Hi Josh,
I don't do any PI work myself but had reason to be chatting about this with a colleague lately. She told me that the norm is for the claimant to pay medical expenses from their settlement cheque, but medical reports etc are usually paid separately to the solicitor because these are usually paid for through the solicitor's office.
In fairness, my understanding of it is that all of your medical expenses would have been listed and claimed for in the papers filed for your case, so your cheque would have included money for the medical expenses.
Hope your wife is ok now.
Kate.