The Shoulder
The Shoulder
56
hearty-hare-098

7 months out, still in daily pain, and I feel like no one believes me anymore

I just need somewhere to say this out loud because I feel like I'm going insane.

I got T-boned back in the spring — completely out of nowhere, guy ran a red light at a busy intersection and hit the passenger side of my car. The impact was bad enough that my car got pushed halfway into the next lane. I walked away, or so I thought.

First few weeks I had the usual soreness and stiffness and figured I'd bounce back. My doctor ordered some imaging but there was this whole insurance pre-authorization nightmare, so by the time I actually got the scans read, I was almost six weeks out from the crash. The results were not "usual soreness" — compression fracture in my lower back and soft tissue damage in my neck and shoulder that the radiologist said looked significant.

I have a PI attorney but honestly? I feel like I'm just a file number to him. He checks in maybe once a month. And my doctor — I swear the energy in the room shifts the second I mention I have legal representation. Like I went from being a patient to being a liability.

I went back to my job in logistics coordination about six weeks ago because I ran out of options financially. I'm on my feet a lot, lifting sometimes, and every single day I come home and just collapse. I'm taking anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxers and I'm still rating my pain a 6 most days.

People at work think I'm fine because I show up and smile. My family is proud of me for "pushing through." I'm just... so tired of pushing through. Has anyone else felt completely invisible in their own recovery?

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10 replies

  • 19
    cool-fox-658

    Genuine question — has your attorney actually seen the full radiology report, or just the summary your doctor gave? Because sometimes the clinical notes and the actual imaging findings say different things, and if your attorney is basing his read of the case on a one-paragraph doctor summary, he might genuinely not understand how serious the injury is. Worth asking directly.

  • 17
    tidy-seal-234

    I used to work on the claims side and I'll tell you — gaps in treatment and returning to work early can sometimes get framed by adjusters as evidence that you're "not that hurt." I'm not saying that to scare you, just to say: keep going to your appointments even on days you feel slightly better, and make sure every bad day at work is in some kind of written record somewhere. Don't give them anything easy to misinterpret.

    • 7
      plainspoken-road-soul278

      Adding this: keep copies of every email. It mattered for me.

  • 16
    steady-tern-490

    I just want to say — the fact that you're showing up every day while dealing with all of this is genuinely impressive, but please don't let "impressive" become your new normal if your body is telling you something is wrong. Pushing through a broken back is not the same as pushing through a bad week. You matter more than your attendance record. 💙

  • 12
    mellow-beaver-602

    On the attorney communication thing — you are absolutely allowed to call or email and ask for a status update. A good PI firm will have a case manager or paralegal who can at least walk you through where things stand. If you've been waiting weeks between any contact, send a written message (email is great because it's documented) and ask specifically: where are we in the process, what do you still need from me, and what's the timeline looking like? That's not being difficult, that's being your own advocate.

  • 10
    mellow-badger-556

    Oh my gosh, yes. The invisible part — that hit me hard. After my accident I kept getting "but you look fine!" from literally everyone, including my own mom. Meanwhile I was white-knuckling it through eight-hour shifts on about four hours of sleep because the pain kept waking me up. You are not imagining it. The disconnect between how you look and how you actually feel after a spinal injury is so real and so isolating.

    • 8
      quick-otter-433

      You need to have a blunt conversation with your doctor. Not "I'm managing okay" — actually tell them your pain number at work, what you're lifting, and how you feel at the end of the day. Doctors can only treat what you tell them. And if this doctor keeps giving you the runaround, you have every right to get a second opinion from a spine specialist. That imaging report alone should get you in the door.

  • 9
    bright-hare-348

    Compression fractures do NOT heal on a neat little timeline, and returning to a physically demanding job that early with that kind of injury is genuinely hard on your body. The fatigue you're describing isn't weakness — it's your nervous system working overtime just to get you through the day. Please be really honest with your doctor about your pain levels and what your job actually requires physically. A lot of patients downplay it in the office and then the doctor has no idea what you're actually going through.

  • 9
    clever-lynx-086

    Not legal advice, but — the delayed imaging review situation you described can actually be really important to your case. The gap between the accident, the scan, and when treatment actually reflected the real diagnosis is something an experienced PI attorney should be building into the narrative of your claim. If yours hasn't asked you detailed questions about that timeline, bring it up yourself. You shouldn't have to, but sometimes you do.

  • 8
    steady-swift-177

    The fact that your doctor's demeanor changed once he knew you had an attorney is a red flag worth paying attention to. Some physicians get weird about it because they don't want to get dragged into litigation. Document EVERYTHING yourself — a pain journal, photos on bad days, notes after every appointment. Don't rely on anyone else to build your record for you.