For many, ocean waves are calming. For Richmond 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 understand that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of
healing can be upsetting. Johnson Chiropractic helps our
patients understand the wave of healing, recognize the research behind 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 get better,
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 biggest 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 bothered more by pain than the others. (1) Instead
of just defining 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 defining
the pain intensity but not as much for the symptoms and their
characteristics. (2) Johnson Chiropractic finds that everybody
feels pain in slightly different ways
and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others
do. All of our Richmond chiropractic patients are unique!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For a year, another study tracked
1124 neck pain patients who saw 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 – changed
more in their pain patterns. (3) This is the reason we inform
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 signal of
healing and pain relief. Johnson Chiropractic repeatedly tells our Richmond
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 described here about
the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers reflects
the on-going need for them to have team members like their
chiropractors as well as general practitioners to manage
it, understand it, and care for it. A researcher described
how a patient who had 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 gotten
be it 50%, 70% or 90% as supported by the 50% Rule of Cox®
Technic.
CONTACT Johnson Chiropractic
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 Richmond chiropractic
appointment today. Together, we’ll work toward
the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
