For many, ocean waves are calming. For Manahawkin back pain and neck pain patients, experiencing the wave of healing pain relief 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. Manahawkin Chiropractic Center helps our patients appreciate 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 filled with fluctuating symptoms as they heal, researchers tried to come up with 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% 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 portray their pain using a visual picture scale about their pain intensity and symptomatology over a year. The patient responses were very similar in explaining the pain intensity but not as much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Manahawkin Chiropractic Center notices that everybody experiences pain in slightly different ways and that they find certain types of pain more annoying than others do. All of our Manahawkin 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 the year - 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 forewarn our back and neck pain patients that recovery is more like a wave than a straight line. While healing, pain ebbs and flows. Going away more than it comes is a positive sign of healing and pain relief. Manahawkin Chiropractic Center repeatedly tells our Manahawkin 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 about the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers reflects 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 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 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 attained be it 50%, 70% or 90% as explained by the 50% Rule of Cox® Technic.
CONTACT Manahawkin 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 found relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management with time.
Schedule your Manahawkin chiropractic appointment now. Together, we will work toward the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
