For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves is calming. For St Peters back pain and neck pain patients, feeling the wave of relief from pain can be the same if they understand it. For those who don’t understand that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of healing can be saddening. Old Mill Chiropractic helps our patients understand the wave of healing, are aware of 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 complete with fluctuations of symptoms as they heal, 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 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 labeling and rating pain, researchers had patients portray their pain using a visual picture scale about their pain intensity and symptomatology over a year. The patient responses were quite similar in explaining the pain intensity but not as much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Old Mill Chiropractic observes that everybody senses pain in slightly different ways and that they find certain types of pain more annoying than others do. All of our St Peters chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For 12 months, another study tracked 1124 neck pain patients who saw a chiropractor. Neck pain patients experiencing “persistent pain” – 75% to 63% over the year - and very minor pain stayed 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 inform our back and neck pain patients that recovery is more like a wave 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. Old Mill Chiropractic repeatedly tells our St Peters neck pain and back pain patients to not be discouraged along the way. We will get there together!
CHIROPRACTIC IN MANAGING BACK AND NECK PAIN PATTERNS
Research such as described 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. A researcher described how a patient who had 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 resolution of pain. (4) Again, pain relief is rarely sudden, but rather systematic with treatment, coming/going pain intensity, patience, and appreciation for the relief attained be it 50%, 70% or 90% as explained by the 50% Rule of Cox® Technic.
CONTACT Old Mill 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 found relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management over time.
Schedule your St Peters chiropractic appointment today. Together, we will aim for the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
