For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves
is calming. For Baton Rouge back pain and
neck pain patients, experiencing the wave of relief from
pain can be the same if they are aware of it. For those who don’t understand that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of
healing can be frustrating. Spine & Sports Rehab Center helps our
patients appreciate the wave of healing, know the research behind 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 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 produced 16 subgroups! Wow.
The biggest 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% 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 explaining
the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their
characteristics. (2) Spine & Sports Rehab Center observes that everybody
experiences pain in slightly 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 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 like a wave
than a straight line. While healing, pain comes and goes.
Going away more than it comes is a solid sign of
healing and pain relief. Spine & Sports Rehab Center repeatedly tells 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 described 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 along with 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 seldom
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 Spine & Sports Rehab Center
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 attained
relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management with
time.
Schedule your Baton Rouge chiropractic
appointment now. Together, we will work toward
the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
