Chronic Pain and Your Car Accident Claim
Children often notice that adults are, in general, grumpier than folks who are too young for a driver’s license. Even the most fun, kind-hearted, and playful adults in your life sometimes have inexplicable bad moods. Then there are the adults who are permanently grumpy, so grumpy that other adults warn you about them before you even enter their presence. Most people, even the grouchiest ones, are not naturally mean-spirited. Instead, the source of their foul mood is usually physical pain, financial stress, or both. The older you get, the more the fun and the mishaps of your youth begin to manifest themselves as aches and pains that make daily activities difficult or unpleasant. If you do not live with chronic pain, count your blessings. Sometimes an apparently minor injury, one that did not keep you away from work for a long time when it happened or require admission to the hospital, can lead to months or years of pain. Car accidents are a common cause of injuries where the pain lasts for a long time after diagnostic images show that the original injury healed. After a car accident, but before you are sure whether the pain will go away quickly or last long enough to interfere with your economic productivity, contact an auto accident lawyer.
Don’t Assume That Everything Will Go Back to Normal as Soon as the Injury Heals
Traumatic injuries, like the ones that occur when your body suddenly collides with one of the structures inside your car, might take hours, or even days, to show their severity. Soft tissue injuries like whiplash injury do not show up on X-rays and other diagnostic images, so you might not know how bad the pain is until a few days later. Likewise, concussions take a few days before pain and other symptoms peak. It is even harder for doctors to predict when pain will go away. It is almost impossible to test for injuries to the peripheral nervous system. Even though the X-ray doesn’t show it, the nerves near the site of a bone fracture might be injured. This can lead to complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), where you feel pain, numbness, or unusual temperature sensations in the affected body part until the injured nerves heal, which can take more than a year.
How Chronic Pain Affects Your Finances
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines chronic pain as pain that is severe enough to be noticeable every day for at least three months. In 2023, one quarter of adults lived with chronic pain. Although people with chronic pain are able to identify pain triggers, such as strenuous exercise or insufficient sleep, it is often difficult to predict when your symptoms will be better and when they will be worse. Between medical bills and missed paychecks, chronic pain can throw your finances into turmoil. Therefore, it is important to have a lawyer help you get an adequate settlement after a car accident injury.
Contact Monaco Law About Car Accidents
Contact Monaco Law PC in Marlton, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to discuss your car accident case. Joseph Monaco is a New Jersey and Pennsylvania personal injury lawyer serving Atlantic County, Bucks County, Burlington County, Cape May County, Camden County, Chester County, Cumberland County, Delaware County, Gloucester County, Mercer County, Middlesex County, Monroe County, Montgomery County, Philadelphia, Ocean County, Salem County, Susquehanna County and all of New Jersey.
Source:
phillyvoice.com/severe-chronic-pain-rise-adults-cdc-high-impact/
