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Spinal cord injuries most commonly occur in motor vehicle accidents, sports accidents, swimming accidents, and falls. Unfortunately, spinal cord injuries can be life-changing and limit your ability to do the things you love. Following a spinal cord injury, you may have to find a new normal. This can be made easier by following these tips.

Life After Injury

When facing a spinal cord injury, it helps to work closely with your healthcare team. They will be able to best provide you with the information you need to recover and adjust. Make sure you understand your prognosis and have a clear picture of what to expect. Your doctors can help explain the process of recovery and beyond.

Also, work with therapists who can help you adjust to your new life. Spinal cord injuries can vary in severity and positioning. Injuries sustained in upper cervical nerves can cause complete loss of mobility while those occurring in lower nerves may not. It’s important to understand how your injury can affect you and work with therapists to address the specific issues you could face.

Know that you can find ways to enrich your life. The field of mobility adaptations is burgeoning due to technologies such as 3D printing, mechanical engineering, and gene therapy. Now more than ever, the fields of science and engineering are applying innovation to help people with life-altering injuries live fuller lives. Subscribe to trade magazines, and stay on top of research from your local university. Therapeutic advances are made every day.

Don’t forget to allow yourself time to grieve. If your life is forever changed because of loss of mobility or sensation, it’s normal to be sad. Give yourself space to become used to your new life—it may take some time—and work through the injury emotionally. You may need psychological therapy as well as physical therapy to cope.

Know How to Seek Compensation

It’s also important to know what you are up against when filing an insurance claim. Because spinal cord injuries can affect many areas of your life and cause permanent damage, you should work with an experienced Illinois spinal cord injury lawyer in your area. A lawyer will make sure your settlement accurately reflects your losses now and in the future. An attorney can also aggressively pursue your case in court if your claim is unable to settle to make sure you receive the compensation you deserve. Facing the aftermath of a spinal cord injury is hard enough; an attorney can help handle your claim so you can focus on recovery and find your new normal.