After a car accident, you might find you need several types of treatment. Chiropractic, physical therapy, or massage therapy may help. But if not, you want to know what your options are. One possibly is an injection of medication to the injured parts of your body. This isn’t as simple as getting a shot of morphine where it hurts, however. Whether an injection will help you or not depends on the kind of injury you have and how badly you were hurt.
Car Accident and Chronic Pain
After a car accident, you might have chronic pain and your doctor may recommend an injection. Whiplash, which forces your neck forwards and backward at high speed, is sometimes treated by sending steroids directly to compressed nerves. Injections can also help with radiculopathy, where pinched nerves cause sharp, shooting pain that radiates throughout your body. Back injuries such as herniated discs, strained ligaments, or damaged vertebrae, can also benefit through reduced swelling and inflammation. Whether an injection will help, however, depends on the injury and type of injection.
One specific option is an epidural steroid injection, which involves a shot of corticosteroid into the epidural space around the spinal cord to reduce inflammation and pain. Another option is a trigger point injection, where saline, local anesthetic, and a corticosteroid are injected into knotted muscles to reduce nerve irritation. There are also nerve block injections, which target specific nerves to reduce the transmission of pain signals to the brain. These injections are meant to provide relief while your body works to heal. You’ll need to carefully consider these treatments, as like any other medical procedure, there are potential risks.
Injections Side-Effects
Whenever you undergo a medical procedure, always talk to your doctor first. Injections can have side-effects, with the more serious being allergic reactions, bleeding, or infections. You could also experience anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and a light fever in the day or so after. Headaches, stomachaches, and dizziness are common but not universal, and you could just have minor pain or soreness. The goal is to restore you to the health you enjoyed before your accident. But you’ll also want the right personal injury attorney who can advise you on how your medical care affects your claim.
Injections, like any other medical treatment, can influence the settlement of a personal injury case. Insurance companies will look at what treatment was needed, and any delay in receiving it. Multiple injections help establish the severity of your injuries by showing your pain requires ongoing care. Whether your case goes to trial or not, your auto accident attorney would show that injection was necessary for your recovery. You would work closely with your personal injury attorney through the entire process for the best possible result.
No matter how obvious your injuries are or how much treatment you need, you can’t rely on that fact alone. You also need someone who can show that all your care was necessary for your recovery. You’ll want someone who knows what it takes to win a personal injury case, either by negotiation or at trial. We at Park Chenaur and Associates have been fighting for our clients for years, no matter what challenges arise. We know how hard your life can be after an accident, and we know what it takes to get you the settlement you deserve.
