For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves is calming. For Williamson neck pain and back pain patients, experiencing the wave of relief from pain can be the same if they understand it. For those who do not understand that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of healing can be saddening. Apple Country Chiropractic helps our patients appreciate the wave of healing, are aware of the research behind our relieving treatment plan, and celebrate the pain relief they get.
DESCRIBING AND RATING PAIN
Since back and neck pain experiences are complete with fluctuations of symptoms as they get better, researchers tried to come up with a method to classify neck pain patients and their pain patterns by tracking 1208 neck pain patients. They came up with 16 subgroups! Wow. The largest subgroup was “mild persistent fluctuating” with 25% of the patients in it rating their pain as a 3.4 out of 10 (0 no pain). The “moderate episodic” group had 24% reporting pain at a 2.7. “Persistent fluctuating” pain patients were those disturbed 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 a year. The patient responses were quite similar in defining the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Apple Country Chiropractic notices that everybody experiences pain in slightly different ways and that they find certain types of pain more annoying than others do. All of our Williamson chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For a year, another study followed 1124 neck pain patients who saw a chiropractor. Neck pain patients having “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 tell our back and neck pain patients that recovery is more wavelike than a straight line. While healing, pain ebbs and flows. Going away more than it comes is a positive sign of healing and pain relief. Apple Country Chiropractic reminds our Williamson 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 regarding the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers shows the on-going need for them to have partners like their chiropractors as well as general practitioners to handle it, understand it, and care for it. One researcher explained how a patient who underwent spinal surgery 30 years ago now experienced 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 slow and steady with treatment, coming/going pain intensity, patience, and appreciation for the relief attained be it 50%, 70% or 90% as supported by the 50% Rule of Cox® Technic.
CONTACT Apple Country Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. John Murray on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares patient cases that were difficultcomplex and yet attained relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management over time.
Schedule your Williamson chiropractic appointment now. Together, we’ll work toward the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
