tired

There are two kinds of tired. Emotionally/mentally tired and physically tired. Last night I was a bit of both.

What an intense day!

It started when I went running in the morning. I jogged over to the park to do my sprints and there was a teenage boy who was also doing his sprints on the soccer field. We both had our headphones in. Neither of us said a word but he looked at me, I looked back at him, our eyes narrowed and it was on! We raced each other a handful of times. Granted, he gave me about a two second head start and he beat me every time, but I made him WORK for it!

Of course later my body was like, "What the hell, we NEVER run that fast! We want to shut down now!"

Then my afternoon was filled with volunteering, giving massages to women with cancer. I've been doing this off and on (but let's be honest, mostly off) for eight years now. And you never know what your client is going to be like. Sometimes they are practically healthy. Sometimes they are in a bad way.

My first client just had a double mastectomy two weeks ago. So no laying face down. I told her that we could put her in side-lying position since her back could use some work. I said that I would just need to go get a few more pillows and admitted that I was a little bit rusty with side-lying but we could figure it out. We decided to skip side-lying and do the ENTIRE massage face up. Though skipping any work near the chest.

So I get back in the room after she gets on the table and she made some snotty comment about how I obviously didn't have any experience working with cancer patients. Okay, maybe she said it a little bit nicer than that but I got a little offended. I explained to her that I have plenty of experience working with cancer patients but side-lying work is mostly done for pre-natal massages which I don't do.

Once we finally got started the massage went great. She was in good spirits, joking about how she was looking forward to her hair falling out because she doesn't like the color it is currently dyed.

Then I had my second client. Who on top of having breast cancer also has ALS. Now you would think considering that she has been to the spa four times before that at least ONE of the other therapists would have made mention (in our notes) of the fact that my client couldn't speak! That would be a very helpful thing to know when meeting a client! Right?!?

But they just wrote, "Did a full body massage, skipped her neck per her request. Gentle pressure."

So I was not at all prepared when I met this client. She looked like your typical well-to-do 60-something client. My first clue however was when she asked me if I could unbutton her shorts for her. She was having trouble with the button.

Then I asked her if she was ready to get started (she was running a bit late) and she shook her head no and grunted and gestured to the spa area. This really could have meant several things such as "I'm going to go sit in the hot tub for a bit" or "I am going to go use the washroom." Well, it turns out that it meant, "I am going to go sit down and eat some apple sauce."

Okay. I learned a long time ago that it is best to just go with it. A few minutes later she comes back and I take her into the room. I asked her if there was anything that needed extra attention and she pointed to her lowback. And anything I needed to avoid and she pointed to her neck.

Then she pointed at the fan. I asked her if she wanted me to turn it on. She said no. And then she started touching her palm. I asked if she wanted me to do extra work to her hands. She shook her head no. I asked if she wanted me to avoid them. She shook her head no. She then started doing a bunch of hand signals. On the second go round I finally figured out that she was making letters. She made an "h" then an "e" then an "a" and I jumped in and said, "you want me to work your head?" She shook her head and continued with a "t." Ahhh! Heat! "You want me to turn the heater on?" Yes! Yeah!!!

Wow. The majority of my work is done in silence but the communication that I do have with my clients is sooooo important. And looking at this woman, she could have been my mom or one of my friend's moms. How frustrating must it be to her to not be able to communicate?!? How tired must SHE be at the end of the day?