1. To help deal with scar tissue

Invasive surgeries require one or more incisions into the skin, incisions that will often become surrounded by scar tissue during recovery. Scar tissue forms when the dermis, a deep, thick layer of skin, is irritated or damaged by an incision. This causes the body to generate collagen fibers that form scar tissue that is meant to help repair the incision. 

Massage Therapy helps put pressure on scar tissue to loosen the muscles around it, reducing pain and swelling. It can also help drain excess fluids that cause swelling and help relieve numbness and soreness. You should not massage the scar tissue around your wound until it has totally healed, a good rule-of-thumb is to wait at least 1-2 weeks after your surgery or injury before treating your scar tissue with a massage. 

2. To relieve stress

Recovering from surgery can be stressful, but did you know that stress can actually slow down postoperative recovery? Massage therapy can alleviate muscle tension caused by the stress response.

The pressure from a massage can aid in flushing out lactic acid from the body, improving circulation and stimulating the distribution of blood, that was diverted to muscles by the stress response, back to the rest of the body. It can also help relieve the psychological symptoms of stress. As Massage Therapy improves circulation, it also helps to stimulate the production of important mood-regulating hormones, like dopamine and serotonin.

3. To reduce pain

Pains are considered acute when they last from 3-6 months. Postoperative acute pains are often caused by an uncontrolled buildup of metabolic wastes around an incision. After surgery, many patients are prescribed prescription opioids to help cope with their pains. These highly-potent pain relievers are overprescribed and abused by roughly 1 in 5 patients. 

4. To Increase Skin Elasticity 

Skin flexibility, more commonly known as tissue elasticity, essentially refers to the stretchiness of your skin. When we are young, our bodies produce large amounts of the proteins elastin and collagen to give our skin its elastic quality. 

Low tissue elasticity could make your skin feel tight, restricting movement and exacerbating postoperative pain. Massage Therapy works to increase circulation and warm muscle tissues, thus improving skin elasticity.

5. To Promote Sleep

Surgeries often throw patients’ sleep schedules completely out of whack. They might have trouble falling asleep with the initial postoperative pain, or fall asleep and wake up at inconvenient hours. Massage Therapy helps to promote a healthy sleep schedule by stimulating the production of important sleep hormones, such as serotonin, and in turn, melatonin.

We offer a Standard Lymphatic Massage or POST Surgery Lymphatic Massage depending on the length since your surgery.

If you are within 2 weeks from surgery, please schedule the POST Surgery Lymphatic Massage to promote the removal of edema and fluid from the area. It is possible after surgery to have drainage from the surgery site, we cannot however use any tools to open the surgery site to release the fluid while in session unless the skin naturally releases from the site.