6 Pains That Can Develop After A Car Accident

A thing about car accidents is that they are unpredictable – no matter how careful you are on the road, someone else can neglect the precautions and cause you severe damage. Moreover, the damage caused by car accidents is also unpredictable. In some cases, only your vehicle suffers and you walk off safely. Other times, a severe crash can result in serious, or even fatal, injuries.

Fortunately, most people involved in car accidents only suffer minor injuries. That said, you may think that you haven’t had any injury and you are safe to get back to routine again, and it might not be true. That is because there are, in fact, some injuries that don’t develop and show symptoms until after 24 hours of a car accident. You would think you are perfectly fine, but you would wake up in the morning and start feeling pain in different parts of your body.

These pains develop with intensity because you initially think you are fine after the car crash and you opt out of a doctor’s visit. However, throbbing pain in your neck, back, or shoulders will make you realize that you weren’t fine in the first place, and that the injury just took more time to show symptoms. Therefore, it is important to know about these pains, so you can be ready for them if you ever get wrapped up in a traffic collision.

Without further ado, let’s discuss 6 pains that can develop after a car accident.

1. Headache

There are numerous reasons why a headache is caused, and one of those reasons is involvement in a car crash. Although people usually take headaches very lightly, it is nothing to mess around with when you are recovering from car accident injuries and trauma.

A car crash victim goes through shock and trauma that results in pain in different parts of the body, including the head. Mostly, headaches do not get severe and are likely to vanish on their own. However, other times, headaches are just symptoms of another bigger complication, such as concussion, blood clots in the brain, head traumatic injury, and more.

You are always at risk of contracting traumatic brain injury if you have suffered head injuries in a car accident. That is because car crashes can force the brain against the skull, resulting in bruising or bleeding of the brain. If one ignores a headache after a car accident, one might be at risk of developing a more severe case for themselves.

Therefore, you must get checked up at the car accident clinic right after you go through a car accident, even a minor one.

2. Back Pain

Back pain is one of the most common pains people suffer after a car accident. In any type of accident, injuries like herniated disc, ruptured disc, back sprain, back soft tissue damage, and whiplash can occur. These injuries are responsible for mild to severe back pain. Injuries like herniated discs and whiplash, specifically, are known for not showing symptoms until after 24 hours or more, due to shock and trauma. Therefore, it is important to get a full-body check-up right after a car accident, so a car accident chiropractor can pinpoint your injuries before you even know that you have them.

In a herniated disc, the pressure of out-of-place spinal bones can compress nearby nerves, and this can cause pain, numbness, and irritation in the arms and hands.

Back pain can make you extremely annoyed and frustrated because it restricts your range of movement. You cannot turn your body without taking a full step in that direction. Moreover, you cannot bend, reach, or stretch yourselves. In other words, you wouldn’t be able to do any tedious tasks that you were once able to do. And before you make it worse, it is a must that you visit a spine specialist.

3. Neck Pain

Similar to back pain, neck pain can also occur as a result of almost all car accidents. Whiplash is the most common kind of neck injury that usually occurs in rear-ended car accidents. When a car hits your car from the back, it can push your body forward and backward rapidly while your neck delays that movement. This sudden movement of your body and neck can mess up the torque – located in the neck and connects the spine to the brain.

As a result, the neck becomes stiff and sore with immense pain and lack of motion. Similar to a herniated disc, whiplash can take some time before showing its symptoms. Sometimes, the case of whiplash gets worse and the neck starts swelling. More severe symptoms are lack of hearing and blurred vision.

Even if whiplash isn’t caused, neck pain can still develop after some time of the car accident due to immense pressure on the body or an issue with the spine.

Neck injuries can restrict your range of motion and cause frustration and stress; therefore, it is important to appoint yourself for car accident pain management.

4. Abdominal Pain

It is fairly common for car accident victims to realize that they have stomach pain after some time of the accident. This pain is usually because of internal bleeding or injury. Internal injuries of soft tissue are one of the most common causes of stomach pain after a traffic accident.

This pain can make it harder for you to sit, stand for too long in the same position, or sleep and eat properly. Bruises and dizziness can accompany the pain in the abdomen area.

Stomach pain can last for hours and days after the car accident, and if not treated right away with proper medical attention, it can make things much worse in your body.

5. Bone Fracture

You may think that a bone fracture would be noticeable right after that car accident, but that’s not the case always. Sometimes, less obvious kinds of fractures occur which are hard to detect right away.

It can happen when a bone that is fractured is not a weight-carrying bone, which makes it unnoticeable since you don’t realize the discomfort. Another reason why you probably wouldn’t notice the bone fracture is adrenaline.

When you are going through a car accident, you are accommodated by the release of adrenaline in your body which makes you have more energy than normal.

As a result, you don’t feel the pain of the bone fracture until after an hour or two has passed, or even more than that in some cases. In this instance, you need to contact a lawyer as soon as you believe you have an injury. When hiring a lawyer personal injury specialist, you can feel confident knowing that you are going to have your case heard.

6. PTSD

A car accident is a traumatic experience for everyone, and no one can deny that. Not only do you suffer material damage on your car, but your body and your mind also go through a toll. The stress of recovering from injuries and pains, accompanied by the tension of car repair and work delays, can lead to a pretty messed up state of mind.

A lot of people claim to experience post-traumatic stress disorder due to the reasons mentioned above. It is normal to feel that. You might develop new fears, such as fear of driving, being in the car, or being on the road. You might find it hard to sleep or have nightmares about the car crash.

The best way to cope with PTSD is to ask your car accident doctor to hook you up with a therapist and a support group.