Let’s rewind a bit. Remember Mr. Executive who was sitting outside calling me repeatedly? That was when? Back in April, May? Can’t remember. Well, he is off his ban now. He caught up with me this week and I agreed to do a massage for him. He was punctual.
Very punctual. Half hour early. Strange how people change. He wasted no time filling me in on what happened in his world in the name of massage. He was over in Miami where he got the foot massage. Foot massage?
Yes, the one where they walk on you. Oh! He explained that a very hot towel was placed on his back for a few minutes, then the walking began. It felt like: Wow! Okay. Then he is working out at a gym where he is supervising himself. He added extra weights to his routine and he body did not like that, so he tried to get a massage.
He said that he called me several times got voice message. He said he found a Therapist. This field is very small, so a client says something and the mind zooms in on the tiny Massage Map of Trinidad, so I had an idea of where he went. The massage was good. It could have been rated very good, but he complained that the Therapist did not understand him, so her strokes became intense too soon and his body did not like that.
Hmmm. Listen, you can’t please every client. And I am only too aware that he might have said the opposite thing to the Therapist, so we have to be selective about what we believe.
He also spoke of a prominent tennis player who said he went into early retirement because the painful massages after the games were too much for him. He wanted to know why sports massage was painful.
I said to him what I would have said in class. It is for each Therapist to justify their actions. We have gone back and forth over the issue of micro-trauma from repetitive muscle use. These tissues need delicate treatment after a game, especially an intense one.
There are basic guidelines for post-event massage, but sometimes there is nothing quite as exhilarating as hearing an athlete scream. You’re serious? Who is this guy? No, I’m not serious. And he recounted when his arm was injured and the Doctor sent him to a Physiotherapist and the guy poked his arm with different tools and he had screaming moments.
I told him that’s the point where the Therapist becomes a Musician and is testing the scales. However, more needs to be done to make the client aware that the higher their range, the greater the success of the treatment, so they should not emit modest groans, but go for the full scream.
You’re not serious, right? Okay, so he has been away for a few months and he is out of synch with me. No, I am not serious. But you can consider the principle of fighting fire with fire. Similarly, inducing greater pain than what is being experienced can nullify the pain entirely, but not necessarily immediately.
Probably in a few hours, or the next day. Really? Really. How come you don’t do that? Oh, it’s my ears. They can handle loud music, but not whining humans.
When he turned over for me to do the front of his body he decided that that was his opportunity to understand what took place on the day that he was waiting outside. Was I to tell him that that was the last straw?
That he was on suspension? I told him I prefer not to talk about it as the details are vague at this time. He said he was concerned for my safety and wondered what could have happened so suddenly. He even considered that I was being robed? Robed? Of what? I asked if he’s ever heard of a ‘man of straw.’ Yes. That’s me. He laughed. Well, at least he got a joke.
Then he asked me what is embolism. Is he serious? A Massage Therapist is supposed to know that? I thought we were supposed to be pretty and docile and seeking every opportunity to wiggle our frames to get an extra dollar. He asked if it was clot blood. I told him when we think of a clot we can think of cells responsible for clotting.
They are called thrombocytes, taking us to thrombosis. Embolism could be a clot or some other fragment like bone from an arthritic joint, bouncing along the freeway of our blood vessel. Real-ly? Maybe not, but that’s my impression of it. Ooooh. I told him that there is the argument that thrombosis is static while an embolism moves.
As Therapists we are supposed to be wary of this so that we don’t activate movement. If we work with the movement theory, then thrombosis in terms of a clot is only thrombosis during its formation. At some point it moves, even if it’s just a millimeter, but the Doctor would not trouble the patient with that information. If it moves much more than that then it becomes an embolism, and at whichever point it gets stuck, because it is static, it should be called thrombosis again. He said a friend of his recently died suddenly and he learnt it was embolism.
I told him the theory of embolism being associated with movement makes it impossible for his friend to die of that. He had to have died from thrombosis. It stuck somewhere and prevented oxygen and nutrients from entering that area. Anyway, we are all entitled to our opinions. He should have asked a Doctor or check the Internet, instead he saved the question for me. Sweet.
I had to reacquaint myself with his body, so the massage went over the time by about 15 minutes. When it was all over I left him to rest a bit. Duties call, so the rest was short-lived. He sat up on the table and was about to say something when I heard a splitting sound and his body did a dip. Okay, so there’s visual-effects in my living room now?
Perfect. He is over 250lbs and was sitting at that half-way point where the hinges meet. He got off the table. I turned it over to see what went wrong. The hinges were perfectly in place. Nothing was bent. I set it up back and tried to understand what happened. Made no sense.
He got into his clothes then came to check. This meant reenacting. Fine. No snap this time, but his body dipped. We looked again. The board itself had broken, but not dislodged, so it looked perfect until you applied pressure. Now would you believe that this man paid his flat fee and walked out that door? No contribution towards repairs, or promise of such.
Some people are not worth the trouble they give. Now I have to arrange transportation to cart the table off to some repair place. Thank God I have one to replace that in the interim. There is negative energy that makes you uncomfortable, then there is negative energy that breaks things. I have never heard of a broken table from any Therapist (not saying it never happened), and I have decided that our client/therapist arranged has (obviously) ceased to be beneficial.
Well, one of my friends from back home will be going to Panama for a 3-week vacation so she will be here in transit for 10 hours on tomorrow. I told her I will send a taxi for her and she can spend the time with me. She wanted to know what she can expect when she comes. She asked if I have the snake in my living room yet. Did I tell her about that? She must be my friend. She is the kind of friend who I talk to a few times a year yet it is as if we have been talking all the time.
The gaps disappear when we reconnect. Oh, yes. I remember. Years ago when I was in Belmont she had introduced me to a friend of hers from Arima who has extensive knowledge of snakes, and he and I had sat down and discussed the pros and cons of a snake in captivity. He was willing to help me set up the whole thing, but I changed my mind. So no, the snake is not here.
I told her the only excitement would be a massage - she could be a model for the students to work on. She laughed. Said she has gained too much weight to expose herself to my students, besides, she might break my table. Ha! I told her someone has already beaten her to that. What?! I was just joking. I know, but it seriously happened by a guy who is constantly asking if I am serious.
She wanted to hear the story and I related it to her. When I was finished she said: You know what that is about, right? I asked what. Karma, she said. Really? Yes! You taught me that. (I hope I haven’t taught anyone else that.
It’s an insensitive concept). So I taught you that, huh? Yes! Okay. Accepted. I wonder what lesson she’d learn if I leave her sitting in the cold airport on tomorrow. Oops! Can’t do that. Mom is sending some of my jewelry with her.
The End
“Any wine will get you high. Choose the purest.”
We’ve been working for years to get David Palmer, known widely in the massage industry as “the father of chair massage” to do a presentation for at World Massage Conference.