For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves
is calming. For Sitka 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 understand that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of
healing can be saddening. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka helps our
patients understand the wave of healing, recognize 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 have worked on a system
to classify neck pain patients and their pain patterns by studying
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% 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 describe their pain using a visual picture scale about
their pain intensity and symptomatology over a year. The
patient responses were quite similar in defining
the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their
characteristics. (2) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka finds that everybody
feels pain in slightly different ways
and that they find certain types of pain more annoying than others
do. All of our Sitka chiropractic patients are unique!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For 12 months, another study tracked
1124 neck pain patients who saw a chiropractor. Neck pain patients
having “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 solid sign of
healing and pain relief. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka repeatedly tells our Sitka
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 about
the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers emphasizes
the on-going need for them to have team members like their
chiropractors as well as general practitioners to manage
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 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 rarely
sudden, but rather systematic 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 Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka
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 Sitka chiropractic
appointment now. Together, we’ll work toward
the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
