For many, ocean waves are calming. For Augusta neck pain and back pain patients, feeling the wave of healing pain relief can be the same if they understand it. For those who do not get that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of healing can be frustrating. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic helps our patients understand the wave of healing, know 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 fluctuations of 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 produced 16 subgroups! Wow. The biggest subgroup was “mild persistent fluctuating” with 25% of the patients in it rating their pain as a 3.4 out of 10 (0 no 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 describing and rating pain, researchers had patients describe 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) Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic finds that everybody feels pain in somewhat different ways and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others do. All of our Augusta chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For a year, another study followed 1124 neck pain patients seeing a chiropractor. Neck pain patients experiencing “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 like a wave than a straight line. While healing, pain comes and goes. Going away more than it comes is a solid signal of healing and pain relief. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic repeatedly tells our Augusta 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 regarding the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers emphasizes the on-going need for them to have partners like their chiropractors as well as general practitioners to handle it, understand it, and care for it. One 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 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 attained be it 50%, 70% or 90% as supported by the 50% Rule of Cox® Technic.
CONTACT Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. John Murray on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares patient cases that were difficultcomplex and yet found relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management with time.
Schedule your Augusta chiropractic appointment now. Together, we’ll work toward the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
