You’ve probably never heard the term pain journal or pain diary, but it can be helpful to keep one after you’ve been in a serious accident. Immediately after an accident, you might feel no pain or injuries. This typically happens when adrenaline is running through your body, so you feel no effects in the short term. However, long-term pain and injuries may appear down the line. Documenting those can be helpful for you, your doctor, and your attorney.
Keeping a Pain Diary
Everyday Health shares their notes on documenting chronic pain in a pain journal. They say:
Keeping a diary can help uncover:
- Potential triggers that cause episodes of pain
- Important changes in your condition
- Side effects caused by your pain, your condition, or the drugs you've been prescribed
- Needed tweaks in your medication schedule
- Any emotional or psychological problems caused by your chronic pain
They go on to share that keeping this pain diary can help you figure out any patterns of pain, a better understanding of what’s happening, and can help you communicate your pain and injuries more clearly to your doctor. Communicating and sharing this information clearly with your doctor for any diagnosis can be critical when putting together your lawsuit.
Release of Medical Records
When working with your lawyer on your case, they will most likely ask for your medical records to be released. These records can be used to show any hospital stays, treatments, diagnoses, medical bills, and more. Gathering this data and information can help put together any monetary losses you’d sustained as well as pain and suffering costs.
Having medical records as proof can help your lawyer fight for maximum compensation. You can fight for both economic and non-economic losses after your accident. Under New York law, victims of a personal injury accident are entitled to recover compensation.
Whether you’ve kept a pain journal or not, we want to help.
If you or someone you know was recently injured in an accident, contact Loscalzo & Loscalzo, P.C. at (646) 846-4776 to discuss your case with one of our personal injury attorneys today.