No Pain at First? You Still Could be Seriously Injured

Let’s say that you are in an accident. You get hurt, you get medical treatment, and after treatment and consultation with the doctor, you know what’s wrong with you.

It would be convenient if it worked just that way. But in reality, it often doesn’t. That’s because the human body often doesn’t tell you what’s wrong with it immediately, and right away. There are a number of times when the symptoms or signs of injury don’t present themselves until hours, or sometimes even days after the accident.

Do You Feel OK? Don’t be Fooled

There is a danger in “feeling fine” after an accident. It is a false sense of confidence, and a feeling that can lead us to delay or avoid medical care and treatment altogether. We feel that if we don’t immediately sense pain or some sort of disability that we are fine.

The other danger in delayed onset of pain or injury, is that we can often make smaller injuries worse. We commence routine physical activity after an accident, never knowing that we are making that herniated disc, or torn ACL worse. When the diagnosis of these kinds of injuries do happen, they are worse than they would have been had we known about these injuries immediately after the accident happened.

Bleeding in the Brain

Take a brain bleed, which may be one of the most dangerous delayed-response post accident injuries that can happen to someone.

Brain bleeds can be so small, and so slow, that you show no symptoms immediately after an accident, and the bleed may not even show up on routine emergency room scans or X-rays. But over time (often, over hours), the bleed gets bigger, putting pressure on the brain, and death can be the result.

Ligaments, Tendons Sprains and Strains

Other injuries may be less deadly, but they still can be slow to manifest.

You’ve probably had an external injury—say, a laceration—that at first looks or feels tolerable. But as the hours go on, the laceration swells, gets red, and painful. The inside of your body is no different.

Ligaments, tendons, and other body parts, may, at first, feel fine, until the swelling sets in (imagine professional athletes who finish games after tears, strains and sprains—only to be out for weeks after the game is over, when the severity of the injury is known and has set in).

People with rotator cuff tears of the shoulder often report no pain until hours or days after the injury. People with neck or back injuries often get their first blast of pain, the morning after their accident.

Adrenaline Masks Pain

Adding to all of this, is the role of adrenaline.

Adrenaline is the chemical that goes through your body in times of pressure or stress. It also can have the effect of masking pain, at least temporarily. While you are stressed in the immediate aftermath of an accident, you may not even feel pain until the adrenaline wears off, at which point you find yourself in much more pain than you expected.

Don’t assume you are fine after an accident. Get medical and legal help, quickly. Call the Knoxville personal injury attorneys at Fox Farley Willis & Burnette, PLLC, today for help.

Sources:

nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000028.htm

webmd.com/back-pain/guide/low-back-strain

pinnaclehealthchiro.com/blog/how-adrenaline-and-endorphins-can-delay-the-pain-you-feel-after-a-car-accident#:~:text=Adrenaline%20tells%20your%20body%20how,be%20partially%20or%20completely%20masked