details

As published on moinjuryclinic.com

Three lines from patients, quoted whole.

Great service and wonderful people

Byron Coffee, as published on moinjuryclinic.com

Great service lovely staff!

Jaymee Golley, as published on moinjuryclinic.com

Missouri Injury Clinics is the best place for treatment.

Stephanie Griffin, as published on moinjuryclinic.com

The Journal does not collect, write, or rank reviews. These three are reproduced exactly as the clinic publishes them, and they are the only ones this desk will ever print.

South County edition

Pick the office you can drive to this week.

This edition is filed for readers south of the city: Affton, Crestwood, Oakville, Mehlville, Concord, Sunset Hills, and the Tesson Ferry corridor. The south office is the nearest. Hazelwood covers north county and O'Fallon covers St. Charles County, and all three run the same exam.

This page is advertising. This desk is compensated for featuring Missouri Injury Clinic, and it is not the clinic, not a law office, and not a party to anyone's insurance claim. We publish only the lanes, offices, and hours the clinic publishes on moinjuryclinic.com. We do not write reviews, rank providers, or give medical or legal advice.

Nearest office

Tesson Ferry, South County

11144 Tesson Ferry Road, Suite 200
Saint Louis, MO 63123

(314) 530-5480

Mon to Thu 9am to 6pm · Fri 9am to 12pm
Closed 12 to 2 daily

Ask for an exam this week South County notes