Massage Envy to the rescue!
Massage Envy is a lifesaver. It was a 4:00 on a Friday afternoon and my neck was so wracked that is was permanently cocked to one side. If I moved the wrong way – pow – a ping of pain. It’s the same ol’ story: poor posture + stress + lack of sleep + general anxiety about the fate of the world = bad case of crook-neck. I would guess that if you’re reading this, you’ve been there.
My first course of action was to call the day spa in my neighbor and beg for a late appointment. No go. They were fully booked for massages through Monday. Apparently, everyone in my local vicinity had a week like mine. So I hemmed and hawed for a while thinking I could live with this. People will just think I’m really curious. And then for no apparent reason, the spa dog belted out a shrill bark that scared the living the daylights out of me and made me crank my neck so abruptly, I thought I would need to be traction for the rest of my days. Owie.
Okay, Massage Envy, I thought. I know there’s got to be one close by (there was) and please, please have a slot for me (they did). In less than an hour, I was pulling into the parking lot of the Massage Envy Spa at Thompson Peak and Frank Lloyd Wright.
I was impressed from the moment I walked in. The reception space was bright, airy, clean and comfortable. I was warmly greeted at the front desk by the reception staff and asked to take a seat. The front-end gal actually walked the in-take forms over to me and sat down next to me to go over them. Nice touch. As she left me to complete the paperwork, she asked me if I wanted water. (Note: My personal policy is to never drink more than a sip of water before a spa treatment. Nothing like having to “go” midway through a massage.)
I turned in the paperwork and then got a tour of the spa. Again, impressed. The treatment area was softly lit (in a spa way, not a creepy way), the restroom was spotless, there were two quiet sitting nooks to wait for your therapist and soothing music was piped through the stereo system.
As my therapist, April, escorted me to the treatment room, she asked me if I had any particular areas I’d like her to focus on. And I, with my cocked neck, explained my woes. April was warm and sympathetic and reiterated several times to speak up anytime during the massage if I wanted her to adjust the massage pressure, the room temperature and the massage table temperature (yes, a heated bed!). She seemed genuinely focused on making me feel better and making sure that the massage was effective.
And it was. She focused on the areas that needed attention while balancing other areas that were having their own issues – once one part of your body is impaired, the other muscles tense up to help out. The latter half of the massage I was face up and she was able to get to the heart of the matter. She expertly zeroed in on the offending knot and worked it loose within my pain threshold. She suggested that later that evening, I apply heat and ice in 5-minute intervals to “confuse” the ornery muscle and help to further break up the knot.
Afterward, she gave me water and walked me out and said she hoped to see me again. And I think she meant it. I felt 100% better. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I looked both ways for traffic and then realized, I was actually turning my head. Both ways. Amen.
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