Angie,

I would have thought that your mothers main issue is her strength around the neck. Any 'inury' will have healed this far down the line, so unless she has done anything else to her neck since it is unlikely that this is her source of pain. When you have an injury, the surrounding muscles tend to weaken due to lack of use, usually related to pain. Due to this when you use the muscles and you use the neck muscles most of the day, you ask them to do more than they are strong enough to do, this will cause muscle spasm and therefore pain.

What I suggest she does is make sure her neck is always supported - e.g. use the headrest when she drives, roll us a towel or use a cushion when sat on the sofa and ensure the neck is in aligment when sleeping. She also needs to avoid any cold draughts as that will make her tense up and use heat on the neck area when she is in pain.

But the thing that will fix her is to see a physio that can strengthen up the required muscles and that should hopefully reduce the problem.