The paperwork is piling up — where do I even start?

You did not choose this injury. But you do choose what happens in the next hour. Right now there is a form somewhere, a deadline attached to it, and a version of you that keeps putting it off because the whole thing feels like too much. That feeling is not useful. Set it aside. Here is what nobody tells you: workers' comp is not designed to be understood all at once. It is designed to be handled one document at a time, by someone who is not also trying to heal. That is why you are doing this with others — a partner, a teammate, a pod. Use them. Do not carry the folder alone. The system will not reward your suffering. It rewards timelines met and forms filed correctly. Grieve the injury if you must. But grieve on your own time, not on the deadline's time.