For many, ocean waves are calming. For Carrolltown back pain and
neck 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 will come and go while healing, the wave of
healing can be frustrating. Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation helps our
patients understand the wave of healing, are
aware of 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 heal,
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 reporting 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 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 explaining
the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their
characteristics. (2) Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation 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 Carrolltown chiropractic patients are unique!
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 remained relatively stable. Those
who had “episodic pain” – 21% to 24% over the year – shifted
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. Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation repeatedly tells our Carrolltown
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 shows
the on-going need for them to have partners like their
chiropractors along with general practitioners to manage
it, understand it, and care for it. One 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 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 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 Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation
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 found
relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management with
time.
Make your Carrolltown chiropractic
appointment soon. Together, we’ll aim for
the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
