For many, ocean waves are calming. For Groton 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 realize that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of
healing can be frustrating. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office helps our
patients understand the wave of healing, know the research behind our relieving treatment plan, and celebrate
the pain relief they get.
DESCRIBING AND RATING PAIN
Since back and neck pain experiences are complete
with fluctuations of symptoms as they get better,
researchers tried to come up with a system
to classify neck pain patients and their pain patterns by tracking
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 disturbed more by pain than the others. (1) Instead
of just defining 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 quite similar in defining
the pain intensity but not as much for the symptoms and their
characteristics. (2) Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office finds that everybody
experiences pain in somewhat different ways
and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others
do. All of our Groton chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For a year, another study tracked
1124 neck pain patients who saw a chiropractor. Neck pain patients
experiencing “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 – changed
more in their pain patterns. (3) This is why we inform
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. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office repeatedly tells our Groton
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 described here regarding
the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers emphasizes
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 described
how a patient who had 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 resolution of pain. (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 Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
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 found
relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management with
time.
Make your Groton chiropractic
appointment soon. Together, we will aim for
the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
