A myriad of reasons exists for someone to receive surgery in Canton MI. Pain relief is not uncommon, such as for joint replacements or gallbladder removal. The treatment of diseases like cancer may necessitate surgeries like mastectomies or lymph node removal. And yet other surgeries exist strictly for cosmetic reasons, such as liposuction, abdominoplasties, and body lifts.

Recovering from surgery in Canton MI

Regardless of the reason, recovery from a surgical intervention poses a unique set of challenges. Healing can be dependent on a variety of factors such as overall health, activity level of the person, and their age. But the surgery itself can create other difficulties as well.

• Inflammation and swelling: any surgical intervention, no matter its reasons, is perceived by the body as an injury. As such, it will initiate an inflammatory response that allows for blood coagulation and tissue stability. This results in increased fluid retention in the tissues. Hopefully, in weeks the body resolves this inflammation and swelling on its own. But many times, the body struggles to work through this natural response, and what starts as an acute process becomes chronic, leading to more pain and fibrotic tissue.
• Scar tissue: the body’s natural response to damage, this tissue will form to heal the incision. As opposed to healthy skin tissue though, scar tissue has fewer elastic qualities which limits the ability of the tissue to stretch. Over time, left unchecked scar tissue can limit range of motion and even create new pain patterns.
• Edema: the swelling that follows an unresolved inflammatory response. This indicates an overload of our lymphatic system, and in serious conditions can lead to tissue damage, pain, and numbness.
• Nerve damage: sometimes nerves can be damaged during a surgery, especially cosmetic surgeries such as liposuction. This may lead to decreased sensation in the region of surgery for weeks, sometimes months following.

The Healing Process

Fortunately, there are a variety of ways to encourage and optimize your body’s healing processes. These may include:

• Ice – to help combat pain and reduce inflammation
• Self-massage – to keep scar tissue pliable and mobile.
• Compression – particularly compression garments, which serve to reduce edema

In addition, a soft-tissue therapy called lymphatic drainage may also help with post-surgical recovery. The lymphatic system is what is responsible for not only your immune function, but more importantly in these scenarios the removal of fluid that can become trapped between tissues. This gentle form of therapy works with the lymphatic capillaries under the skin, to encourage movement of edema out of a problem area, helping to reduce pain, swelling, and inflammation. This also allows for better healing and mobility of the tissues addressed, which ultimately may serve to reduce scar tissue formation.

At Still Point Massage, we are honored to have several staff members trained in this form of bodywork. We encourage anyone who has recently undergone a surgery or is suffering from long-term effects of a surgical intervention, to see if lymphatic drainage can help them restore fluid balance and ultimately reestablish a more pain-free quality of life.

By Stacy Kelly, LMT