Car Accident Recovery - I wish I knew then what I know now

Hi Evil, That is a nice article, nice that your helping others to cope with back pain. I initally hurt my back at a job, a crappy job at that, and the worst of it was that the owner was in the middle of selling the company to someone new. I got caught in the middle and ended up with minimal WC compensation and having to continue working with a herniated disc in my back. The new owner had somewhat taken over and pretty much forced me to quit because he refused to schedule me enough hours to work and live on and when I was at work I had to stand at all times. He woldnt let me sit down, I was a cashier at a Gas Station. Not a pleasant task with a herniated disc. This was in '95 and I eventually had surgery in '03. I could esily herniate this disc just from standing up out of a chair wrong. Which is how I hurt it which lead to the surgery. Seems nothing really helps the pain, but they do have treatments and products to "reduce" the pain. Im limited to what types of jobs I can do, and not considered disabled to draw disability from SS. Its been a tough haul, but Im happy to announce that since my surgery I have only hurt my back severely once since then. I slipped on some ice last winter and from Feb to June I was lying in the floor seeing a chiropractor 3 days a week. Unless you have dealt with backpain, severe back pain, no one understands. It just appears that nothing is wrong with you, when you are in pain that you cannot describe. Sorry to hear about your accident, I hope that you continue to be well and pain free as long as you can! Bay xx

Thanks for this info, I'll definitely read it and save it for future reference. My husband was also in an accident about 2 1/2 years ago; he was sitting still, waiting to pull into the parking lot where he works and his boss's wife pulled out from the lot right in front of a large truck. Somehow, the truck hit her SUV (but not that bad) and bounced off her and hit my husband, who was in our Honda Accord, head-on. He also suffered back and neck injuries and will have to have treatments for it indefinitely. We got "scr*wed" by the insurance company because our car was ten years old but was in excellent condition, then we got it again for the medical expenses. They started to refuse to pay for his physical therapy and chiropractic visits (the chiropractor isn't covered by our medical insurance and the PT has a large co-pay) so we ended up settling for a small amount which didn't come remotely close to what it had already cost us out-of pocket, never mind what our future costs will be! All this for being, in the words of the investigating police officer, a totally innocent victim! I also hope no one else has to go through this! Annie

Wow, that sounds very painful, evil. Thanks for the article. I, too, have back pain due to a car accident. My accident happened 16 years ago, but I still have to deal with it. It sucks! The good news is that I was told that I would probably never hold a full time job because of the damage done to me, and I have proven that wrong. I have just learned to adjust life to make sure I have enough energy to get through to the end of the day. Regular chiropractic appointments have keep me sane! What part of AZ are you from? I'm in AZ, too.