Auto Accident?
Injuries from auto accidents can be numerous, but the most common are spinal, soft tissue injuries to the spine, especially the neck and low back. We say “soft tissue’ to denote there are no broken bones, i.e. fractures. But soft tissue injuries are the most problematic. Broken bones generally heal well, even when they require surgery. But all the other tissues, e.g. joints, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, and more, can take months to get better, and usually, they are never quite the same, even if they resolve in terms of pain.
Auto accidents are, now, a fairly common trauma in our lives, so it is one of the many injuries we will acquire over a lifetime, and it will contribute to the amount of degeneration we accrue during our lives. For most of these injuries, the pain will eventually resolve, so there is no need to be unduly anxious about the outcome of these injuries.
Unfortunately, sometimes there are injuries that do persist for months or years, e.g. some herniated discs. Most cases of such auto accident injuries will not be severe, they’ll recover with treatment of 2 to 12 weeks, and all the parties will be reasonable, i.e. the insurance company, the patient, the doctors, the imaging facilities, etc. Occasionally, this process will become unpleasant and you may be made to feel like you, the patient, are being treated with suspicion.
One unfortunate reality for all, is that the older you are, and the weaker you are, the more likely you are to be hurt worse, and the longer your pain is likely to last, and, hence, your treatment.
When a young person, without pre-existing degeneration is injured, they recover quicker and the insurance companies are the beneficiaries of this young person’s status. An older person is a different matter.
