Post-Op Massage
What it is and isn’t
If you’ve called our practice, you’ll know that we do NOT offer incisional drainage massage, also known as Columbian Wet Massage, at this practice. For starters, it is not legal for licensed massage therapists in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Florida, and multiple other states, to open anyone’s incisions, and to then squeeze liquids out. Your physician or their nurse may perform incisional draining in their office, because their licenses allow them to do so. Outside of that? It isn’t recommended and in most cases, it’s probably not even legal in the state it’s being performed in.
As of the time of this posting, The office of The Attorney General in NJ will revoke the license of anyone opening up incisions AND will also fine them $22,000. Florida is also revoking licenses and issuing fines. But they can only revoke your license, if you have a license to revoke. If you don’t have a license to take, there is less for you to lose.
How can you tell if someone actually has a license? If you don’t see a license hanging in the treatment room, which is possible if one therapists uses multiple rooms, you can ask the practitioner for their number or you can ask for their first and last name, and then search their state’s massage therapist licensing directory. Each state has a list of active therapists. In order to become licensed, you’ll need extensive training, you need to pass a national licensing exam, and then complete any additional requirements that your state requires. In New Jersey, they take finger prints. In Pennsylvania, they do a thorough background check.
”That’s great and all, but I had drainage massage done in New York / Miami / wherever… How could they do it if it wasn’t legal?” As I recently told a potential client on the phone, you can go to Manhattan and buy a fake Fendi or knockoff Coach handbag. Is it legal? No. Does that stop people from buying them or selling them? Still no. There’s a difference between a fashionable $30 purse from a street vendor and with potentially putting your body at risk. At risk for what you ask? A multitude of things, such as additional scars as you heal, difficulties healing, a hematoma, a seroma, infections such as a local streptococcal infection, that might lead to sepsis, or exposure to any number of diseases that can be spread by unclean instruments. Several of my clients have come to me only after being hospitalized by having incisional drainage massages done by someone else, go horribly wrong.
So, if these massages come with risks and if they really ARE dangerous, (which they can be,) WHY are people still able to get them and why do people continue to seek them out? We’ve heard of at least two people who were secretly referred by a receptionist at a surgeon’s office. People will refer their friends or family members to the person they used. Why? There’s a subculture within the plastic surgery community that promotes the idea that recovery has to be painful to be effective. There are people who use fear and tell you that you’re not going to get the results that you want, if it doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Well, how do you get the fluid out then? We offer traditional manual lymphatic drainage massage, which is gentle enough to be done on someone who is pregnant or someone simply looking to manage their health. Your body’s lymphatic system does a pretty good job of clearing out stuff that your body doesn’t need and it does this without ever having to make or re-open an incision. We’ll be putting up another post about this sometime soon though.
Has this practice had people not come in for post-operative massage, because we do NOT offer incisional drainage? Absolutely. And because your results and safety are important to us, our licensed massage therapists are going to continue not to offer incisional drainage massages, because we want to keep you safe!
That being said, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the office!
And as always, go be amazing! - Kate J., LMT CLT