Another Emergency Room Visit and Healing Massages: Our Weekend in Review

Yes, it is true.  We are still sick.  New symptoms seem to be showing up each day.  I haven’t kicked my cough yet despite all the various remedies I’ve tried.  And then Nick woke up on Saturday morning and told me he had an ear infection and needed it looked at immediately.  So off we went to the Emergency Room for the second time this week!  I’m starting to become a regular there – it’s really quite sad.  He was diagnosed with Swimmer’s Ear, which is essentially an infection of the ear canal.  Quite painful!  With drops and pain meds in hand, we settled in for another rest-filled weekend.

I’ve written several times about how I frequent The Spa, which is in Greenbelt.  While I still love my “home” spa, I felt like a change-up was in order because I was so used to the routine of the various massages that I’d know which direction I needed to turn or bend my leg before they had even prompted me.  The buzz in the Embassy community has been around Neo Spa, located in Fort Bonafacio.  I decided to test it out with a friend on Friday and see how it compared.

Since I’ve been sick for almost 3 weeks now, I opted for a unique massage geared toward helping your immune system.  It’s called a Lymphatic Drainage Massage and although the name isn’t very sexy, it ended up being in my top 3 massages of all time.  This style of massage boosts the flow of lymph around your body, refreshing your immune system and flushing out toxins.  For those of you that aren’t into biology: Lymph is a clear, yellow fluid that flows around your body, bringing white blood cells and antibodies to your tissues and organs.  These are vital to your immune system and help fight infections.

It’s hard to describe what the massage felt like.  At times, I felt like she was kneading my muscles, pushing her hands together from both ends.  She also used a unique S stroke that I’ve never experienced before.  Everything was long and flowing, but there was an intensity about it as well that felt different than Swedish.  She started at my toes and worked up to the top of the body, seemingly squeezing all of the toxins out through my head.  Simply amazing!  For those of you who like massage, add this style to your repertoire!

You can just about guess how excited I was about this new spa I had found!  So what did I do but book another appointment on the spot for Nick and I for the following day. I got him the Lymphatic Massage that I’d just received and decided that I’d sample a new massage called Tui Na, which is a form of Chinese Manipulative Therapy often used in combination with acupuncture.  I was struggling to explain the basics of Tui Na, so I pulled a short excerpt from Wikipedia to share with you:

The words Tui Na translate into “push-grasp” or “poke-pinch” in Chinese. Physically, it is a series of pressing, tapping, and kneading with palms, fingertips, knuckles or implements that help the body to remove blockages along the meridians of the body and stimulates the flow of qi and blood to promote healing, similar to principles of acupuncture, moxibustion, and acupressure.  Tui na is a hands-on body treatment that uses Chinese taoist and martial art principles to bring the body to balance. The principles being balanced are the eight principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The practitioner may brush, knead, roll/press and rub the areas between each of the joints (known as the eight gates) to open the body’s defensive chi and get the energy moving in both the meridians and the muscles.

I had no idea all that was happening but I can say that it felt sensational.  The most unique aspect of the style was that it was done almost exclusively with the two thumbs.  I can’t imagine what kind of hand strength that must take!  And the great thing about this new spa is that they have 4 or 5 other unique massage styles that I’ve never had before including: A bamboo massage, a Seashell Massage and a Lomi Lomi Massage.  I can guarantee that I’ll be sampling every style at least once!