Back Injuries – Bulging Discs and Herniated Discs
Being jolted around in a car during a vehicle collision can translate into physical injury. A car crash can be particularly hard on your spine – neck, mid-back, and lower back injuries can all occur.
What happens is that stress on your spine can cause spinal discs to bulge. You might have heard about a herniated disc, prolapsed disc, ruptured disc, or slipped disc. These are all the same as a bulging disc. A bulging disc is one of the most common causes of lower back pain.
What Is a Bulging Disc?
A bulging disc occurs when there is a tear in the outside part of a spinal disc. Spinal discs, sometimes called “intervertebral discs” since they are sandwiched between two vertebrae, are what allow your spinal vertebrae to move.
A tear in the outer part of the disc causes the softer inner part of the disc to protrude, or to bulge out. The bulge can then press on a nerve and cause pain. In addition, the tear itself can cause inflammation, which can cause severe pain.
Pain from a Herniated Disc
Each disc injury can cause varying amounts of pain. For some disc injuries, there are little or no symptoms. Other bulged disc injuries can cause enormous amounts of pain.
Regarding the progression of pain from a back injury such as a herniated disc, some disc pain can be mild at first, then become more severe over time. Although some back injuries do heal on their own, others can persist. In a minority of cases, pain from a back injury such as a bulging disc can become chronic – meaning that the pain never seems to go away, despite medical treatment.
Medical Treatment for Bulging Discs
Treatment for a herniated disc can really depend on the individual back injury. Medical professionals often try an anti-inflammatory approach, along with rehabilitation, physiotherapy programs, graduated exercise programs, and stretching. Cortisone injections are sometimes used in more serious cases. The last resort is back surgery, which aims to relieve the nerve compression that can be caused by a back injury.
In particular, surgical methods can be required when the problem persists for a lengthy period of time and causes significant symptoms and impairment.
Insurance Claims for Herniated Discs
Many times insurance companies will tell people who have suffered a back injury that it is minor. This is not true for many people.
In reality, many back injury cases are caused by car crashes. Back injuries are serious because they can affect your work productivity, your livelihood, and your enjoyment of life. They should not be taken lightly.
Make sure you get treated by your doctor for a back injury if you’ve been in a car crash. Consult an experienced injury lawyer if you suffer from a bulging disc or herniated disc so that you can make sure you get the proper treatment you need and get compensated from any lost days of work, along with compensation for pain and suffering.
BC lawyers serving Abbotsford, Langley, Chilliwack, Surrey, and Metro Vancouver.
