For many, ocean waves are calming. For San Jose back pain and neck pain patients, feeling the wave of relief from pain can be the same if they are aware of it. For those who do not get that pain waxes and wanes while healing, the wave of healing can be frustrating. Chiropractic Solutions helps our patients appreciate the wave of healing, know 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 fluctuating symptoms as they get better, researchers have worked on 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 (10 worst 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 portray 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) Chiropractic Solutions observes that everybody feels pain in slightly different ways and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others do. All of our San Jose chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For a year, another study tracked 1124 neck pain patients seeing 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 – shifted more 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 signal of healing and pain relief. Chiropractic Solutions reminds our San Jose 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 described here regarding the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers shows the on-going need for them to have team members like their chiropractors along with general practitioners to handle it, understand it, and care for it. A researcher described 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 resolution of pain. (4) Again, pain relief is seldom 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 Chiropractic Solutions
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.
Make your San Jose chiropractic appointment today. Together, we will work toward the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
