For many, ocean waves are calming. For Ashburn and Herndon back pain and neck pain patients, feeling the wave of relief from pain can be the same if they understand it. For those who do not realize that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of healing can be saddening. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn helps our patients understand the wave of healing, know 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 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 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 labeling 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 so much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn notices that everybody feels pain in slightly different ways and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others do. All of our Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic patients are distinctive!
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 the year - 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 the reason we forewarn 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 signal of healing and pain relief. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn repeatedly tells our Ashburn and Herndon 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 about the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers reflects 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 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 attained be it 50%, 70% or 90% as supported by the 50% Rule of Cox® Technic.
CONTACT Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. John Murray on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares patient cases that were difficultcomplex and yet found relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management with time.
Schedule your Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic appointment now. Together, we will work toward the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
