For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves is calming. For McHenry 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 saddening. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic helps our patients appreciate the wave of healing, are aware of the research supporting our relieving treatment plan, and celebrate the pain relief they get.
DESCRIBING AND RATING PAIN
Since back and neck pain experiences are complete with fluctuating symptoms as they get better, researchers have worked on a way 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 reporting pain as a 3.4 out of 10 (10 worst pain). The “moderate episodic” group had 24% reporting pain at a 2.7. “Persistent fluctuating” pain patients were those bothered 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 a year. The patient responses were quite similar in explaining the pain intensity but not as much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) OrthoIllinois Chiropractic notices that everybody senses pain in somewhat different ways and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others do. All of our McHenry 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 – shifted more in their pain patterns. (3) This is the reason 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 positive signal of healing and pain relief. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic repeatedly tells our McHenry 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 about the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers emphasizes the on-going need for them to have team members like their chiropractors along with general practitioners to manage it, understand it, and care for it. A researcher explained 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 rarely 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 explained by the 50% Rule of Cox® Technic.
CONTACT OrthoIllinois Chiropractic
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 McHenry chiropractic appointment now. Together, we will aim for the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
