Back pain

Back pain can disrupt so many of our activities of daily living. It can make cleaning, sitting, walking, bending, and cooking nearly impossible. The most simple tasks can trigger our pain, and we may not even realize until the next day just how much those tasks impact us.

While there are many things you can do as basic injury maintenance (see “So you just got into an accident” for the list), if you have an active Personal Injury Protection case, you can get reimbursement if you need to pay someone to do these tasks for you (there are a few requirements such as the person not be a family member…). Rather than pressure yourself to do things your body doesn’t want you to do or feel overwhelmed by the dishes piling up, I suggest you make use of this little-known feature of PIP in order to decrease your stress. Stress reduction reduces muscle spasm, headaches, and improves a sense of well-being (see article below.)

https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/body#:~:text=Relaxation%20techniques%20and%20other%20stress,a%20sense%20of%20well%2Dbeing.

Don’t forget to continue light, gentle movement throughout the day. Light movement keeps your muscles from locking up into spasm. And, as always, consider the advice from your primary care physician or anyone else you have consulted on your medical care team to aid in your recovery.