So I wanted to write about the massage therapy session. Also, last night was the first night in a very long time that I slept all the way through the night. Well, I did wake up a few times to roll over, or push Toffee out of the center of the bed, but I managed to fall right back asleep in my own bed without going downstairs.
Yay, me.
Anyway, massage.
When I booked the massage online, I selected "I don't mind which gender therapist" because you could select male or female on the form. I understand when women may not want to be 1:1 massaged by a dude.
Personally, I just want someone who is good at what they do.
I was assigned a guy, no problem.
He was a Geoffrey. I'm not kidding. When he came out to get me and introduced himself I had to smile. He is about 6'3", 250 lbs., big curly hair, little chin beard, glasses, great big smile.
We had a chat before the massage to go over what I was hoping to get out of the session. I told him that my right hip was killing me, my knee hurt, and I have a good case of tech-neck. After talking to my family care practitioner, she suggested I start with massage and if things did not get better we could ponder arthritis.
I told him that I'd entered the 100 miles in 100 days challenge, and that in the past few weeks I'd been running more than walking. He was stoked for me.
"Your hip hurts because of running, not arthritis, I'd put money on that. So let's check in there and get the hip abductors and glutes taken care of."
I also told him about how I can't take ibuprofen for pain, thanks to the blood clotting disorder situation and how it ... isn't good. And that my doctor has instructed me to not take tylenol because my liver enzymes and other blood tests over the last year have been high. I was taking a lot of tylenol, so I've super scaled back. Instead of daily, maybe twice a week max. But yeah, I'm feeling pain a lot.
She told me to use biofreeze on the hurty bits.
"And how is that working out for you?" he asked.
"Not as good as taking tylenol, of course." I said, "but it is better than absolutely nothing."
Onto the table.
He started with my neck, back, and shoulders, said he could feel some tightness on the left shoulder and that is exactly where my tech-neck lives.
Down my back, asking me if anything hurt from him pressing. "I'm a big guy and sometimes I get my whole body into this, so let me know if any of this is painful. Some people hate it but they think that's what deep tissue massage is. They're supposed to hate it. No. I want them to tell me if I'm going too hard."
No dude, you're ... fantastic.
We talked about how massage is therapy. You go to the doctor, you get meds. You get mental health care, meds or therapy. You eat food, fuels your body, you don't deny yourself any of these other things but really - massage is not a luxury or a "Treat Yo Self," but an essential therapy. You don't have to do it every day, but once a month, every other month. Get your muscles worked out.
He got to my hip, my glutes, and the backs of my thighs. "Oh yeah. You're right. You're an athlete now!" I laughed.
"No, I'm serious. You've been doing the walking challenge, probably doing a lot of walking before you started tracking the challenge, and now you're running. You're tight. Your muscles are screaming."
I told him that's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in years. Calling my doughy fat body an "athlete," thank you.
He flipped me over and did my quads and I could feel it so much. He pressed on each of the muscles, adductors, abductors, quads, hamstrings, and tendons. I told him that before I recently lost some weight I had no idea what this .... thing was on the side of my knee, the hamstring tendon. And he laughed. Discovering and learning about my body is fun.
We talked about how he played high school and college football, and blew out his shoulder 5 games into his freshman year season. Once you get injured and decide to not play football anymore you have no scholarship money, and you ... basically drop out.
He took some gap time, he had some surgery and said "for the rest of my life my shoulder will be fucked up but I'm a very happy person. I tried. And the universe pointed me in a very different direction. I would be graduating this year if I stayed at a 4 year college, and now I'm fully employed, working on my Bachelors in Finance online, and making people happy."
Wait a minute.
"You said, you'd be graduating this year?"
He said yes.
"How... old are you?" I asked. "If you don't mind me asking. You don't have to say."
"I will be 22 in May."
Holy shit. You are a baby.
"Well, you present, if I can steal that phrase from gender identity discussions, you present much older." I said. "I would have guessed by this discussion and your skills, and everything that you were maybe 27 or 28."
My son doesn't present as old as he does.
"I am an old soul, I guess. But also you're super easy to talk to," he said. "I'm an incredibly introverted person, and I think this is the most I've talked to anyone during a session. You just make it easy."
I wanted to bring him home and have him become friends with Geoff or something.
"I think I could talk to you all day," I said, and he laughed and agreed.
He made it down to my feet, and talked about how my arches are a little stiff. I said I'm for sure feeling that. He encouraged me to go barefoot as much as possible and I told him for sure, I'm barefoot all of the time. A suggestion to use a golf ball to rub the bottoms of my feet daily, just kind of work it out. My feet will feel a lot better.
He finished up, I got dressed and he waited for me in the lobby. He asked if I'd come back, and I said hell yeah. We shook hands and parted with a smile.
He said I'm an athlete.
Thanks.
Digits below.
digits
exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 31 min/2.11 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime
blood glucose:
8:30am: 143
4:45pm: 103
11pm: 134
food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake in coffee
1:30pm: english muffin w/pb & low sugar j; met+glip
4:45pm: hostess ring ding dealie
6pm: bowl of penne pasta w/meat sauce and a slice of garlic bread; white wine
7pm: ramekin of cashews
8:30pm: met+glip
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