For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves
is calming. For Plainville back pain and
neck pain patients, feeling the wave of relief from
pain can be the same if they understand it. For those who do not get that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of
healing can be saddening. Layden Chiropractic helps our
patients understand the wave of healing, know the research supporting our relieving treatment plan, and celebrate
the pain relief they experience.
DESCRIBING AND RATING PAIN
Since back and neck pain experiences are complete
with fluctuating 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 produced 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% with a pain rating of 2.7. “Persistent fluctuating” pain patients
were those disturbed more by pain than the others. (1) Instead
of just describing 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 explaining
the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their
characteristics. (2) Layden Chiropractic finds that everybody
senses pain in somewhat different ways
and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others
do. All of our Plainville chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For 12 months, another study followed
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 the reason we inform
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. Layden Chiropractic reminds our Plainville
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 reflects
the on-going need for them to have partners 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 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 supported by the 50% Rule of Cox®
Technic.
CONTACT Layden 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 with
time.
Schedule your Plainville chiropractic
appointment today. Together, we’ll aim for
the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
