For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves is calming. For Toronto back pain and neck pain patients, experiencing the wave of relief from pain can be the same if they are aware of it. For those who don’t get that pain ebbs and flows while healing, the wave of healing can be upsetting. Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre helps our patients appreciate the wave of healing, are aware of the research supporting 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 tried to come up with a system 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 (10 worst pain). The “moderate episodic” group had 24% with a pain rating of 2.7. “Persistent fluctuating” pain patients were those disturbed 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 defining the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre observes that everybody senses pain in slightly different ways and that they find certain types of pain more annoying than others do. All of our Toronto chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For a year, another study tracked 1124 neck pain patients seeing a chiropractor. Neck pain patients having “persistent pain” – 75% to 63% over the year - and very minor pain remained 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 positive sign of healing and pain relief. Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre reminds our Toronto 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 emphasizes 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. A researcher described how a patient who had 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 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 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 gotten be it 50%, 70% or 90% as explained by the 50% Rule of Cox® Technic.
CONTACT Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre
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 Toronto chiropractic appointment today. Together, we’ll work toward the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
