Updates page

Here is where you can follow all my updates about how the healing journey went after my wrist surgery in 2020. This was all becoming way too much to have on my home page, so I created a separate page for it. Long story short, I had to have wrist surgery shortly after the Covid pandemic hit and healing took WAAAAAY longer than anticipated! Catch up below. Also, go HERE to see all the pictures of my new home office, which was built during all that downtime while my wrist healed!

SPRING 2023 UPDATE: I made a quick update to jump you from my June 2022 update to here, and then a fairly long explanation of what's happening in this newest round of life changing events followed by more monthly updates!

Winter 2023 UPDATE: I never would have thought I'd be using this update page for SO many huge life impacting events! But I've got another one to add here now.

Late April 2024 UPDATE: On April 26th I attempted to give my first Ashiatsu massage. I have been continually progressing slowly with physical therapy and felt it was time to give it a go, and my physical therapist strongly agreed with me. Unfortunately it did not go well. At all. I managed all of about five minutes of massage and 99% of it caused me pain. I have to move my entire lower body in such intricate ways all while using my strength and weight to apply pressure. So apparently no amount of trying to mimic those movements with physical therapy exercises was enough. I don't know yet what this means for me, I could still very well continue healing enough to be able to do this without hurting myself, I just honestly can't say what the likelihood of that is at this point. To say I'm sad, scared and frustrated at this point would be an understatement. I'm not giving up yet by any means though. so watch for the next update after I try again in another week or so. And maybe cross your fingers for better results!

April 2024 UPDATE: I think after a lot of fine tuning and testing we've finally figured out the source of my problems. There is a deep nerve path in my leg that is very tight and irritated and is causing most if not all of my issues. apparently this is a nerve that RARELY causes issues, hence the delay in figuring out the source of my problems. I've mentioned in my past updates that being in the walking boot did me zero favors, and this is yet one more issue that was created by it. Logically I understand the need for the walking boot, but I'm starting to seriously wish I'd never been in it!! So hopefully with this new knowledge guiding my path I can finally start to make some real strides towards getting back to work. As of early April when I type this I have physical therapy appointments scheduled all the way out into June, but I am really really hoping it doesn't take that long to get back to working! If I did pretty much any other job, including giving massages by hand (which I sadly can no longer do thanks to my wrist injury), I'd have been back to work weeks ago. But I'm certainly not giving up hope yet, I'll just keep on working and hoping for the best!!

March 2024 UPDATE: Nothing particularly great to share for this month. I have succeed in bringing back the Aromatouch therapy and prenatal massages, but still have no estimate on when Ashiatsu might make a return. My knee and ankle are not very good friends right now. It seems that the things we try to do to help my knee make my ankle worse. or the things we do for my ankle make my knee angry, or some of the overall strength stuff makes everything angry. My physical therapist definitely has his work cut out for him at each session as we're working hard to find that very fine middle ground of the things I can do to help my recovery that won't worsen my ankle and/or knee. Because of my hypermobility, my body hasn't really reacted in any of the typical ways either which is just one more complication on the road of healing. So I guess I'll just keep plugging along and sharing updates as things change.

February 2024 UPDATE: I spent a total of four weeks in the walking boot and succeeded in walking without crutches by the timeframe my doctor was aiming for. However, that time in the walking boot did ZERO favors for my already damaged knee, by the time they released me from the walking boot I felt like I'd damaged my knee all over again. So physical therapy has been focused as much, if not more, on my knee. By the end of the month I was able to limp around without any crutch or cane, but it's not pretty or in any way functional. Lots of work still to be done on my part, but I am hopeful that by mid March I can at least walk well enough to bring back prenatal massages and Aromatouch therapy sessions. Ashiatsu is still something I don't have a time frame for, but hopefully I can have an estimate soon!!

January 2024 UPDATE: At the end of January I am finally out of a cast and have been in a walking boot for about a week now. Although I'm still not allowed to put any weight on my foot. I have started physical therapy, we have been focusing on bringing my glutes, hip flexors and quads back online. My muscle atrophy is pretty extensive. The damage I did to my knee in the fall has already slightly slowed this process, but my therapist is pretty sure I don't have anything big going on in there, we just have to take it slow. Hopefully by the three week mark of February I'll be walking without crutches, but whether or not I still have to be in the walking boot remains to be seen. No update yet on timeline for expected return, I've got a lot of work to do before we have an idea. Hopefully next months update will finally have some idea of what to expect!

December 2023 UPDATE: On December 8th I tripped over my dog while walking through my yard. The resulting fall broke off the ends of both ankle bones in my left ankle and originally they thought I would need to have plates and screws put in to hold them back in place. But thankfully everything has managed to stay lined up well enough that the surgeon feels confident I don't need surgery! So six weeks in a cast and then a walking boot and then start physical therapy, that's when I'll hopefully have a better idea of a timeline for coming back to work.

September 2023 Update: September will be my last update for this most recent health saga of mine. This was when I brough back the 90 minute massages and had no limitations on how many massages I allowed in a day/week. I feel pretty much back to normal now, I still maybe get a little more tired than I used to, but seeing as how I'm not even six months out from two major surgeries I think I'm doing pretty darn good! Thank you everyone for having patience with me through all this, it's been one heck of a ride!

August 2023 Update: August was a month of big improvement in body healing, my scars started really loosening up and my full range of motion no longer pulled on my scar tissue nearly as much. Strength started coming back and I was able to do some light strength training. As far as work I opened my hours back to full time and was making it through days with three massages in a day. I was even able to do some nice deep massages. The only thing that hadn't come back yet was 90 minute massages, because even though the strength was coming back, I still didn't have enough strength and energy to make it through that long of a session.

July 2023 Update: The last month has been a continuation of what my June update was. Slow but consistent progress and healing. I now have full range of motion back, the limits of my reach definitely still pull on scar tissue, but I can do it. Strength is ever so slowly coming back too. Energy though is my slowest area of improvement. The very first test massage I gave back in June had me nearly falling asleep during the massage at a little over the 30 minute mark, it was that bad! But now in the middle of July I can give 60 minute massages as long as they aren't too difficult, and while I'm still limited to one a day I can at least do them daily now. My schedule has been opened back up for everyone, but the 90 minute sessions have been taken away for the foreseeable future as those are just going to be too draining. I'm very hopeful that at the rate I'm going I should be able to go back to normal by the end of summer!!

June 2023 Update: June has been a month of slowly but surely healing. Each day bringing tiny improvements over the previous days range of motion, and hitting milestones like being able to reach things in the cupboard that are above the bottom shelf. As we near the end of the month I have come close to reaching full range of motion immediately after a good stretching session, but that mobility doesn't last long yet. Strength is another big hurdle I'm working through, apparently sitting around doing nothing for almost two months isn't conducive to maintaining any amount of strength! Go figure! And lastly, energy is one more hurdle I'm dealing with. Mornings start out great, midday is decent, late afternoon I'm feeling the drag, and by evening I'm done in. I don't see that improving quickly, so even when I start working again evening massages won't be available for awhile. Nor will 90 minute sessions as those are just plain going to be too hard on my body for awhile. But, all in all, things are doing well enough that in this final week of June I'm going to give my first test massages to see how my body handles it. I'm fairly certain at this time that I will be able to open up my schedule in probably the second week of July, so hopefully I'll get to see many of you soon!

May 2023 Update: As we near the end of May I'm now one month post mastectomy and two weeks post hysterectomy. The biggest news so far is that all my pathologies came back clear!! So I did indeed beat cancer to the punch and will not have to undergo any further treatments or surgeries, it's all just healing from here. Shoulder mobility has definitely been a big issue for me, at one month out I'm juuuust able to reach up enough to wash my own hair, so a long way to go there but I'm still hoping for the best! I'll update again as I continue healing!

Winter 2022 and Spring 2023 Update: This update is a turn away from my wrist and finger issues, but will still be having a big impact on my work. Just hopefully nothing like my wrist injury did!! In late 2022 I found out through some genetic testing that I carry a variant of the BRCA2 gene, which significantly increases my odds of getting both breast and ovarian cancers. After a whirlwind time of meeting with my gynecologist, genetic counselor, specialty oncologist, and breast surgeon I've chosen to take the proactive route and get rid of my dangerous body parts before cancer can become a part of my life. Because as more than one Dr told me, it isn't really a matter of IF I get these cancers, but WHEN. Let me tell you, having to even think about these surgeries wasn't even on my radar before these findings, but I didn't take any of the info I've learned lightly, and a lot of thought has gone into my decisions. My risk is even  high enough that my upcoming mastectomy and hysterectomy have been somewhat fast-tracked. As in the first surgery will be happening only a month from meeting my final surgeon. Surgery dates will be April 21st and May 8th. The mastectomy will come first, and the healing time from that one is estimated at four to six weeks for the scars to heal and another four to six weeks after that to regain range of motion in my arms. The hysterectomy, which comes second, has a strict six week limitation on using my core muscles. So basically I won't be able to use my core or lift my arms for up to several months, both of which are quite necessary for giving Ashiatsu massages! So my final work day will be April 19th 2023, with a hopeful return by mid July 2023. Depending on my pain levels after surgery I will be trying to post some social media updates on how its going! Are you interested in finding out if you possibly have any cancer causing genetic variants? Check out the Healthy Oregon Project, it's through OHSU and is a free genetic screening for many of the cancer causing gene variations, and best of all it is free for all Oregonians! That was how I discovered my gene variant. And they have been really great at supporting me with all kinds of info to help me navigate this new scary life event.

July 2022 to January 2023 Update: The finger injury from last year ended up being a much longer lasting problem than I every could have anticipated. Seven months after the initial accident I was still having considerable sensitivity in the injured finger and went in to see a specialist. Who quickly discovered that there were nearly a half dozen small pieces of glass still imbedded in my finger. Surgery was scheduled and all that glass was removed in late January 2023. I healed very quickly after that surgery, and while I will always have the nerve damage in that finger I can at least finally use it again without a ton of pain!

June 2022 UPDATE: A new update to add to this page that isn't entirely about my wrist.  In late March I had an accident while at the beach. A fall on a slippery rock found the tip of my right middle finger coming down on glass. The cut was quite deep, requiring many stitches, and unfortunately severed both branches of the medial nerve in my middle finger. Meaning the tip of my finger was completely numb. While unable to use my hands for massage at all during those first few months I found that my wrist felt better than it has in ages. So while I'd thought I was being cautious enough with my wrist, it turns out that I was still working it more than I should have been. So it's made me come to the tough decision to  permanently remove Swedish massages from my offerings. I will still do Prenatal massages as those are gentle and easy on my hands/wrists/fingers, but that will be it from now on.

October 2021 UPDATE: It's now been three months since I opened my business back up to everyone. I thought for anyone newly finding this page, or those familiar but still checking in, I'd give another update. At this point I am now 15 months post surgery, I worked very part time for six months (mid January to mid July), and have been back working full time now for three months (Since July 12th). During those nine months of work I've been focusing on slowly and cautiously building strength, however I'd say my wrist is exactly where it was three months ago when I opened back up. So I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that this is probably the best I'll ever get. So that means it's likely that I will never again offer 60 minute massages by hand, will continue to keep the 30 and 45 minute massages very limited, and will never be able to offer deep tissue by hand like I used to be able to. The good news under all this though is that the Ashiatsu doesn't bother my wrist at all, so there are no limits on when you can book those, what length you can book, or how much pressure I can give in them!

July 2021 UPDATE 2: As of the week of July 12th my booking is now officially open for everyone! Appointments for massage by hand are definitely still limited as I just can't seem to regain full strength, Ashiatsu appointments don't have any limits though. As of now, 60 minute regular appointments are not available to book online, I still can't handle those. 45 minute regular appointments are limited to one a day, and 30 minute regular appointments are limited to three a day. So at most in any given day there are only four spots available for regular massages.July 2021 UPDATE: July (it's the 4th as I type this) is here and unfortunately I'm not quite open yet. I've had what is hopefully my last slight delay, this time caused by a partial backorder of my Trex decking boards. There is some good news here though, we got enough of our Trex decking order for me to complete the path, but not the porch. Since I couldn't move my big stuff into the office until the path and porch were done, I ended up slapping down some scrap plywood on the porch frame just so that I could move all the big stuff in. So now I don't have to wait to set up my office until everything outside is done, now except for a few small tweaks left to do, the office is done. I'm really hoping that the rest of my decking gets here early this coming week and we can get it down, if so, I should have my online schedule open by the end of the week and be giving massages here by the 12th!! When my schedule opens I will still have to be limiting the number of massages I do by hand per day, so availability will still be slim for awhile to come as I continue healing and building strength at the incredibly slow pace my wrist is giving me.

June 2021 UPDATE: June has seen a lot happening with the new addition and not a lot happening with massages. My husband and I did all the finish work on the addition, so paint, trim and flooring. I did a lot of that in slow stages while my husband worked, but I had to choose between getting work done here or giving massages. I couldn't do both without compromising my wrist. So it was slow and steady work on the addition with just a few massages here and there. The good news and good news? I got everything done AND didn't push so hard I irritated my wrist. I can tell you now that my wrist couldn't have handled that a few months ago, so I'm quite pleased with my ability to tolerate that much work! Check out the  page with my addition updates for the newest pics (link is at top of page)! As of now the actual addition work is done and we passed final inspection a few days ago, all that remains is to get the pathway and porch built so you all have a way to get in to the new space. I'm still hoping that that will be done by the end of the month, fingers crossed! As soon as the porch and path is built I can move all my stuff in and start getting the room set up and ready.

May 2021 UPDATE: May has been a busy month so far! I've continued to gain strength and stamina in my wrist, I gave my first test of a 60 minute massage and while I won't be doing these regularly for a bit yet, I managed to get through it with only moderate pain. I've also been able to give some back to back 30 minute massages (only a 20 minute break instead of my new usual of five to six hours), which I can do a little more frequently than the 60 minute massages! And have been fitting in a 45 minute massage each week too. So I'm definitely improving! And on top of that, my new office project has finally gotten close enough to being done that I feel I can finally start sharing about it! This project has been a lot like my wrist healing from surgery, SLOW!! But, it seems both my construction and my wrist are finally showing signs of being done! Go HERE to get details and check out pictures of my new office!

April 2021 UPDATE: April so far could nearly be a copy and paste of the March update, with a few minor changes. I can finally handle the occasional 45 minute massage! I only do one a week and at the end of the week so I have maximum recovery time, but so far the occasional 45 minute massage is going well! I can also handle slightly deeper work, still nowhere near what my hands used to be able to do, but far more than the first few massages I gave back in January and even a little bit more than what I could handle last month. Sadly the process of building my new office is going just as slow as my wrist, so I'm not quite ready to share updates on that yet since we're still a ways away from that being done and usable. I will add this month for those of you reading this that if you need a massage, as long as it isn't Ashiatsu or deep work by hand, please text me and I'll see if I can handle a massage for you! 541-936-2559. No new clients please, I need to have a history with you to be able to know if I can handle the pressure you will need.

March 2021 UPDATE: March finds me in a place of slow but continuous progress. I'm still erring on the side of extreme caution, but it seems each week I can do a little more. I can handle 5 to 6 massages in a week, which I balance out by having weeks where I still just do 3 massages for a little break. All massages are still just 30 minute massages, I can't yet handle more time than that, I can however handle more pressure these days. Still nowhere near where I was before all this, but a lot more than I could handle giving those first weeks back to work in January. Slow and steady is still my working motto through this, and while it may still take awhile to get back where I want to be, each day brings me a tiny bit closer! Also, I've hinted a time or two during all these updates that I would soon have news on my new office location, and some real updates on that should be coming soon! It's been a process that's been as annoyingly slow as my wrist healing!

February 2021 UPDATE: Well, February is almost half way through already and I'm still slowly plugging along! Massages are going well, but I'm still being EXTREMELY cautious with my approach. I've been able to work my way up to massages that are spaced about 24 hours apart without issue. I'm still only able to do 30 minute massages, I can easily tell by the end of the massage that I'm hitting my limit. So looks like I'll be staying at the 30 minute range for awhile. I also feel like the 24 hour gap to recover between massages is about perfect right now, so that will also probably be where I stay for awhile. I'm also sticking with about 3 massages per week. So this is a pretty big change from the 15 - 18 massages I was giving each week before all this started. That kinda gives you an idea of how much work I have cut out for me to get back to that kind of strength. My approach right now is to try to avoid pain as much as possible, so I'm not pushing as hard as I could be because I absolutely want to continue healing and not back slide at all. I'll check back in next month with another update!

January 2021 UPDATE: First off, happy 2021 everyone!! I've got a beginning of the month update for you. I'll be giving my first test massage within a week or so. This will be the first massage I'll have given in over 6 months! So on top of still being careful with my wrist I'll just plain have to build all my massage muscles back up too. My plan right now is to give a single 30 minute massage the first week and see how I respond to that. The next week I'll do two of them. The increases will be slow and cautious. As I work through these first few weeks cautiously it will hopefully give me an idea of how my body is reacting and a better idea of how fast I can increase work. So keep an eye out later this month for another update on how it all goes!

January 2021 UPDATE 2: As we near the end of January I've given a handful of massages now. I'm being diligent in making sure I don't overdo, and I'm also being extra cautious in giving myself at least a couple days between massages to recover fully. And that approach seems to be working for now. I definitely feel it after each massage, but not too bad and it fades fairly quickly. The pain I do have is more along the lines of doing a hard workout where your muscles are sore and tired for a few days. So now I just have to stick to that fine line between building my massage muscles back up and not irritating my wrist too much. At this point I'm giving a massage every three to four days, so basically two a week. I won't bump that up until I can do this much without pain, or at least very minimal soreness. So probably a few more weeks at least of doing two a week. I have a LOT of people that want back in and I'm slowly working my way through my list, so please continue to be patient as it will still be awhile before I get to some of you.

December 2020 UPDATE: For the first month since this all started I finally have nothing but good news!!! Everything is progressing nicely right now! My wrist continually gets stronger each week, my range of motion is nearly 100% returned. I've been able to get out for some short bike rides which is a really good sign. So it's actually looking like everything is on track for a mid January return to work. Since that's finally looking like a real possibility, let's talk about what that return is going to look like! I know many of you may be hoping to get to see me ASAP, but realistically it's probably still going to be awhile until I open booking  back up online. I'll only be starting with a few people a week so as not to overdo it and backslide. I'll be starting by contacting a few clients at a time to offer them booking opportunities. The rate I increase the number of massages I do in a day/week will entirely depend on how my wrist responds to the few massages I start with. Any pain and I'll keep the numbers low, no pain and I'll slowly increase my offerings. So keep an eye out for the January update (which will probably come late January so I can actually have some work to report on) to see how my wrist is handling the return to work.

November 2020 UPDATE: Well, finally some good news to report! Changing up the approach to my physical therapy seems to have worked! Last month when I saw the surgeon he wanted me to stop all prescribed physical therapy exercises and just start trying to use my hand and wrist as normally as I felt I could handle throughout the day. Basically putting my recovery into my own hands, so to speak. Before, I had been using my hand as little as possible in daily life because doing my prescribed exercises was already irritating it and I didn't want to irritate it more. But he suspected that between my ultra slow healing and the repetition of the weights and exercises it just couldn't calm down. So stopping the weights and other exercises and just cautiously using my hand throughout the day started to work pretty quickly. The tendons calmed down and over the last month I've been able to do more and more with my hand without pain. Now the bad news part. While I've finally started to make some good progress, I'm still a long ways off from being able to handle the strain of work. But back to good news, even though I'm not ready now, I'm definitely still on track for a early 2021 return to work. Before they would keep talking about me going back to work in October and I felt so unsure about that because of how little progress I was making. Now I feel really good about my chances for January because I am finally making strides towards rebuilding the strength I need. Fingers crossed that I get to see you all early in the New Year!!

October 2020 UPDATE: Recovery still continues to be a struggle. We've managed to keep the pain down by keeping the exercises down, but this means my strengthening is going at a snails pace. Best guess from my physical therapist right now is that I MIGHT be able to start working again around the middle of November. But that is really just a guess at this point. Nobody can tell me exactly how slow recovery is going to go, they just say my tendons were so irritated for so long they are taking longer than planned to calm down. My plan is to just keep chugging along and hope for the best, eventually. Someday this will all be behind me, but for now I'm just trying to stay positive. I miss you all!!

October 2020 UPDATE 2: I went back to see the surgeon again early last week because of the ongoing struggle with keeping my tendons calm while building strength. It's taken me a week to post an update here because I've honestly had a hard time accepting/processing the news I got. It's been said all along through these struggles that I'm taking longer than anticipated because I had SO much damage to recover from, even more so with the delay in having the surgery. With those parameters, my physical therapist gave me an estimate of a few more weeks to heal, the surgeon gave me an estimate of a few more MONTHS to heal. He thinks that it could be closer to the new year before I can start working again. I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised, it fits right in with 2020, doesn't it? We've changed the approach we've been taking to try to bring strength back, so we're going to give that a few weeks and see how it goes.  So....... am I healing at all? Yes! Just much slower than originally anticipated, but I AM healing! Will I ever heal 100%? Yes!! Same answer. Am I frustrated? YES!!!! But, it is what it is, so I continue on this crazy 2020 ride and we wait and see how it continues to unfold. But I WILL be seeing you all again at some point!

September 2020 UPDATE: Recovery is still slowly moving along. I'm stuck at about two pounds right now and can't do all of the exercises each day as it's more than my wrist can handle. Between the year worth of damage to my tendons and the atrophy I have in many of my hand/wrist/forearm muscles, I've got a LOT of weakness to overcome. Which means pain when I try to do too much, and unfortunately right now, too much is even the amount of PT exercises I'm supposed to be doing. So, not the optimal recovery I was hoping for, but could also be much worse, I'd rather be safe and have a longer recovery than push it and possibly screw things up permanently. With the strengthening plateau I'm hitting I can't even begin to guess where that puts me at for getting back to work. I'll keep adding updates as I progress! Some good news in there though, I've been working on a new solution for my work office that I think might be able to become a reality, if that pans out I'll be sharing that info soon too! Fingers crossed everyone that both my wrist and my office plans get rolling without any more hitches!

August 2020 UPDATE: Surgery went well last month, but unfortunately I was at the bad end of expected damage. Which means that my estimated healing time is at the very upper end. So mid October is about the earliest we can hope for a return. As of late August, I'm just starting to spend small amounts of time out of my hard brace and beginning to lift very light objects. It's been a slow recovery so far, but with so much damage I had a lot to heal from before I could start to really head down the recovery road. I'm told that now that I'm past the worst of the healing I can really start to work on mobility and strengthening.

June/July 2020 UPDATE: Surgery is officially scheduled for early July. I won't have an estimate on healing time until they actually get in there and see how extensive the damage is. Very rough estimate is 2-3 months healing time. So if all goes well I hope to see everyone again sometime in the fall!!

P.S. I highly recommend that you do NOT set a heavy dresser down on your wrist right on top of a set of ligaments/tendons. It hasn't worked out so well for me anyway!  ;-) 

May 2020 UPDATE: Massage is once again allowed in most of Oregon, however my business is not yet open. I recently lost my massage office inside Love Yoga when the decision was made to give up the side that was reception and massage. All of us sharing that space agreed that we simply couldn't afford to keep paying rent on such a large space after having zero income for so long. This does NOT mean that myself, Love Yoga, or Burnett Bodywork are going out of business. It simply means we all agreed to make the best choice for each of us and that we will each be transitioning into new spaces. Love Yoga only had to give up the reception and massage side, they have now gone back to their roots by taking out the wall between the two studios and having one large space again just like the old days. Anna has transitioned to a Corvallis office space. I am the only one of us that doesn't have a solution yet, read on for why.

To add another complication on top of everything else, many of you know that I've been struggling with a wrist injury for nearly a year now. I had finally gotten to the point where I'd tried everything else and doctors were willing to do surgery when everything got shut down due to Covid. It's too risky for me to go straight out and get a new massage office when I will have to take more time off for surgery and healing and have another chunk of time with no income. So for now I will remain closed until further notice. But rest assured that I WILL be opening again just as soon as I can!! If you are in desperate need of a massage and can't wait, PLEASE contact me and we'll see if we can figure something out for you. Stay safe and healthy and I hope to have goods news much sooner rather than later.

Kelly