Georgia Workers' Compensation Lawyer Blog

Most of the workers' compensation claims our Georgia practice handles includes back injuries and back pain from related injuries. Back pain often follows a work-related lifting injury, a fall at work, or workplace injuries to knees that alter the injured worker's gait. Below are some suggestions for dealing with back pain that can relieve aching backs and limit the use of narcotic pain medications:

1) Alter how you stand. Don't slouch. Keep one foot in front of the other with knees slightly bent.

2) Alter how you sit. Again, don't slouch. Keep knees slightly higher than hips to support the low back.

3) Alter how you sleep. Reduce pressure on your low back by sleeping on your side with a small pillow between your knees.

4) Alter how you use the phone. Get a headset if you use the phone a good bit during the day to avoid that awkward craning of the neck often needed while taking notes during a phone call.

5) Take a walk. Stress increases back pain. Exercise and fresh air can help.

6) Watch your diet. Gaining weight makes back pain worse. Limiting intake of fats and carbs, especially when an injury is preventing your usual exercise regime, can help.

7) Change your position frequently. I often see clients struggle to sit for an entire workers' compensation deposition when there has been a back injury at work. Stretch and relax every 15 minutes or so when having to sit or stand for extended periods.

8) Consider quitting smoking. Perhaps you've needed a big enough motivation for the past several years. Restricted blood flow from nicotine will decrease the cushioning in your vertebrae. This means more pain. Stopping the nicotine addiction will help.

A common denominator found in the hundreds of clients our firm has helped over the past couple of years is pain: physical, mental, emotional, etc. The most pronounced and debilitating of these, however, is usually physical. Most clients have prescribed medications from their workers' compensation doctors, but they don't want to get too reliant on narcotic medications, or they worry about losing their ability to think clearly and stay otherwise healthy.

The longer one stays in pain, the more the injured worker seems to be unable to focus on anything other than his pain. As if he is imprisoned, he can focus only on the "here" and "now" instead of maintaining perspective that includes past happiness and comfort or extended family and friendships.

How can this be minimized?

Do for others. While physical restrictions are obviously going to limit one's ability to add that playroom onto your brother-in-law's ranch house, coming up with simple ways to help others will take one's focus off his own misery and frustration.

Examples could include giving a neighbor a ride somewhere if you're able to drive. You could bring dinner to a relative who's just left the hospital. You may offer to watch some friends' children so that they can enjoy an evening out.

In short, focus on others to temporarily forget the pain you feel. Do that often enough, and you'll start counting your blessings instead of your troubles.

Apparently, we can learn a lesson from attaching accelerometers to ice hockey players' helmets, according to a study conducted at UNC-Chapel Hill and referenced in a fairly recent study in the journal Pediatrics.

Representing injured workers in car accidents throughout Atlanta and Georgia, our firm regularly learns of the dangers inherent in driving on our interstates.  However, there are sometimes ways to mitigate the injuries sustained.

According to the study referenced above, if a would-be motor vehicle accident victim can tense his neck muscles, he may be able to minimize the "whiplash" effect on the head and reduce the likelihood of getting a concussion.

Our office's Atlanta car accident lawyers work with car accident victims suffering from post concussive syndrome frequently and can often assist not only with legal issues that arise from car wrecks, but also can recommend quality medical practitioners for the treatment needed afterward.  For your brain's sake, contact Moebes Law, LLC after a serious automobile or trucking accident in Georgia.