No two car accidents are alike, and everyone responds differently. One thing auto accident victims seem to have in common is that their adrenaline heightens at the scene.
Your body is flooded with this fight-or-flight hormone, which increases blood flow to your brain and muscles, makes your heart beat faster, boosts your energy, and even plays a role in your emotional processing.
Adrenalin also decreases your body’s ability to feel pain, which explains one of the reasons you may not have known you sustained injuries after your car accident.
Heath Hancock, DC, of Hancock Chiropractic in Salina, Kansas, understands the nature of car accidents and what to look for — even before you feel pain. If you’ve recently been in an auto accident, here are a few symptoms of injuries that may be delayed for hours, days, or weeks.
If you start getting headaches following your accident, don’t write it off as a result of stress. Headaches can indicate something more serious, like a concussion or a subdural hematoma (bleeding between your brain and your skull).
Even if you didn’t hit your head during your accident, other sources of injury can trigger your headache, such as whiplash or a spinal injury. If you experience headaches in the days or weeks following your auto accident, come in to see us immediately.
Whiplash, one of the most common car accident injuries, happens most often in the case of a rear-end collision. Your car is accelerating rapidly, then comes to an abrupt stop, which makes your neck flex and extend quickly. At the very least, the violent motion sprains and strains your ligaments and muscles, but the damage can extend to your spine as well, affecting your vertebrae, discs, and nerves.
Symptoms of whiplash include:
These are only a few of the signs of whiplash, and it’s normal for them to show up days or weeks after the incident. Dr. Hancock can thoroughly examine you to determine if these or any other symptoms you may be experiencing are related to your accident.
Even if your accident happened at a slow speed, your body was not expecting the sudden change of direction, and it did the best it could to react. The result is usually strained muscles, sprained ligaments, and even some damage to the discs in your spine. The adrenaline rush you got at the scene may have blocked your pain for a while, but now you’re beginning to feel the effects.
If you have a herniated disc, you may experience tingling or numbness in your extremities. You may have pinched your sciatica nerve and feel deferred pain in your buttocks or leg. Dr. Hancock specializes in identifying and treating all these issues so that you can return to a pain-free life.
Pain in your belly may be the most challenging for you to self-diagnose, and also one of the most serious symptoms you shouldn’t ignore. You may not notice it for several days after your auto accident, but it could be a sign of a life-threatening condition like internal bleeding.
In addition to pain in your abdomen, other signs of internal bleeding include:
If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, seek medical attention right away.
Auto accidents are nothing to take lightly. No matter the speed, no matter how “fine” you feel afterward, it’s best to come in as soon as possible and let Dr. Hancock evaluate you to determine if you have any injuries. We can help you through the medical exams, the insurance paperwork and documentation, and the recovery process.
If you’ve been in a car accident, don’t wait to feel pain. Instead, book an evaluation with Dr. Hancock. Please call our Salina, Kansas office at 785-262-8276 or request an appointment using our online booking tool.
