Car accidents aren't fun
 

So yesterday I was heading home with my DN when crunch, someone decided I must be Wonder Woman in her invisible car and drove into my rear quarter panel. A pretty penny's worth of dmgs on a paid off new car, but eh #%@$ happens. And I somehow managed to keep my cool throughout the ordeal minus a rude shout out the window while I was spinning.

DN appeared to be right as rain, a mild headache his only complaint but then he was out in the sun a good bit of the day without sunglasses and had a rude awakening. It was a slow speed wreck, but I still got checked by the seatbelt, and given the bruise growing on the elbow probably whacked the door with it as I tried to control the spin out so we didn't end up in her side.

No air bags went off, and other than a little shaken I felt relatively okay, until... Last night, then the shoulder and neck injured in a previous accident last year started to hurt, then after a shower the hip joined in the pain on the side where the seatbelt clips on the right side and there's a faint little bruise there but not one that you would expect to cause so much pain, after going to bed the lower back also felt the need to jump in, and this morning not to be outdone by the rest the left leg has decided to simply go to sleep minus little hissy fits of shooting pain from the ankle to the hip.

I'm trying to fool myself, that the majority of the pain I feel is simply reactive, brain heard: screech, crunch and said Ohhhh I remember that means all this hurts! But since the MS makes everything so slow to heal I'm not quite entirely convinced that the existing injuries weren't re-exposed. But then MS can also heighten reactive pain.... So now I have a slight dilemma, I can cave to the pain and go running to the doc for narcotics to shut it up, but just like taking antibiotics without a bacterial infection, it dulls the effectiveness when I really do need them.

Or I can battle my way through the pain in the hopes the brain will wake up and realize that it's not really injured, but if it is really injured I run the risk of worsening the injuries.

And if I say, just let the doctors decide, then I'll have yet another legal battle going on punishing me for another's departure from reality, temporary blindness or derby-car flashback. Since the constant nagging calls to lawyers, insurance companies and doctor's offices and the return nagging calls from the latter are brutal, while nothing seems like it will ever be resolved and the bills just keep growing.

What to do? Especially when I feel like taking a nap right now with a plastic bag tied 'round my head, fixing the pain at its source and never needing to worry about a legal battle, ongoing or otherwise.:(

Sorry I think I posted this in the wrong thread, moderators can move it please...

This is the correct forum....no worries. :)

Poor you. :hug:

Please come over to the TBI/PCS forum and have a chat with all of us MVA veterans. So much of what can happen, isn't apparent for sometime after the actual collision.

My first bit of advice is, trust your body, not the doctors. If you're an American, you might want to consider doing a free consult with a personal injury lawyer. In the interim, you probably don't want to sign anything or even speak a word to the other side's insurance people.

Thanks hockey, unfortunately their insurance is the same as our insurance, the same issue as the last accident I was in. So I really don't want to get involved in another legal dispute even if it means taking the hit for the medical side of things. Already having MS on top of it also makes for a real messy fight sussing out pre-existing from 'accident'.

The biggest issue I'm faced with right now is do I drug the pain, deal with it, or end it all once and for all... The latter is especially tempting right now, not depressed, angry or even particularly 'crazed' ATM, just so so very tired of pain I really didn't need to add to it.

And the pain meds don't do much anyways if previous experiences are anything to go on, even when I was taking morphine the doctors couldn't give me anymore and I think I was in more pain taking it then without at least without I could 'ignore' some of the pain and control it better. Taking it just fogged up the little guy in charge of the pain switch.

I hate feeling like a Shakespearean parody: to drug or not to drug that is the question.... Or my mind quoting him outright: go not softly into that long goodnight...rage, rage against the dying of the light! When I really want it to tell me to find a cliff and fly:p. Let someone else find my battered skull... "Poor Starz, I knew her well..."

<firmly puts down the Shakespeare, seeks out better reading material :D>

I would see a doctor and let them check you out.

Sorry this happened to you. MS is enough to deal with! :hug:

What Lovecats said, definitely!!
Get any injuries on record, just in case.

Feel better soon.:hug:

I did breakdown and go to the hospital, they xrayed and came back with sprains, strains and contusions. Gave me a pain killer and anti-inflammatory, noting some weakness but unclear if it was from MS, pain, both or the bulging disks, and said to return if I really couldn't move my arm or my leg. But the numbness was probably from nerves being angry and not any infringement of the spinal cord.

She did have me a bit nervous when she told me she wanted the xray of the neck and back to see if she needed to send me up to the OR for emergency surgery :eek:. I mean I was there primarily for pain, not for getting cut open, so was really thankful that wasn't the case. DN is still doing very well, no further signs of injury aside from a slight ache in his back this morning that went away with two advils and hasn't made any sort of return. He wasn't even sure if it was from yesterday or sleeping wrong, but had him take the Advil anyways.

I'm beginning to wonder though if all those MRIs have made me magnetic though since on the way to the hospital with my mom cars seemed suspiciously drawn towards her car, she had a couple of close calls both on the way there and on our way back. And I don't think it was just sensitivity to the now two wrecks, since she had to maneuver around a few idiots and even held her own breath on one particular near collision. And it's not even a weekend filling the roads with drunks:eek:

If I am reading this, the accident was some one else's fault. They need to be paying for all of this

Yes it was their fault, and ga isn't a no fault state, but it doesn't mean they'll necessarily pay in full for the damages. As my hubby and I learned last year after a truck was trying his best to kill us. Nearly succeeded with me, thankfully not so much with the hubby.

It was completely his fault, nothing we could have done to avoid the accident short of being mind reading psychics who could telepathically communicate to others in traffic, and even though damages are less than the total coverage limits on the insurance policies, we're still battling it out with lawyers on our side. Insurance offering a minor fraction of the medical bills and with nothing towards time missed for work on my husband's side.

For my claim which is much higher, sustaining much more significant damage in the wreck and many of the injuries are life-long impairments, they haven't even given a response.

So yes, she is liable, technically there should be no harm or foul to me, go to the doctor, repair the car and be made 'whole' in accordance with the law, but good luck getting the insurance companies to adhere to the law. Which was my part of my trepidation in going to the hospital or even seeing my GP over it. I don't relish another legal $&@#ing match. Especially when I already have one on my plate. And now this accident though not a fault will likely get thrown into my other accident as the insurance company will be happy to say: Well, see now it's no longer our drivers fault if she has life-long impairments, she might have gotten better if not for the next accident.

Especially if it goes to court as it seems to be heading there, and the newest accident's insurance of course is going to say it's not their problem to take care of the injuries because I was previously injured in an accident, so they aren't liable for the damages previously existing.

At fault, not at fault, no fault state or at fault state, you still end up paying for another mistake short of hiring a dirty lawyer and lying through your teeth while seeing crooked doctors.