Whether you are in a car or at your workplace, you may suffer from a serious injury to your neck and spine that may not seem particularly painful right away.
However, in the weeks that follow, you could sense changes in how you act and feel. Learning more about the signs of a spinal cord injury can help you.
Inability to balance
According to the Mayo Clinic, you may struggle to stay upright when walking around if you are dealing with a spinal cord injury. This kind of imbalance, where you cannot stop falling or tripping, is sometimes a sign of something worse than just tiredness.
Inability to feel temperature
When you use your hands to try to sense the temperature of a surface, not feeling anything hot or cold is a problem. With a spinal cord injury, you may not be able to rely on your fingers to tell if a surface is able to burn you or freeze your skin.
Inability to fully empty bowels and bladder
Urinating or defecating can become harder in the time after a serious accident. You may notice that you cannot control when you urinate as much and could struggle to adjust to this new confusion.
Inability to control reactions
If you constantly have spasms that seem random or your limbs cannot stop reflexively moving, then you may struggle to sit calmly. These involuntary reactions could be a sign of spinal cord trauma.
When you think about the symptoms you have, you can better determine what to do next if you are facing a spinal cord injury.
