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So, last night on the way home from work I stopped for my massage with Kim Payne - http://massageoregon.com/ if you live in the area and are interested - and man, am I glad I did. You have to understand (as some of you already do), I do not go for massages. I do not go for anyone manipulating my back, normally. I have relatively little flesh there, backrubs are more likely to hurt than help (although Scott has learned to use a light enough touch, and puts up with my corrections), and while I know that massage professionals can do much better than that, I also haven't had back problems very much. Nothing that couldn't be stretched out.
However. I am pregnant. Some of the stretches that ease my back cannot actually be done while pregnant - they require folding in ways that aren't going to be comfortable until after he's arrived and I've recovered - and meanwhile pregnancy puts additional strain on my back. So, after much waffling, I gave in and started hunting. I picked Kim because her web site for her previous location had a sense of humor, because she was well-located relative to my commute from work to home (always a plus!), and because she does pregnancy massage as well as physical therapy massage. I don't need the latter...but my theory was that someone trained to do it probably knows how to work around bodies that had problems far worse than my over-sensitive back.
(We were focusing mostly on the back; that's not necessarily a given, I realize, but it is what was giving me grief!)
I came out of that session feeling better than I've felt in weeks. I came out of that session feeling almost limp, in a very good sense. Relieved is a perfect word for it. My back is behaving itself again. It promptly started complaining in the car ride home. I have got to get something to adjust the line of the seat in that car, the car trips are getting to be a real problem. But once I was out of the car it went back to fine, and hasn't complained since. And, she even found a couple ways to hold/press the problem area on my lower ribs that keep it from hurting for a while. (Unfortunately, I don't think any amount of massage is going to completely fix that one until it recovers on its own. But she improved it, and I can ease it further pressing on it appropriately, it just only lasts while I hold it. As far as complete recovery, that may be after my son arrives. The growth of my belly is putting a continuing strain on something there, and that something doesn't like it.)
I feel so much better. I went to bed way early last night, slept in this morning, and except for the usual restroom trips the night wasn't too restless. (Which is to say, the night wasn't too restless - those are much less disruptive than having some part of your body start shrieking in pain. My ribs did chime in, but with my back behaving itself I could actually focus on adjusting position until the ribs were happy. And then I could go back to sleep.) I think I slept ten or eleven hours, and I felt rested when I did get up. I think I've recovered from the crazy lack of sleep of the last week (between back, ribs, and the on-call phone for work, what is sleep again?).
Color me a convert. A very relaxed, very pleased convert.
However. I am pregnant. Some of the stretches that ease my back cannot actually be done while pregnant - they require folding in ways that aren't going to be comfortable until after he's arrived and I've recovered - and meanwhile pregnancy puts additional strain on my back. So, after much waffling, I gave in and started hunting. I picked Kim because her web site for her previous location had a sense of humor, because she was well-located relative to my commute from work to home (always a plus!), and because she does pregnancy massage as well as physical therapy massage. I don't need the latter...but my theory was that someone trained to do it probably knows how to work around bodies that had problems far worse than my over-sensitive back.
(We were focusing mostly on the back; that's not necessarily a given, I realize, but it is what was giving me grief!)
I came out of that session feeling better than I've felt in weeks. I came out of that session feeling almost limp, in a very good sense. Relieved is a perfect word for it. My back is behaving itself again. It promptly started complaining in the car ride home. I have got to get something to adjust the line of the seat in that car, the car trips are getting to be a real problem. But once I was out of the car it went back to fine, and hasn't complained since. And, she even found a couple ways to hold/press the problem area on my lower ribs that keep it from hurting for a while. (Unfortunately, I don't think any amount of massage is going to completely fix that one until it recovers on its own. But she improved it, and I can ease it further pressing on it appropriately, it just only lasts while I hold it. As far as complete recovery, that may be after my son arrives. The growth of my belly is putting a continuing strain on something there, and that something doesn't like it.)
I feel so much better. I went to bed way early last night, slept in this morning, and except for the usual restroom trips the night wasn't too restless. (Which is to say, the night wasn't too restless - those are much less disruptive than having some part of your body start shrieking in pain. My ribs did chime in, but with my back behaving itself I could actually focus on adjusting position until the ribs were happy. And then I could go back to sleep.) I think I slept ten or eleven hours, and I felt rested when I did get up. I think I've recovered from the crazy lack of sleep of the last week (between back, ribs, and the on-call phone for work, what is sleep again?).
Color me a convert. A very relaxed, very pleased convert.
