For many, ocean waves are calming. For La Grande 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 waxes and wanes while healing, the wave of healing can be upsetting. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC helps our patients understand the wave of healing, recognize the research behind our relieving treatment plan, and celebrate the pain relief they get.
DESCRIBING AND RATING PAIN
Since back and neck pain experiences are complete with fluctuating symptoms as they heal, researchers tried to come up with a method 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% with a pain rating of 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 describe their pain using a visual picture scale about their pain intensity and symptomatology over a year. The patient responses were quite similar in explaining the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC notices that everybody experiences pain in slightly different ways and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others do. All of our La Grande chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For 12 months, 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 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 sign of healing and pain relief. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC reminds our La Grande 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 regarding the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers emphasizes 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 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 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 supported by the 50% Rule of Cox® Technic.
CONTACT Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. John Murray on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares patient cases that were complicated and yet attained relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management with time.
Make your La Grande chiropractic appointment today. Together, we’ll work toward the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
