For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves is calming. For Montreal neck pain and back pain patients, experiencing the wave of healing pain relief can be the same if they understand it. For those who don’t understand that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of healing can be frustrating. Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic helps our patients understand the wave of healing, recognize 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 fluctuating symptoms as they heal, researchers have worked on a system to classify neck pain patients and their pain patterns by studying 1208 neck pain patients. They came up with 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 (0 no pain). The “moderate episodic” group had 24% reporting pain at a 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 a year. The patient responses were quite similar in defining the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic observes that everybody experiences pain in somewhat different ways and that they find certain types of pain more annoying than others do. All of our Montreal chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For 12 months, another study tracked 1124 neck pain patients seeing a chiropractor. Neck pain patients having “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 – shifted more in their pain patterns. (3) This is why we tell 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. Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic reminds our Montreal 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 shows 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. 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 resolution of pain. (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 Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. John Murray on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he presents patient cases that were difficultcomplex and yet found relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management with time.
Make your Montreal chiropractic appointment today. Together, we will aim for the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
