Massage After COVID-19

Posted on February 3, 2021February 26, 2023 by Tricia Griffith

Ideally, you need to let them know well before your appointment date. You need time to connect to discuss how serious your case was. It may also be necessary for you to reach out to your healthcare team for feedback. The best plan is to talk to them before you make an appointment.

Why Worry About Massage After COVID-19?

The biggest concern is the risk of blood clots associated with COVID-19. While blood clots have primarily been seen in patients hospitalized with severe cases, there are still a lot of unknowns. Autopsies of patients who have died from COVID often show severe clotting, which contributed to multiple organ failure and death. You can read an interview about COVID-19 and clotting issues written by a massage pathology eductator here.

Massage Gets the Blood Moving

One of the benefits of massage is that it improves the flow of blood through your muscles and organs. A massage stroke presses down on your muscles, stretching and warming them. Those muscles have blood vessels supplying them, and that same motion pushes the blood in the direction of the stroke.

Maybe you noticed that these strokes are often deliberately pushing blood towards your heart. Once there, it travels to the lungs for fresh oxygen, and then back through your organs and muscles again. Because of this, it is possible to dislodge a clot and send it traveling through you body to create big problems.

What Does My Massage Therapist Need to Know?

You may have noticed they keep asking you about your ability to exercise and increase your heart rate/respiratory rate. They’ll want to know if you’ve had any new or unusual muscle aches or pain. It’s also important to know if you have seen any unexplained marks, rashes, bumps, or other lesions on your skin. These are all screening questions to help rule out blood clots.

So please, don’t be embarrassed, don’t brush it off. Let your massage therapist know and answer their questions honestly. They are trying to keep you safe!

COVID Exposure: How Close Is Too Close?

Posted on November 19, 2020February 26, 2023 by Tricia Griffith

COVID-19 is creeping in around the edges, friends, I’ve had to discuss with a few clients what is “too close” when it comes to COVID exposure.

How few people between you and a positive COVID test is too few? Our faces are pretty close to each other when I work on your neck and shoulders, even with a face mask and shield.

What if your spouse has a coworker test positive? Is spending time with a person outside who was exposed via their child’s school too close? These situations have presented themselves recently, and the clients and I agreed to err on the side of caution.

At this time, if someone who lives with you is exposed at work or elsewhere, or if you are notified of a risk of exposure, please cancel your appointment. Within a few days, you’ll know if the people between you and the positive individual have tested negative, or shown signs of illness, or you can get yourself tested (find a testing site near you). Then, we can discuss getting you rescheduled.

If you aren’t sure about what you should do, please feel free to contact me to discuss. As I’m often in with clients during the day, the best way to reach me is via email or text. I can quickly respond to you between appointments and disinfecting.

As always, if you’re not feeling well, definitely reschedule. You can review symptoms and my COVID-19 policies here. Unsure if getting a massage is safe for you? Read more about my High-Risk Client Policy here.

Many of you worry about my losing income/business, and you are awesome. However, I would rather reschedule one appointment than risk making a dozen clients sick and closing for weeks. Thank you for continuing to be understanding and helping me keep massaging during this pandemic.

Massage In A Time of COVID: Week 7

Posted on August 24, 2020February 26, 2023 by Tricia Griffith

Holy $#*! It’s August

Welcome to massage in a time of COVID week 7. As it works out for most of these newsletters, I started this one has a one month update. Then, life got in the way and it’s now something more like a month and a half-ish update. Things are still going okay, everyone coming in has been fantastic about wearing masks and being patient and understanding. I range anywhere from “This is good, we got this!” to “OH MY GOD WHAT AM I DOING?!” but as Dory says “Just keep swimming!”

I’ve settled into the cleaning and disinfection routine pretty well. It takes about 20 minutes to get everything wiped down. Then, it needs to air dry for 10 minutes or so before I put linens back on the table in preparation for the next appointment. I found I have to set an alarm reminder or I might forget to put the sheets on!

A few things that have been tweaked as time progresses:

massage COVID week 7
COVID exposure reminder

I now have a card with a date range to give you that reminds you to contact me if you learn about exposure to COVID-19 or test positive.
MassageBook should automatically send you a request to update your intake form the day before your appointment. I’m double-checking that you’ve updated that instead of emailing or texting a check-in.
Please wait 14 days to schedule if you have traveled out of the state.
Please wait 14 days to schedule if you have had visitors from out of state that you haven’t been able to socially distance from.
There’s a written policy for COVID-19 exposure on my website.

University of Maine Students Returning to Orono:

If you are a regular client, but just returning to Orono for classes, please wait 2-3 weeks before scheduling a massage.
Regular clients employed at the university: I’ve talked to many of you about exposure risks, testing, etc. I trust you to be aware of your risks, and I believe most of you are getting tested regularly. Just let me know how things are going.

Meanwhile, I’ve opened up the schedule through October. Just keep in mind that there’s always a chance we may have to cancel your appointment if cases in Orono increase too much or (God I hope not) I get exposed.

Wash your hands, wear a mask, and stay negative, my friends.

Massage in a Time of COVID: Week 1

Posted on July 12, 2020February 26, 2023 by Tricia Griffith

How The First Week Went

This past week, I saw 8 massage appointments. It was mostly friends and a couple of people who had something like a million appointments canceled over the duration of the shutdown. (I may be exaggerating a tad). I want to THANK BIG TIME everyone who came in!

It was inspiring! People filled out the requested health forms without complaint, arrived wearing a mask, and let me check their temp with my no-touch thermometer on arrival. Some of you were so intent on being helpful, you tried hard to touch as few things as possible while you were there. You hand sanitized and kept your mask on for your massage, and I am so, so, grateful. It really helped make a stressful, scary time much more manageable.

WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK

I learned that yeah, for the time being, I’m going to need to leave the one hour space between appointments. It takes me 20-30 minutes to wipe everything down, let it air dry, and then get set up for the next appointment.

I learned/realized that one of the disinfectants I bought is a cleaner AND disinfectant, so I can save a little time using that. At the end of the day, I may use the separate cleaner and disinfectant just to give everything a good scrub and then let it air out until the next day.

I also learned that having people just request appointments was a big pain in the butt. So, you can schedule online like normal now!

THINGS I AM CHANGING A LITTLE

After my first day of trying to use the new Hands Heal EHR to take the appointment notes, I realized I hated it. So, literally the only thing it was doing for me was the fancy COVID-19 screening form. Nevermind that, then.

I’ve gone in and updated the intake form on MassageBook, it does have some symptoms screening questions, and I have added some information on the waiver page reminding you of policies and risks. I will be asking everyone to update that form before every appointment, even if you’re coming in more than once a month.

Today I’m working on a more thorough screening process for when you arrive for your appointment. I’ll be making a second laminated form to the one that I use for taking your notes that will be specific to COVID-19. There are some risk factors that are really hard to predict, particularly clotting risks. (Even if you don’t think you’ve had COVID) So, I’ll be asking you some specific questions to hopefully rule out those risks. I think I will probably also write a specific blog post about it if I can distill it down into bite-size morsels.

SCHEDULE YOUR MASSAGE TODAY!

I have opened up online booking for all existing clients. Right now the schedule is open through the first two weeks in August. I encourage you to book online. It’s honestly the fastest way to get your appointment. Playing text/email/message tag takes forever, more so now than before.

Be sure to review the COVID-19 Policies and High-Risk Client Policy before scheduling. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Meanwhile, wash your hands & stay negative!

THANK YOU AGAIN!