So, I've been doing massage in general for 24 years and I've had lots of studies at various
schools and different techniques.
One of the things that drew my attention was lymphatic drainage and the reason for that
is because one time I had done a very deep massage for somebody and they said that they
were in worse pain than they were before I got started.
So that got me very curious and then I was very fortunate to have an instructor who said
after you take the muscle apart and work it over to make it nice and he taught us lymphatic
drainage.
When I have found sometimes the skin can shrink around the lymph area so then it's like here's
a lymph node and then the skin just kind of tightens around that area.
We'll stretch the skin out to allow for more space so there's less constriction.
So that's what we'll do here.
I always keep an eye out for things that don't feel right and especially in the lymphatic
areas a lot of therapists won't go there because they're taught not to dig in there which
is correct.
You don't want to put pressure in where the exposed nerve endings are like lymph nodes
are here in the armpit and these are glands so you don't want to dig hard because you'll
bruise them and damage the nerves and stuff.
But I always palpate in there and see what's going on because for lymph drainage it's very
gentle modality so you're not going to injure that.
If I feel something different in the case of Lisa I've always felt like there was some
congestion of lymph in there and so I would work it and empty it out and it would keep
coming back.
When they took the lymph out I think once they opened your can of worms, once they opened
me up and yanked them I thought there was still preformed silicone in my chest cavity
and once they got in there and started digging that stuff out it just let it out and it was
disrupted so it's all in my system.
We kind of kept her going for these last five years just keeping her, she's always tired
and low on energy and so the massages helped her to keep her health up.
I believe there's other factors that affect health because nutrition is just really one
aspect of health.
You need hydration.
Most of us don't drink enough water and that can be a cause of lymphatic congestion.
That just feels like it's doing something right, it just feels like really good and it's
pushing on the congestion.
I always check my liver that if I feel it's tight I will pull the area to create space
and then I will squish the area so I do my own lymphatic drainage.
Ramona Moody's book on lymphatic drainage which you could probably find on Amazon it
has a section for self lymphatic drainage with lots of good pictures.
Definitely it's a good research for people to learn a little bit on that section on self
lymphatic drainage and what you can do for yourself.
