Feeling Fine Doesn’t Mean Not Injured
Our bodies and brains react to stress and trauma in a remarkable way. Even in low-risk situations, the adrenal glands (located on top of the kidneys) will dump adrenaline into the blood stream. Adrenaline, or epinephrine, increases the heart rate, drives up blood pressure, relaxes the lungs, causes a massive dump of glucose providing energy, dilates the pupils for enhanced vision, and suppresses the feelings of pain.
If you’re involved in a motorcycle crash in Texas, you don’t get a choice if the body releases adrenaline – it just happens. In this article, the Car Crash Captain explains what’s going on in your body, why you might feel fine, and how the insurance companies are going to use that against you if you don’t have a great motorcycle wreck lawyer on your side.
Fight-or-Flight Hides Injuries for a While
When in trouble, your brain will prioritize survival over pain. When the wreck happens, your brain instantly tells the adrenal glands to release the epinephrine. When that happens, your body goes into overdrive with an increased heart rate, intense focus, and the big thing that we want to focus on today: reduced sensation to pain.
After your body experiences that adrenaline dump, the pain isn’t just ignored. It’s actually chemically suppressed. Those endorphins from the adrenaline act as a natural opioid, and the signaling pathways that tell your brain the body is in pain are altered.
The result is that you may be functioning normally while you’re injured. Blood has been redirected to your muscles to help you fight the “attacker” or run away from the danger. The injuries are still there, but your brain (with the help of adrenaline) has told the body, “Eliminating the threat is the most important thing right now, injuries can be dealt with later.”
But you are still injured even though you “feel fine.”
When Will Pain and Symptoms Show Up?
Eventually, the adrenaline will leave your system. When the threat has passed, your hormone levels will fall and the pain will intensify. Blood flow stabilizes as escaping isn’t prioritized. Eventually the inflammation sets in and peaks after the crash, not during it. Swelling, tissue damage, pain, and stiffness increase over the next 24 to 72 hours as you start to realize there are injuries that must be addressed.
Often, the day after the crash is worse than the crash itself.
Concussions and cognitive injuries show up later, soft tissue injuries worsen as inflammation builds, and nerve irritation takes time. In the days immediately following the crash, the reality of the injuries sets in.
What You Should Know about Feeling Fine after a Motorcycle Crash
The most important thing to keep in mind:
Delayed symptoms are medically normal; they’re not suspicious.
Hours, or even days, after the crash is when the full effects are realized. And that’s what the insurance companies will try to use against you. They’ll make claims that you didn’t go to the ER right away, so how bad could it be? They use your own words against you if you said you “feel fine” when the adrenaline is surging and a witness asks how you’re doing. They’ll downplay the injuries because you didn’t feel horrid immediately after they were incurred.
Insurance companies rely on misunderstanding, not medical reality.
Herbert Law Group Helps You Recover
This is one of the many reasons you need an experienced Texas motorcycle wreck lawyer on your side. From our offices in Richardson, Texas, we help victims throughout the Dallas and Fort Worth areas. We know how to push back against the insurance companies, we know that pain tends to come days later, and we know what compensation you’ll need for your injuries.
What we need from you is to learn what happened. That starts with a free phone call that fills us in on the details. Call our offices at 214-414-3808, or fill out the contact form on our site and let’s develop a strategy to find you justice.