Our personal injury clients who suffer chronic pain resulting from injuries sustained in Coachella Valley car accidents invariably ask me what they can do about getting relief from their chronic back and or neck pain. My usual response is to tell them that their medical providers are their best source for that information; but I will share my knowledge of what some of my clients have found to be helpful. Although many accident victims eventually recover from their painful injuries there is a subset of people who simply do not recover and are left with chronic pain that is often debilitating.
Many of our clients at the Barry Regar Law Firm begin their medical treatment for their auto accident, truck accident or motorcycle accident related injuries at an emergency room in one of the hospitals in Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, or Indio. They are often transported to the hospital by ambulance. It is typical to be seen by an emergency room physician who most often provides pain medication in the ER room and sends the patient for X-rays, Cat Scans, or MRI studies of the suspected injured body parts.
The ER room visit is often the first step in the long process of moving through the medical treatment system. The patient will probably next be seen by a primary care physician who may order more diagnostic studies and prescribe pain medication, anti inflammatory medication and muscle relaxers. Depending on the patient's symptoms and the results of the diagnostic testing the doctor may send the patient for physical therapy. If these treatment methods don't work, the family doctor will refer the patient to an orthopedic specialist, or a pain management doctor. The orthopedic doctor will usually order additional tests if deemed appropriate to determine if the patient requires some form of spinal surgery.
Our clients who have injured their intervertebral discs or facets as a result a motor vehicle accident most often end up with some form of pain management treatment. These treatments usually involve epidural steroid injections or facet injections. These procedures are designed to inject a numbing agent and a cortisone derivative into the pain generator location to quite down the inflammation that is thought to be causing the patient's pain.
If these injections don't work and the patient is not a surgical candidate the patient has failed treatment and is left with chronic pain and disability. The options for the patient at this point are limited to pain medication that may result in an addiction problem or to, "non-traditional" alternatives. These can include meditation, yoga, massage therapy, or acupuncture. Many of our Palm Desert auto accident clients have found acupuncture to be of benefit to them.
In a recent study reported in the September 10th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine it was determined that there is now even more evidence that acupuncture can help those with chronic pain. But the patient should get true acupuncture from a qualified practitioner and not sham acupuncture. The Study suggested that the patient should get a reliable referral from one of their treating doctors.
The Archives of Internal Medicine article reviewed data that had been reported in 29 studies conducted in Germany, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States which involved 18,000 patients. The author of the study stated that, "I can say with confidence that what we found is the strongest evidence to date supporting the effectiveness of acupuncture."
The authors of the new study examined the effect of acupuncture on four types of chronic pain that the patient had suffered for at least one month. These pain symptoms were back, and neck pain, osteoarthritis, chronic headache and shoulder pain. The author concluded that patients who have standard treatment and get a 30% reduction in pain may get as much as a 50% reduction of pain after undergoing true acupuncture.
Contact the Palm Springs car accident lawyer at Barry Regar APLC for your personal injury accident questions.