For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves is calming. For Oxford neck pain and back pain patients, feeling the wave of relief from pain can be the same if they understand it. For those who don’t get that pain ebbs and flows while healing, the wave of healing can be saddening. Satterwhite Chiropractic helps our patients appreciate 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 filled 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 largest 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 disturbed 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 very similar in explaining the pain intensity but not as much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Satterwhite Chiropractic finds that everybody senses pain in slightly different ways and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others do. All of our Oxford chiropractic patients are unique!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For a year, another study followed 1124 neck pain patients seeing 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 – changed more in their pain patterns. (3) This is why we inform 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 solid signal of healing and pain relief. Satterwhite Chiropractic reminds our Oxford 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 emphasizes 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. A researcher explained how a patient who underwent 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 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 Satterwhite 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 complicated and yet attained relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management over time.
Make your Oxford chiropractic appointment now. Together, we will work toward the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
