Injuries and Travel: How Lingering Pain Can Change Your Plans
You might love traveling. Maybe you do it frequently for work or fun. Perhaps you enjoy it, but you can’t travel much because you do not have enough money or free time.
If you injure yourself, that can change how you travel moving forward. We will talk about those changes right now.
You Might Prefer Flying Over Driving
If you hurt yourself, and you only have yourself to blame, that is unfortunate. If someone else harmed you, you can bring a personal injury suit against them. A lawyer can help with calculating personal injury pain and suffering damages, and the court system might reward you if you prove another individual or entity caused your injury.
However it occurred, though, if you sustain a permanent injury, you might not like car travel from that point forward. Say you hurt your back. If so, you won’t want to sit in a car seat for many hours as you travel cross-country.
Flying might suit you better, though even that’s not ideal for something like a back problem. You get to your destination faster than driving, but the rigid seat will hurt you. You can incline the seat slightly, but that might not make much difference.
You’ll need to think about whether you’re hurt badly enough to stop traveling altogether. If you feel like you can deal with pain for a few hours, you may still fly to your destination.
You Might Get First Class Seats
You may also decide you’re able to fly after your injury, but you don’t want to sit in coach. First-class seats cost more, but they’re more comfortable as well. In first class, you can lie back and hopefully experience some pain relief. On some overseas flights, you can even lie down and sleep in your first-class seat.
You may not travel as much because your coach seats hurt you. When you travel, you must go first class, so perhaps you’ll limit travel to once every few years.
You Can’t Use Some Other Travel Methods
If you hurt yourself and you don’t like car travel anymore because you experience pain, you probably can’t use some other transportation methods as well. For instance, maybe you’re a motorcycle owner. Perhaps you once liked cross-country motorcycle trips.
You likely can’t do that any longer. You must sell your motorcycle and fly to your destinations from now on.
You Can Get Pain Medication if Necessary
Maybe your injury caused you pain, but you’ll grit your teeth and travel because you love it so much. If so, you might use heat wraps on the injured body part.
You may buy over-the-counter pain meds like Tylenol or Advil. You might also speak to a doctor about getting stronger drugs for pain management.
If you get stronger drugs, exercise caution, as some have addiction warnings. Ideally, your injury won’t prevent future trips for work or pleasure. It will just limit how often and how you travel.