If you have chronic pain of any kind, you are aware of how challenging it can make even your normal day to day life. Any additional trauma, including car accidents, can make existing pain even worse. Pain management becomes a way of life. Finding the right physician to help with your chronic pain is an important step in being able to manage and treat your chronic pain so that you can participate in your life to the fullest.
Chronic pain is defined simply as pain that does not subside or disappear by 12 weeks after it was sustained. Pain is a sensation that everyone feels. It happens when we injure ourselves as the body’s way to let us know that something has happened that needs to be addressed. Many times the initial pain, also called acute pain, vanishes once the injury has been tended to, or heals. The pain disappears and we go on with our lives as usual. Chronic pain, however, doesn’t go away soon. It can last for weeks, months, and possibly even years. In some cases, the pain remains because of a specific injury.
When the injury first happened, your body activates the pain sensors in the body and sends the electrical pain message to your nerves and brain. When the injury is treated and heals, the pain sensors stop sending the pain signal. In some instances, however, the electrical signals keep being sent to your brain even though the injury has been addressed. This is what is called chronic pain. Sometimes, frustratingly, chronic pain can also occur with no obvious injury or reason. Some things that can result in chronic pain are:
Chronic pain has side effects as well. In addition to the regular sensations of pain, people who suffer from chronic pain also commonly experience problems with sleeplessness, appetite changes, depression, and fatigue. Chronic pain may cause decreases in activity, and can limit the way a person can move. This in turn can put limitations on the flexibility and strength of the body. All of these things can make chronic pain even more difficult to manage. People who live with chronic pain are often disabled by their pain and this can be deeply distressing.
Auto accidents are unfortunately common. Most are pretty minor, but many are serious. Even with a driver or passengers wearing a seatbelt, injuries could occur that can be the initial cause of pain that becomes chronic pain, or can exacerbate the pain of someone already suffering.
Rear or side impact crashes can cause a person’s neck to move quickly in one direction and back, and injury commonly known as whiplash. Sometimes this results in the neck muscles being strained, and in serious cases the vertebrae of the neck can be injured. Whiplash can easily cause chronic pain and also seriously make a case of chronic pain even worse. Range of motion in the neck and shoulders can be disrupted and pain can extend to the back as well.
Another injury that can contribute to chronic pain are broken bones, such as collarbones, leg and hip breaks. Normally broken bones heal up fine, but sometimes nerve damage can occur that doesn’t go away so quickly. A major cause of chronic pain is back pain and back injuries are common in automobile accidents. Movements during the impact can cause the small discs in the spine to move out of place resulting in pinched nerves and bulging discs. The bones of the spine can fracture, even the spinal cord can be injured.
All of these injuries can affect or result in chronic pain. Besides auto accidents, other kinds of accidents can make chronic pain worse as well. Repetitive motion injuries, workplace injuries, falls, and other kinds of accidents can all affect chronic pain intensity and duration. If you already have chronic pain and/or have been in an accident that has caused or made it worse, there is hope.
There are pain management specialists who specialize in helping to relieve and manage chronic pain and pain from automobile and other accidents. They may help relieve pain through an array of services and treatments to include chiropractic care, pain management, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, and other related treatments. The doctors and other members of the team will help you to devise a plan of pain management that will help to relieve and manage daily pain.
After an accident, physical therapy may be required to treat pain and to help regain flexibility and range of motion. Physiotherapy and rehabilitation services are offered at our offices to assist with this process of healing and pain management. Our pain doctors in Orlando also offer many services for neck pain therapy. Neck pain is common after auto accidents and is also a common place for chronic pain to take place. Our necks are prone to not only whiplash, but issue with the vertebrae and the discs between the vertebrae. Other things that can affect pain in our necks are repetitive motion, falls, aging, and just the daily stress of holding our heads upright. Cervical manipulation by a pain doctor at our Orlando office (also known as neck adjustments) can be very effective at reducing muscle spasms and other pain in the neck. It can also improve range of motion in the neck, and reduce soreness and stiffness.
Request an appoinmtnet or give our experts a call today at (844) 699-2273 to learn more and get started.
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