Lymph Drainage

I would love your advice. Here is my situation:

I am getting manual lymph drainage massage for some enlarged lymph nodes in my neck. I am getting it at the hospital where it is free for me. I have gone a few times. At first I thought I was really going to like it. I do think it has made a slight difference...I don't feel any better (in fact, I feel a bit worse but I think I'm fighting something off).

Anyway..the woman doing the massage is totally unprofessional. I always get there on time and end up waiting for her for at least 15 mins. Then when she comes and gets me, I sit again in her treatment room for another 10 mins. (the mld is supposed to last an hour). She comes in the room and does her paperwork for a while, then while she is working on me, she keeps needing to refer to her "cheat sheets" (not a big deal, I understand if she is learning, I want her to look at the paper and do it right). She told dh she has been doing this for 7 years...so thats a little iffy....she also TALKS non stop, and talks with her hands, so she stops what she is doing to talk to me (and she says really stupid and inappropriate things...its annoying) and then has to figure out where she was, back to the cheat sheet etc... She also tries to show me how to do part of it to myself and when I do she just keeps saying I'm doing it way to hard and spends alot of time watching me until I am barely touching the area, yet she does it much harder...so, clearly she really has no idea what she is doing. I am concerned that perhaps she could do more harm than good at times.

So..anyway...the last time I was there she said she was concerned that I wasn't feeling much better from her work. I explained that I did have some sort of ear infection/cold during it, so it would be kind of hard to see if I was feeling better. Then I had to tell her that I never get an hour, I'm lucky if I get 20 mins and while she is giving me the 20 mins she is talking, stopping to look at her papers and that she leaves the room at least 2 times a session, and that it really hardly seems worth the time it takes for me to get there on time and fight for a parking spot at the hosptial. After that, she got really nice. THEN when I was getting dressed..she tried to lay this major guilt trip on me telling me that she just really needs to be able to measure my progress because there are people who are literally dying of cancer on a waiting list while I recieve treatment. Now that pissed me off. First, I can't believe that is true, and second..if it is true, WTF? That is not right. So...I'm thinking I'm done. I want to go speak to her supervisor and let him know that she doesn't know what she is doing. And that she NEVER should have said that to me. I also want to be sure it's not true because if it is, that needs to be taken care of asap. I just don't want to have to deal with her childish whining later, because I feel like if I go complain, she will just whine to me about it and be really obnoxious. She tries to come across as this proffesional woman who is practically a brain surgeon, but in reality it seems working at McDonalds is more her speed.

Would you deal w/her supervisor? If it weren't for that last comment, I would just keep going and see how it is now that I said something to her. But that is just stuck in my head.

If you got this far, what do you think?


Hi Sheryl,

I would go to her supervisor and calmly but firmly state what's been happening. Tell the supervisor you tried to resolve this with her but got nowhere.

Everytime I go the hospital, I get a survey in the mail. They want to know how my visit was, if I was treated with respect, professionally, timely, etc. Basically it's my evalutation of the visit, what went well and what could have been done better. They even get right down to specifics like how painful was the blood draw, how courteous was the nurse, staff, doctor, etc....

Sheryl, your comments may help others coming after you. Can you imagine a cancer patient receiving treatment like you are receiving?

She should't minimize your condition by comparing it to cancer patients. I think the supervisor would like to know that, too.

It sounds to me like she has personal issues to resolve in her life. Maybe deep down she knows she's not very good but has to talk a big talk.

Rebounding is great for lymph circulation. Even just a gentle motion on a rebounder should help (if you can't handle the "exercise"). Used more aggressively, it's great for increasing bone density (increases gravitational force on bones).

Tab


I love rebounding! I had my mothers rebounder for a while but now I live in a tiny apt..no room for it, but I might find a way...

I called today, complained about the woman who was treating me and cancelled the rest of my appointments.

They didn't even seem to bat an eye! lol