For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves is calming. For Southern New Hampshire back pain and neck pain patients, feeling the wave of healing pain relief can be the same if they are aware of it. For those who do not get that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of healing can be upsetting. New Hampshire Spine and Sport helps our patients appreciate the wave of healing, recognize 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 complete with fluctuations of symptoms as they get better, researchers have worked on a system to classify neck pain patients and their pain patterns by tracking 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% reporting pain at a 2.7. “Persistent fluctuating” pain patients were those disturbed more by pain than the others. (1) Instead of just defining 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 quite similar in defining the pain intensity but not as much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) New Hampshire Spine and Sport notices that everybody senses pain in somewhat different ways and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others do. All of our Southern New Hampshire chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For a year, another study followed 1124 neck pain patients who saw a chiropractor. Neck pain patients experiencing “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 – had greater changes in their pain patterns. (3) This is the reason we tell our back and neck pain patients that recovery is more wavelike 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. New Hampshire Spine and Sport reminds our Southern New Hampshire 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 emphasizes the on-going need for them to have team members like their chiropractors along with general practitioners to manage it, understand it, and care for it. A researcher explained 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 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 seldom 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 New Hampshire Spine and Sport
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 over time.
Schedule your Southern New Hampshire chiropractic appointment now. Together, we will aim for the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
