For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves is calming. For Fort Wayne back pain and neck pain patients, feeling the wave of relief from pain can be the same if they are aware of it. For those who don’t get that pain ebbs and flows while healing, the wave of healing can be upsetting. Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc helps our patients understand the wave of healing, know 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 complete with fluctuating symptoms as they heal, researchers tried to come up with a system to classify neck pain patients and their pain patterns by studying 1208 neck pain patients. They produced 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 (0 no 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 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 explaining the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc 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 Fort Wayne chiropractic patients are distinctive!
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 12 months - and very minor pain stayed 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 solid signal of healing and pain relief. Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc repeatedly tells our Fort Wayne 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 partners like their chiropractors as well as general practitioners to handle it, understand it, and care for it. A researcher explained how a patient who underwent spinal surgery 30 years ago now had 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 resolution of pain. (4) Again, pain relief is rarely sudden, but rather systematic 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 Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc
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 over time.
Make your Fort Wayne chiropractic appointment now. Together, we will work toward the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
