For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves is calming. For Elgin back pain and neck pain patients, experiencing the wave of healing pain relief can be the same if they understand it. For those who don’t realize that pain ebbs and flows while healing, the wave of healing can be saddening. Connected Chiropractic helps our patients appreciate the wave of healing, know the research supporting our relieving treatment plan, and celebrate the pain relief they get.
DESCRIBING AND RATING PAIN
Since back and neck pain experiences are filled with fluctuations of symptoms as they get better, researchers tried to come up with a way to classify neck pain patients and their pain patterns by tracking 1208 neck pain patients. They produced 16 subgroups! Wow. The biggest subgroup was “mild persistent fluctuating” with 25% of the patients in it reporting pain as a 3.4 out of 10 (0 no pain). The “moderate episodic” group had 24% with a pain rating of 2.7. “Persistent fluctuating” pain patients were those bothered more by pain than the others. (1) Instead of just defining and rating pain, researchers had patients describe their pain using a visual picture scale about their pain intensity and symptomatology over 12 months. The patient responses were quite similar in explaining the pain intensity but not as much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Connected Chiropractic observes that everybody feels pain in slightly different ways and that they find certain types of pain more annoying than others do. All of our Elgin chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For a year, another study followed 1124 neck pain patients who saw a chiropractor. Neck pain patients experiencing “persistent pain” – 75% to 63% over 12 months - and very minor pain remained relatively stable. Those who had “episodic pain” – 21% to 24% over the year – had greater changes in their pain patterns. (3) This is why we forewarn our back and neck pain patients that recovery is more wavelike than a straight line. While healing, pain comes and goes. Going away more than it comes is a solid sign of healing and pain relief. Connected Chiropractic reminds our Elgin neck pain and back pain patients to not be discouraged along the way. We’ll get there together!
CHIROPRACTIC IN MANAGING BACK AND NECK PAIN PATTERNS
Research such as explained here about the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers reflects the on-going need for them to have team members like their chiropractors as well as general practitioners to manage it, understand it, and care for it. One researcher described how a patient who underwent spinal surgery 30 years ago now had neck pain and cervical arm pain due to adjacent segment disease – a condition often seen in spinal discs around the spinal level that underwent back surgery - was treated with cervical manipulation, flexion distraction decompression (Cox®), soft-tissue mobilization, and therapeutic ultrasound for pain relief. (4) Again, pain relief is rarely sudden, but rather systematic with treatment, coming/going pain intensity, patience, and appreciation for the relief gotten be it 50%, 70% or 90% as explained by the 50% Rule of Cox® Technic.
CONTACT Connected Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. John Murray on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he presents patient cases that were difficultcomplex and yet attained relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management over time.
Make your Elgin chiropractic appointment now. Together, we will aim for the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
