Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and Louisiana Car Accidents

Living with an invisible injury brings its own set of challenges and frustrations. Sometimes people accuse you of faking your symptoms to get attention just because they do not see any gruesome-looking bruises, scrapes, or scars. It is easy enough to tell yourself that you are not going to let what other people say bother you, but it is not so easy when those people are making financial decisions related to your treatment and employment. Insurance companies offer settlements to people injured in car accidents, and these settlements theoretically include the cost of accident-related medical bills, but when you see the paltry amounts they offer, they might as well be telling you to tough it out and go back to work. Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a painful medical condition that can result from injuries sustained in car accidents. A Houma car accident lawyer can help you if you are suffering from chronic pain after the injuries you sustained in a car accident have ostensibly healed.

When Nerves Overreact to a Relatively Minor Injury

You might experience complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) as your nerves overreacting to a traumatic injury, as if your arm or leg has post-traumatic stress disorder after suffering, and apparently recovering from, a fracture or sprain. The medical cause of CRPS is that a main nerve gets injured when an arm, leg, hand, or foot suffers a traumatic injury such as a sprain or fracture. Even after the bones, muscles, and ligaments heal, it takes longer for the nerves to repair themselves. You might have chronic pain at and below the site of the injured nerve; if the nerve is in your knee, your whole lower leg may have symptoms. Besides pain, CRPS can cause numbness, weakness, or tingling. The nerve dysfunction might even manifest itself as skin changes in the affected area; the skin might differ in color, texture, and temperature from the rest of the body, and its hair and nail growth and sweat production may be abnormal.

There is no cure for CRPS; instead, treatments help you manage your symptoms until the nerves heal. Your doctor might recommend physical therapy and over-the-counter pain medications and prescription drugs such as steroids to prevent swelling and gabapentin to manage nerve pain.

If you developed CRPS after suffering a fracture or sprain in a car accident, then your CRPS-related medical bills count as accident-related medical expenses. Getting an insurance company or a defendant in a personal injury lawsuit to pay them can be a challenge, though. That is why you need a personal injury lawyer to help you recover the cost of your medical bills.

Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey About Car Accidents

A car accident lawyer can help you recover your accident-related financial losses if you develop CRPS or another chronic medical condition as a result of a car accident. Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey in Houma, Louisiana, to set up a consultation about your case.

Sources

https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/complex-regional-pain-syndrome