Fibromyalgia and Getting a Massage

Topics: Fibromyalgia and..., My Network, Trying Stuff

Shortly after I was diag­nosed with my fibromyal­gia my doc­tor rec­om­mended I try a mas­sage. I went to a local fancy spa and salon and had the most mis­er­able time. It was a nightmare.

Despite telling the lady mul­ti­ple times that I was super sen­si­tive and ask­ing her to ease up at least as many times, I left in tears. Maybe the tears didn’t start until we left the spa. I can’t remem­ber. But you get the point.  I hated it and my mom felt awful for mak­ing me the appoint­ment.  All-in-all I swore I’d never get another massage.

About a decade later I finally changed my mind.  I sit at a desk nearly all day and my back and shoul­ders get stiff.  I favor one hip so my lower back gets tense.  My ribs and ster­num (or clav­i­cle) seem to pop at will, leav­ing knots along my back and chest.  Every time I visit Dr. Delilah she rec­om­mends I get a mas­sage (not as strongly as she rec­om­mends the same for Daniel).  She has mas­sage ther­a­pists in her office who I hear raved about.  And she was will­ing to brief them on my con­di­tions.  I could not say no.

I tried to con­vince myself I was only doing it so Daniel would, but (to be hon­est) I was excited.  We sched­uled appoint­ments at the same time for the Sat­ur­day before his school came back from break, Jan­u­ary 3.  “What a great and relax­ing way for him to pre­pare for another semes­ter teach­ing, and another semes­ter of grad school,” I thought.  “He’ll love that.”  Lit­tle did I know I would too…

Thank good­ness Delilah talked me into it.  I am a new and huge fan of mas­sages.  Espe­cially from folks who under­stand fibromyal­gia.  I feel more relaxed and painfree (in the fibro sort of way) than I have in more than a decade.  My joints aren’t swollen (like after the last mas­sage).  And my sinuses are even drain­ing  (bizarre).  Although the true test(s) will be how I feel a day and a week from now, I am pretty con­vinced mas­sages will be part of my ever-evolving treat­ment plan.  As will my Rhap­sody Bed.  But we’ll talk more about that later.

So fibro­folks, tell me about your mas­sage expe­ri­ences.  Do they help with your fibromyal­gia symp­toms?  Do they relieve or reduce your chronic pain?

Existing Comments

    Comment by Chronic Chick Talk on January 3, 2009 @ 2:03 pm

    Thanks for the com­ment. Mas­sage is some­thing I have thought about a lot. I do get some relief from warm bath with laven­der and Epsom salts. I do wish I had a whirlpool. I do have one of those bub­ble spas, but its uncom­fort­able to sit on and a pain in the neck to set up when you hurt already. can’t win for losing.

    Pingback by Fibromyalgia Pressure Points | Signs, Symptoms and Cures of Fibromyalgia on January 3, 2009 @ 8:24 pm

    […] My Life with Fibro | Fibromyal­gia and Get­ting a Massage […]

    Comment by Hans Albert Quistorff, LMP on January 4, 2009 @ 12:27 am

    As YOU dis­cov­ered there is great dif­fer­ence between mas­sage [rubbing]and mas­sage ther­apy that is adapted to FMS. Chi­ro­prac­tors adjust the posi­tion of bones but depend on highly trained mas­sage ther­a­pists to fal­low up with the adjust­ment of the mus­cles that hold the bones. For FMS this is done by posi­tion­ing and hold­ing with very lit­tle rub­bing which only irri­tates the fibers of the mus­cles which have pain [def­i­n­i­tion of Fibromyal­gia]
    Your descrip­tion indi­cates that your pelvis gets dis­torted. There is always a rec­i­p­ro­cal dis­tor­tion of the bones of our head, there­fore your sinus cav­i­ties were not being flushed by the cranio sacral move­ment. Once your pelvis was unlocked your head unlocked and your sinus began to drain.
    You should also have less Fibro Fog as it is called by some when the mind seem clouded.
    Hans Albert Quis­torff, LMP
    Antalgic Pos­ture Pain Specialist

    Comment by Julie on January 6, 2009 @ 1:48 am

    I work with fibromyal­gia clients as a mas­sage ther­a­pist. There are some clients who can take more pres­sure and some that can’t so you never really know what will hap­pen until you do the massage.

    Fibro usu­ally has many com­po­nents one of them being adrenal stress which causes the stress response sys­tem to become over­loaded. Work­ing with a ND and chang­ing your diet can help– get­ting off sugar, caf­feine and high carbs.

    There are many arti­cles on mas­sage and fibromyal­gia linked from my site on mas­sage
    http://thebodyworker.com/massage_and_fibromyalgia.htm

    Julie
    http://www.thebodyworker.com
    http://www.massage-career-guides.com

    Comment by Tamicat on January 6, 2009 @ 6:00 pm

    I have a ther­a­pist I’ve seen for years. Recently I started giv­ing her what kind of pres­sure I want on a 1–10 scale. There’s some days I want a “smooshie” mas­sage (as she calls it) that’s relax­ing and not deep. On other days I can han­dle more pres­sure and she’ll work on the deep tis­sue. It’s def­i­nitely helped me to get mas­sage. I just wish I could go more often! It’s also been a help that I’ve seen the same gal for years. She’s got­ten to know my body and I know what to tell her so I can get the most ben­e­fit from it.

    Comment by Amy on January 9, 2009 @ 1:48 am

    It took me awhile before I found a masseuse that I really liked. It hurts more, but I actu­ally pre­fer a firmer mas­sage because I know that it will ben­e­fit me later. They just have to start light & really warm up your mus­cles. It some­times helps if they mas­sage you using Bio-Freeze. I go once per month. I just had one today. Absolutely amazing!

    Comment by K8 on January 25, 2009 @ 5:39 pm

    What great com­ments! I am glad to see there are so many oth­ers who find mas­sages help­ful. I’m get­ting ready to sched­ule another appoint­ment. I will be sure to ask about your recommendations.

    Comment by Spa Equipment on March 6, 2009 @ 1:09 am

    Great article.Massage is some­thing I have thought about a lot. I do get some relief from warm bath with laven­der and Epsom salts.
    Spa Equip­ment

    Comment by Miranda on May 12, 2009 @ 11:19 pm

    I get mas­sage ther­apy on my shoul­ders, neck and upper back due to a car acci­dent. It really helps relax those sore mus­cles for a lit­tle while. Unfor­tu­nately that treat­ment will be end­ing in the next week or so. But I have a friend that is a mas­sage ther­a­pist that I thought about sched­ul­ing a mas­sage with. But I just don’t know if I can han­dle my arms, legs and lower back to be mas­saged. They really need it just as much as my neck and shoul­ders. But those are the most ten­der parts of my body that even the light­est touch sends excru­ci­at­ing pain through­out the rest of my body. Any­body else have this problem??

    Comment by Linda Frost on October 8, 2009 @ 4:12 pm

    I think I’ll give a mas­sage a try. Hi Kate! It’s so nice to stum­ble upon your site. I and two of my sis­ters have fibro. and were research­ing the voltaren patch (which is how I found your site). Your arti­cles help me feel less crazy, like all my pain is in my head or that other may think that. Thanks for shar­ing what works and your expe­ri­ences. Do you still like the voltaren patch? I think I’ll ask for that from my doc­tor. I have had PT’s help me in the past. They explained to me that they “hold” the mus­cle at it’s start­ing point then they stretch it slowly and care­fully while hold­ing it’s base. That made sense to me. A book that has helped me iden­tify what was exactly hurt­ing is “Fibromyal­gia and Chronic Myofas­cial Pain — A Sur­vival Man­ual” by Devin Star­lanyl and Mary Copeland. This book has exten­sive dia­grams of the body explain­ing exact loca­tions of trig­ger points. I rec­om­mend this book for every one with fibro.

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