For many, ocean waves are calming. For Auburn neck pain and back pain patients, feeling the wave of relief from pain can be the same if they understand it. For those who do not realize that pain waxes and wanes while healing, the wave of healing can be upsetting. Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. helps our patients understand the wave of healing, are aware of 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 complete with fluctuating symptoms as they heal, researchers have worked on a system 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 bothered more by pain than the others. (1) Instead of just describing 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 very similar in defining the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. observes that everybody senses pain in slightly different ways and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others do. All of our Auburn chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For a year, another study tracked 1124 neck pain patients who saw a chiropractor. Neck pain patients having “persistent pain” – 75% to 63% over 12 months - and very minor pain stayed relatively stable. Those who had “episodic pain” – 21% to 24% over the year – changed more 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. Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. repeatedly tells our Auburn 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 explained here about the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers shows the on-going need for them to have partners like their chiropractors along with general practitioners to handle it, understand it, and care for it. A researcher explained how a patient who had 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 above and below a 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 Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C.
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 Auburn chiropractic appointment soon. Together, we will aim for the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
