We are actually getting winter rain this year. Along with the much-needed water, I am also seeing a sharp rise in the number of patients getting in fender benders. The wet slippery roads are making driving a little less safe right now. This puts you at risk for injuries that are not the usual type of injuries I see and treat in my office.
Typically I see patients that are in pain from a type of injury I call ‘human speed’ injuries. That usually means they lifted something wrong, slipped and fell, have been sitting too much, or did something that stressed their joints. The common factor for me is that the stress occurred within the limits of normal physiology, meaning the nature of the injury is something the body already knows how to respond to and just needs me to get the healing process jump started. My typical treatment plan for most patients is two to three treatments and they are fine. Auto accidents are an entirely different sort of injury.
In normal injuries your body has time to try to brace itself before impact or strain. The speed of the injury over stretches muscles and ligaments and creates joint misalignments and mismatched balance and coordination signals in the nervous system. These are all easily corrected and heal very quickly.
In an auto injury your body is not able to brace itself for the impact appropriately, even if you see the accident coming. Your balance and coordination nerves do not come into play when you are sitting down watching an accident about to happen. Any bracing you do when you do see an oncoming car is the wrong type of bracing and actually makes things worse. You are better off not knowing you are about to be hit so you are relaxed and more flexible, and able to absorb the impact better.
The speed of the impact is also critical. Human speed is around 1 to 4 miles per hour. When you slip and fall, even though it hurts, when you hit you are not actually going very fast. But in a car that impact is typically 5-10-15 times faster than human speed. Your body cannot adapt to that kind of speed, so tissues tear instead. Ligaments, muscles, fascia, even tendons can be torn in auto accidents. Nerve connections can be shorn away. The torn tissues release cellular debris into the tissue causing serious inflammation that triggers special scar tissue forming cells to try to glue the damaged area back together. While this might be a good idea for immediate survival, it creates a serious blockage to proper healing in the damaged area. Chronic long-term pain and impaired function are the frequent result of these kinds of injuries.
I have been telling patients for the last 35 years, “If you get into an accident, try to get in to see me immediately. If I can treat the area within the first 24 hours before the fibrous glue starts to get laid down, I can usually save you a ton of grief.” Even if you don’t feel injured right at the time of the accident, still get treated, as most people don’t really feel the extent of their injuries for 24 to 48 hour
Auto injuries are very different kinds of injuries from the typical lifting or fall injuries. In auto injuries damage will take anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks for muscle tears to heal, 2 to 4 months for tendon and fascia tears to heal, and ligaments can take 6 to 8 months for healing to take place if they are even able to heal at all. These differences are due to the amount of blood supply to each of these tissue types. The better the blood supply the faster the healing. This is a very different story compared to the usual stuff I deal with where there is no actual tissue damage, just inflammation and miscommunication.
Because healing from auto injuries involves more treatment and greater cost, money becomes an important issue. I very strongly recommend everyone buy Med Pay coverage on his or her auto policy. This is not the same as Bodily Injury, which is for other people and not for you. Med Pay is to cover your injuries. It is the cheapest medical insurance you can buy. I have $5000 coverage, which costs me $22 in one car and $28 for the other car for 6 months of coverage
Most insurance agents don’t even tell you about Med Pay anymore, as the insurance companies don’t make any money off it. It acts like a short-term loan if your car is hit as they collect the money back from the other guy’s insurance. If you are at fault, it is simply a cost for them. Often people skip Med Pay because they say the already have health insurance through work or elsewhere. But these plans do not cover alternative health providers like Chiropractors or massage therapists, or if they do it is in a very limited manner. Med Pay is there to cover your visits with someone like me.
Another confusion I hear all the time is “The other guy’s insurance said they would cover my medical bills cause they were at fault.” This is a scam. They do not pay doctors; they only pay you and only after you close the case. They know you do not want to pay for medical bills out of pocket, so they force you to do this so you will want to close the case early and let them off the hook for any long term consequences from your injury. So even though technically they will pay you back for your costs, you will have to pay out of pocket until you are completely well or can’t afford care any longer. So always be sure to have at least $5000 in Med Pay coverage on your auto policy.
Regardless of the weather, driving is a risk. Auto injuries almost always take a long time to heal compared to “human speed” injuries. High-speed musculoskeletal trauma needs a lot of supportive care for a lengthy period of time. Traditional medicine has little to nothing to offer these patients – only painkillers and muscle relaxants. That means complementary medicine like Chiropractic is the choice option. Massage and acupuncture can also be helpful. None of these are typically covered by your health insurance, so additional coverage like Med Pay is the way to go. If you don’t already have it, get it. Look on your auto insurance policy declaration page to see if you do.
The best choice is to drive carefully and defensibly to hopefully never get into an auto accident in the first place.