For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves is calming. For Baton Rouge back pain and neck pain patients, feeling the wave of healing pain relief can be the same if they are aware of it. For those who do not get that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of healing can be saddening. Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers 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 filled with fluctuations of symptoms as they get better, researchers have worked on a system to classify neck pain patients and their pain patterns by studying 1208 neck pain patients. They produced 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 disturbed more by pain than the others. (1) Instead of just labeling 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 very similar in explaining the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers finds that everybody feels pain in somewhat different ways and that they find certain types of pain more annoying than others do. All of our Baton Rouge 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 the year - 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 like a wave than a straight line. While healing, pain comes and goes. Going away more than it comes is a positive sign of healing and pain relief. Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers reminds our Baton Rouge 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 reflects the on-going need for them to have team members like their chiropractors as well as general practitioners to handle 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 seldom sudden, but rather slow and steady 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 Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. John Murray on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he presents patient cases that were complicated and yet attained relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management with time.
Schedule your Baton Rouge chiropractic appointment now. Together, we’ll aim for the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
