Because of a similar accident my husband recently had, I decided to go ahead and share the following story with you; an experience that devastated me a while back. Luckily, my husband felt and continues to feel much better about his situation than I originally did mine, due to him witnessing the wonderful effects that massage had on my facial scar.
FYI – This post does not have much to do with PNMT per se, but rather massage as a whole… So I hope you don’t mind.
Back in 2008, I cracked my forehead open while we were vacationing in the Dominican Republic. Ugh! Call me vain, but I was so sick to my stomach; automatically assuming I would need plastic surgery in the near future… And of all places, on my face.
(I can’t believe I am actually including the first two pictures in this post, but it’s important for me to show you how powerful massage truly is.)
Check out that gash! I know it could have been worse, but I’m a female and sometimes females worry about these things. 🙂
In order to get with a Plastic Surgeon as soon as possible, we headed back to the States early. The doctor we ended up scheduling with told me—in a surprised tone—that the resort’s doctor actually did a really good job stitching me up. Thank goodness, right?! He also said that because it was vertical and perpendicular to my lovely wrinkles, I would definitely need plastic surgery down the road.
Having just graduated from massage school shortly before, I asked him if he thought massaging the scar would help, and his response was “The only way to know for sure is to massage half of it, but I don’t think it will help regardless.” Ummm… Half? Seriously? Not gonna happen! Instead, I decided to ignore his statement and addressed the whole darn thing on my own.
After the scab was completely gone, I massaged it multiple times a day in the very beginning; paying special attention to the scar-tissue that was forming in and around it. Sometimes I used medium pressure; other times I used deep pressure, basically to a point where the area was pretty tender the next day. When that was the case, I would take a day off or lightly rub down—towards my heart—to increase blood flow. On a few occasions, I used Vitamin E oil, but most of the time I didn’t need to because my face tends to be on the oily side as it is.
Well, here I am today… Four years later, and you can hardly see my scar. I did not massage my scar daily this whole time, just for the first six or so months. Even then, I probably missed a day, or two or three, here and there.
All in all, massage in general, works some serious wonders in my book. If you ever have an accident—which I hope you don’t—and worry about potential scaring like I did, try giving massage a try. It’s less invasive and has the potential to save you a ton of money.
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“Neutral balance alignment is key to becoming pain free!”™ ~ Me