For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves is calming. For Juneau back pain and neck pain patients, experiencing the wave of healing pain relief can be the same if they are aware of it. For those who don’t realize that pain waxes and wanes while healing, the wave of healing can be upsetting. Aurora Chiropractic Center helps our patients appreciate the wave of healing, know the research supporting 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 method 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 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 very similar in defining the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Aurora Chiropractic Center 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 Juneau chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For 12 months, 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 stayed relatively stable. Those who had “episodic pain” – 21% to 24% over the year – had greater changes in their pain patterns. (3) This is why we forewarn our back and neck pain patients that recovery is more wavelike 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. Aurora Chiropractic Center repeatedly tells our Juneau 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 regarding the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers shows the on-going need for them to have partners like their chiropractors as well as general practitioners to manage it, understand it, and care for it. One 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 pain relief. (4) Again, pain relief is rarely 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 Aurora Chiropractic Center
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. John Murray on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares patient cases that were complicated and yet attained relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management with time.
Schedule your Juneau chiropractic appointment today. Together, we’ll work toward the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
