A VERY BAD massage!
Last Monday I was feeling great after running ~5 miles both Saturday and Sunday mornings in hilly New Braunfels. After a great pilates class, I went for a massage. Didn't really need one, but thought I deserved one.
I went to Avalon massage school, where I have gone several times and had the best massages I've ever gotten - by new graduates that have some great techniques. And an hour and a half massage is $50! (Nice private rooms, subdued lighting, aromatherapy & soothing tunes playing).
When I got there, the receptionist said the intern was not available, but an instructor agreed to do the massage at no extra charge. SCORE! -- I thought.....
Right from the get-go it was not a good massage. The guy (Noel Solis - beware of him!) made some crack about people getting massages from him need to "take as much as they can handle" or something like that. Right then I stopped him & said I was there for relaxation and rejuvenation, not some hard core crap - I do that to myself running & boot camp, etc. He said okay. I said I DID NOT want to be sore the next day. He said I wouldn't.
But then he started HARD. I told him again I did not want to be sore. He eased up some & said I wouldn't - he's an instructor & knows what he's doing and is very good at it. It would just be sore while he was doing it, but then I would feel great.
This bullshit (and I don't curse) went on throughout.
If he was an intern I would have stopped him in the middle & left. If he would have been a regular masseuse I would have also. But he was so insistent that he's an instructor and is great at what he does, etc, etc, etc.
I was in more pain when I left than when I went in.
It was worse the next day.
The following day I had to go to the doctor. She said my back was bruised and swollen. It was so tender she couldn't touch me.
She prescribed an anti-inflammatory AND pain medicine AND muscle relaxers -- three different drugs!
It took an entire week for me to get over all that.
And now, I really NEED a massage, but am too scared to go get one. Seriously, I really don't know if I'll get then again anytime soon. And with training ramping up, I'd like to be getting them monthly.
AND, I've lost a week of training. I'm a measly 1.8 miles away from making 200 miles this year, but haven't been up to getting in that silly amount. I have the Run Wild 5K this Friday and am going to have a super-sucky time since I haven't been running at all.
I am going to file a complaint on that "Instructor" with the Texas Department of Health Services, the ones in charge of licensing massage therapists. I'll attach the e-mail response I got from him when I told him how sore I was....
6 comments:
OMG! That's so awful!
Definitely complain, and I would copy the school in on the letter too. Hope you are feeling better!
Ouch! I have had one of those painful massages and scared me a way for a long time. I am telling you the best was that neuromuscular one. They cater to atheletes. I hope you can get that 5K in tomorrow. keep us posted.
Bad massages are the WORST. I had one in Costa Rica - thought he seriously injured me and I would never be able to run again. My back was so sore, not good sore.
So, are you going to go back there?
That sucks. Hope you're feeling better.
oh man that is so awful! I'm sorry!!
Hi,
I don't know you nor anything about how this blog came up. I just came accross it investigating if there is such a thing as a massage gone wrong.
I have gone through the same thing last week on a spa here in Toronto.
I got a couple's spa package in www.spaandtravel.com for an anniversary/Xmas/birthday gift for myself and my long-term beau. I was pretty much in it just to start a romantic evening off and to enjoy each others company as we experience for the first time a massage together. The spa was Novo Spa (www.novospa.ca). The massage started off so lightly (like, feather light), since I had massages before, I didn't mind being massaged a little harder. And my masseuse did (her name was Shannon) massaged me as how she'd usually would (I'm assuming). I was surprised with the pain from the massage I was getting. I told her that it was hurting me to the point that it was almost making me pass out! She said it was normal because I had a lot of knots. Hmm.. I was wondering how could that be coz I never had serious back problems. In total, it was all an emotionally confusing, energy-draining and most of all physically painful 'supposed anniversary/Xmas gift'!
It freaked me all out to the point that I was getting really emotional complaining at their front desk and all that I got from their spa manager that night (who's name happened to be Shannon as well) was that they cannot do anything about giving me a refund/resolve/ease up the issue on hand. (I demanded for a refund with the services that I was supposed to get) It was so frustrating. The next week I called the website spaandtravel.com to let them know what happened and asked for a refund/even a resolution for that incident. They said the same thing and gave me an e-mail address to address our concerns. They said they don't have my money and that I should try the other company for that. Okay, so just putting things into perspective here - what has been done has been done - but to not take responsibility with what happened totally mirrors their lack of sustaining good relations to their customers. It’s like, ‘we just need your money’ type of cold shoulder. Sadly noone has even called me back after I sent them an e-mail.
I was wondering if there is any way on how to go about complaints with massages that had gone wrong/bad? I need help! The sad part is that it cost us $270 to get the almost 2 hour spa in hell! (the very name of the spa package is called 'A Taste of Heaven')
Regards,
D
PS: replying to your blog would help.
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