One phone call with a WC adjuster changed my whole approach to documenting my injury

I was about 8 weeks into my back injury claim when the adjuster flat out told me my daily pain journal was 'useless for their system.' She said they need specific numbers and dates, not flowery descriptions of how I feel. So I switched to a simple spreadsheet with pain level 1-10, what I did each hour, and the date I first saw the doctor. Its boring as heck but now my settlement is actually moving forward. Anyone else get told their personal notes were worthless?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant.nina9d ago

Honestly, that sounds super frustrating. It's like they want robots instead of actual human experiences. I had a similar thing with my shoulder injury - I was writing down all this stuff about how I couldn't sleep on my left side or reach for things in the cupboard, and the adjuster basically said it meant nothing without dates and numbers. It's boring but once I threw in a simple 1-10 scale and logged my meds and appointments, things actually started moving. Feels like they just want data to tick boxes, not to understand how you're really doing.

torres.sage9d ago

Did you ever try keeping a quick spreadsheet? I just tracked the date and a 1-10 for pain each night, and that seemed to make my claims go faster than any written descriptions ever did.