Chronic pain after whiplash

Hi Gabrielle, my 27 year old daughter, Jenna, who has practiced hot yoga for several years and loves it (she introduced me to it 2 years ago) was rear-ended at a stoplight 10 months ago, and is still suffering severe pain in her upper back and neck (vertebrae 1-6) and some after-affects of a concussion. She was previously severely injured at 14 years old when a truck hit her while she was bike-riding with a concussion then and seven broken and fractured bones – several in her back, her jaw was wired together, her collarbone broken. She recovered from the first accident beautifully, both physically and cognitively, but this time, although they can’t find anything on the MRIs or CAT scans that indicate an injury they can see, she is almost completely disabled because of pain. She also has light and sound sensitivity that doctors say is because of the 2nd concussion. She’s about to start graduate school next month with a scholarship, and is registering as a disabled student. The pain level, without medication is a 10 on a scale of 10 – she cannot walk for more than 10 minutes without vomiting, and cannot carry books, a purse, or do much of anything without experiencing extreme fatigue, even panic. I’ve tried to help with physical accommodations – a “Walkin’ Bag” for her to lean on and sit on and carry things (it’s amazing! – see online) and get her set up in her apartment with all her basic needs.
As far as medically, so far, she’s had the nerves burned (vertebrae 3-6) that send pain signals to the brain, and botox injections in her neck muscles that have relieve some of the stiffness pain so she’s now sleeping better, and has a narcotic patch for pain, a mood stabilizer, and a muscle relaxant – each of which help a small percentage so that she’s able to get through the days, but at this point it looks like she may have to find a way to cope with some measure of pain and disability, which is a major adjustment emotionally and physically. Once she registers, she’ll have health insurance and we’re going to try acupuncture and anything else that’s out there to help with pain management. However, she wants to do hot yoga again to try to heal the problem if possible, and it is always such a help to cope emotionally with not only normal stress, but especially in trying times. The doctors best guess is that the damage is in the soft tissue, since structurally, they can’t see anything that’s wrong in the MRI or CAT scans.
She asked me to write to you to see if you could give her some guidance on how to start hot yoga again because it helps her so much to cope, and she loves it. She’s tried it several times since the accident, but isn’t really clear what she should do or not do, even though the instructors have given her some ideas on modifications, but have pretty much left it up to her. She needs to have a clearer idea of what poses she may need to avoid doing completely at first, what adjustments she could make on others, and which poses to do that might help her heal. She said she can’t do the rabbit pose at all. She’s been going to a chiropractor and that didn’t seem to help her. We believe the heat and a gentle approach, relaxation and breathing could only do her good, but we need some guidance on how she could approach using yoga for healing, while not doing poses that might aggravate the condition, rather than just accept a life-long disability. We’re trying anything that might help medically and medicinally, but we’re looking for a non-drug long-term solution. Any guidance and help would be greatly appreciated. Please let us know if you need more specific information. We have Skype, if you want to talk with her. Our time zone is Pacific Time (California).
Thanks very much,
Megan and Jenna