Car accident 6 months ago in pain ever since

Hello all- I'm here because I don't have anywhere else to turn. about 6 months ago I was in a pretty bad car accident ( I was cut off in traffic by a car turning left and slammed into them at about 35-40mph). At the time I was 7 months pregnant and thankfully my daughter waited another 8 weeks for her due date to be born. My entire workup after the car accident was entirely geared toward making sure she was ok, because immediately after the car accident the car cabin started filling with smoke (from air bag) so I immediately jumped out the car thinking it might explode or something. So by the time i got to the ER they knew I was mostly ok.

I told them my belly hurt (I ended up with a fist sized bruised to the right of my belly button where my poor sweet pea smashed into the steering wheel and then got punched by the air bag) and that my chest hurt so bad I could barely bring my arms forward. I absolutely couldn't reach for things acoss my my body. I could hardly lay on my side the chest pain was so bad. They did an ultrasound to check my liver, spleen, but mostly to make sure I wasn't having a placenta abruption and that my sweet pea didn't have any broken bones. I spent about 5 hours in OB for additional monitoring and went home. They sent me home with #5 vicodin and told me to follow up with my OB. A few days later (TMI alert!) I noticed my upper back hurt a little and i started having trouble wiping after gong to the bathroom (so much so that I regularly just had to shower after because I couldn't get myself clean with just regular wiping. This was my first pregnancy so i just figured it was run of the mill mobility issues pregnant women have and everything would clear up after i gave birth. Yeah, not so much...

Fast forward 8 weeks from the accident and my daughter is only a day or so old and I'm in excruciating pain. Breast feeding her every 2 hours brings tears to my eyes. I feel like I'm being stabbed with hot knives in my spine and lit cigarettes are bing put out between my shoulder blades. At night when I'm trying to get whatever sleep I could, when i would try to roll over i could feel what felt like bone on bone and I still can't rollover in one fluid motion. I still rollover like I have giant pregnant belly.

By the time my daughter's weight reached 8lbs, she was 7lbs2oz at birth, I could hardly lift her and I nearly dropped her a time or two putting her into her crib. The first week of July i started seeing a chiropractor who diagnosed my with whiplash and for the past 3 1/2 months I have been getting twice weekly adjustments. All had been going well until about 2-3 weeks ago.

My daughter is upto 17lbs and I had been able to keep caring for her as her weight climbed. I was sleeping more comfortably and I was only having like one headache a week. Over the past  2-3 weeks the pain has started to wratchet back up. Last Monday i woke up and it was like the accident just happened. I couldn't lift my daughter. i could hardly move. Everything from the bottom of my ribs up just felt like it was on fire. I'm still seeing my chiropractor and the adjustments are unbelievably painful whereas they once brought relief. I have blinding headaches most days of the week.

I eneded up seeing a dr covering for my PCP because she was out that day. He rx'd me vicodin, flexeril, ordered a MRI of just my neck(?) and referred me for physical therapy. The MRI came back normal so he said just keep up with the physical therpy and chiropractor. I'm just at a loss. I haven't started PT, but i'm scared becuase I'm in terrible pain just from a 1/2 day of chores or carrying my daughter a lot.

I feel like my motherhood and my daughter's life has been ruined. I have been on maternity leave since I was 6 months pregnant, my daughter is 4 1/2 months old now, and I can't return to work either. I'm an RN and have to be able to lift 50lbs and can hardly lift my kid.

I'm just so frustrated, angry and sad. At the time everyone, myself incuded, said "how lucky are you that you and your baby didn't die?" Since she was born everyone has been acting like, "God, you're still talking about that? You've got a beautiful baby girl, a great husband and you get to be a stay at home mom! Why are you still on that?"

I haven't gotten proper care for my injuries from the start, because nobody wants to muck with a pregnant women. Even if they had, pregnancy hormones supress inflammaton and soften joints making any concrete diagnosis and treatment difficult. No one will tell me what kind of drs i should seek out, whether or not my condition will improve or not, or when I can expect to go back to work.

 Now that it's been 6 months drs just treat me like a bored housewife and even hint at post partum depression. I'm a mom. I can't say, "sorry baby my back hurts, I can't nurse you today. Sorry baby my back hurts, I can't cuddle you." I'm a mom! I can't choose to not do stuff! I just have to do it in a lot of pain that is present all the time.  Now, becuase I kneel and squat a lot to compensate for the fact that I can't reach well, both of my knees hurt.

I'm only 29 and I feel like I'm looking down the barrel of a life long disabilty with $15K in student loans to pay back for my nursing degree. I can still walk and do have a fair degree of movement, but unless I can lift 50lbs I don't have the experience to move to a less strenuous area of nursing. We haven't settled with insurance companies yet, but I know I'll get screwed, because I was on maternity leave when it happened. It's been this big black cloud over what I spent my entire life looking forward to.

Hi Missrn
Just wanted to welcome you to the site. Sounds like you've had quiet a rough time. Life sure isn't easy. Like David said, this is a great place to vent your frustrations and get some support. Although none of us are doctors you'll find a lot of imformation here just from the experiences of some many people. I wish you all the best and again welcome to the site.
Stingray(Randy)

Hi missrn, welcome to the forum. I have pretty well been my son's care taker since the day he was born, so I know about the physical and emotional strain of that, he's going to be 3 next month, and its just me and him, his mom left the.scene over a year ago.

I think you need to get in to a neuro surgeon, and get an MRI of more than just your neck. Or an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in the back. And bored certified too, that's an additional 1000 hours of training, plus constant training to keep that board cert. If you have a PPO insurance, you should be able to just make an appointment without a referral. My uncle had many of the same problems that you do, and he just had a dual artificial disc replacement at his shoulder blade level, he's doing great now, 10 weeks after surgery.

I think a pain management dr might also be in order, they can do epidural shots, and other things that might ease some of the pain for you. I hope you get some answers soon, I know how rough it is to take care of a little one, that alone is a total drain on you.

I don't know how it effects your pain, but it seems to me, that by breast feeding your little one, it may be sapping your body of nutrients that you need to heal. I would post that question to your doctor, I know breast feeding is supposed to be way better for baby (and its definitely cheaper) but it won't do you or your child any good if you can't heal, and you might want to add some supplements to help you, or switch to formula, so your body can mend itself; again, I don't know if that's an issue or not, but I think it could be.

Congratulations on your little bundle of joy, it's really exciting to watch them learn and grow every day. I hope your able to find some treatment and relief for your pain, and hopefully, it's an easy fix, like a few weeks of good PT, or something like that. Take care, and God bless, and keep us posted on how you're doing. The more you come around the forum, the more you'll find that you're not alone.

Missre -
Welcome to the forum.

I hope you are gathering all information, pictures, doctors' reports etc. You should also have a lawyer right away to help you through this. It's not about getting money, but you need help and you need someone knowledgeable besides just doctors.

I've been going through the pain, surgeries and treatments from an accident for 3 years, and I couldn't even begin to keep up with the paperwork without my attorney. Insurance companies don't deal with patients. I tried for a year and a half and finally had to find professional help.

Take care of yourself and your daughter, and best wishes to both of you.

Hi Missrn and welcome to the chronic pain forum. I am sorry that you have to be here but glad that you found us. By coming here you know that you are not alone with your suffering, everyone here suffers with CP.

You are right, because of the pregnancy no one would have touched you with a ten foot pole treatment wise. Because of the lack of treatment you have ended up with chronic pain. Had you seen drs the most you would have been allowed to do would have been physical therapy. No dr would have given you any medication because of you being pregnant. I saw this many times when I was working. I worked as a paralegal for over 20 yrs and did a lot of personal injury work.

I think at this point I would forego any further chiropractic care and get in started with the physical therapy ordered by the PCP. If you are hurting more after seeing the chiro that is your bodys way of telling you that treatment is not working, why waste money on treatment that is not helping. Physical therapy can be very beneficial especially if you have a lot of muscle spasms going on and I am betting you do. I have been in 3 accidents and have been in PT each time. If you find the physical therapy has not helped, then ask your PCP to refer you to a pain mgt dr..

There are alot of different things a PM dr can do for people that have chronic pain. The key to it, is finding a treatment that works for the person. It is not a one size fit all type of thing.

I also urge you to find yourself an atty to handle your auto accident claim for yourself and your baby. Your baby is also a part of this accident. Also, look for an atty that is board certified in personal injury work. You want someone that handles these type of claims all the time and not someone that dabbles in a little of this or that. Board certified attys have to keep up with continued education courses to keep their certification up. You should have a lawyer referral service listed in your phone book or look on the internet. I would stay away from the blow hards that advertise on tv how wonderful they are and they will get your thousands for your claim. They are interested in volume of cases not quality and they have no idea who their clients are because everyone is a number. You want someone that knows who their client is and what their case is about. I have seen some of these types handy work and they do not work for their clients. Stick with someone local in your city, so that you can go into their office for appointments.

Anyway, I wanted to pop on and tell you hello and welcome aboard....Susie