How to Measure Progress After an Accident

Following an accident, it can be difficult to remain patient with your injury recovery process. Sometimes progress can be slow moving, and you’re probably eager to get back to your normal activities. In order to help you measure and realize the progress that you are making each day, week, or month, you should consider different elements of your recovery journey. Here are a few steps you should take to help you measure your healing progress after an accident.

Consider your pain level

The first and easiest way to measure your progress is by considering your pain levels. This is often one of the first questions that you will answer at your doctor’s appointments and there are different scales that you can use to measure your discomfort. When considering your physical state, you should keep in mind your soreness level, as well as the range of motion that you are allowed without feeling pain. 

Keeping a recovery journal is a good way to track this throughout the process. You can use a scale of 1-5 or 1-10, or if you’re a visual person you can use different colors coordinating to your pain levels. You can also express the different aches and pains through literary descriptions. Keeping track of your pain levels can be helpful when you go back and look at how far you’ve come from the beginning of your journey. 

Check on your emotional state

Besides physical recovery, there is also a strong emotional element to your recovery. To help you stay positive and heal your mind, you should also track how you are feeling each day during your recovery. It’s okay to have ups and downs, and tracking it in your recovery journal can help you identify patterns or triggers that you can utilize to maximize the good days you experience. 

Another good way to keep your emotional state in good standing is by setting achievable goals. These goals can be related to your performance or your pain levels. Some people prefer to measure progress by returning to normal activities, but by setting benchmarks along the way, you can feel empowered by your progress throughout the journey.

Get enough sleep

One of the most simple and effective, and yet underrated, elements of recovery is sleep. When we sleep, our bodies are hard at work repairing any broken, torn, bruised, or otherwise damaged parts of our body. Sleep can be hard to achieve when you are in pain, but by tracking your sleep you can improve the quality and quantity by finding patterns. 

You should measure how fatigued you feel during the day and right after waking up, as well as the hours you spent sleeping. You can use this information to determine your sleep quality, which is helpful when analyzing how well you are recovering. You can also share this information with your medical team, and they might be able to use the information to help you achieve a more restful and productive nights rest.

Analyze your injury’s effect on daily life

The biggest issue and complaint injured people have is the disruption to their daily life that they experience following an accident. Sometimes something as simple as bathing, feeding, or dressing yourself can become a hassle or even impossible. By tracking the little victories you are able to achieve during the day that might not have been possible a week ago, you can more easily see the progress you have made and it will give you more excitement for the progress you continue to make.

Patience is key

Healing takes time, and measuring your progress can help you have more patience with the process. Whether you prefer to physically write down your progress milestones, or you keep track in an app on your phone, it is important to check in with yourself regularly. This will help you to stay motivated and encouraged with the progress you are making towards a pain-free life. At Accident Treatment Centers, we help you set goals and recovery faster through our network of various doctors. 

Contact us here to start your treatment and recovery journey.