Cough, cough, sniff, hack.... Should I cancel my massage if I'm sick?

Short answer: Yes, please.

Long Answer: Yes, please do.

The cold and flu season is hitting the Pacific Northwest hard this year and it's important to know that it may be the best decision to cancel your massage appointment when you are feeling the creeping crud feelings. 

But massage sounds so good when everything is achey!

We know! But it’s still not always a great idea.

Why?

​When you are sick, your body needs you to rest. Receiving a massage isn't actually entirely restful to your body.  Massage causes change in the body (yeah!) and your body has to work to maintain stability. Getting a massage when you are sick takes attention away from infection-fighting (boo!) 

You’re not going to be happy and comfy on the massage table. Sure, it sounds like a warm, luxurious massage table would be awesome. But, believe me, the moment you put your already-stuffy head into that face cradle, you’ll realize the error of your ways. Gravity and pressure are not your friend here. Even if your therapist does a great face massage to drain your sinuses, you’ll likely feel worse when you get off the table.

You could get us sick. Since the junk that is flying around is likely contagious before symptoms show up, your therapist could pass your cooties along to more clients before they even know it’s happening. We get a lot of medically fragile clients in our office and those germs could be way worse for them than they are for you.

Further, when we get sick, we have to cancel clients and take a few days off work. Our massage therapists have limited paid time off and we'd really rather they spend it having a little fun than sneezing and coughing at home. 

So here's the deal: You’ll cancel if you're feeling something coming on or are already sick so as not to infect your therapist and our massage rooms, and we promise to do the same for you!

When to cancel

• If you have nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea in the past 24 hours, or are still feeling gross from a recent bout of such things.
• If you’ve had a fever in the past 24 hours, or fever-related symptoms. This includes chills, aches, and fatigue. Even if you’re keeping the fever down with medicine, you’re still sick. The fever counts.
• If you are itchy, runny, and/or sneezy. Even if it is "only" seasonal allergies, you may be quite miserable on the massage table for an hour and that would be wasted time and money for you. 
• If you are coughing a bunch. 
• If someone in your household has the crud and you are feeling at all funky, please cancel.

There is often some gray area here. If you’re unsure about your situation, please call us before your appointment and we can make a decision together.

But won't I get charged for the cancellation?

Short answer: Maybe
Long answer: Most likely not. We're pretty understanding because, hey, we don't want you to drag yourself in! All we ask is that you give us as much notice as possible so that we can try to fill the appointment from our waitlist (or can at least make a coffee date with a friend to fill the hour). 

If you're sick on Monday with the stuff that knocked your kids out for a week and you have an appointment with us on Wednesday at 3:00, give us a call. Please don't wait until 10am the day of your appointment. We reserve the right to throw the policy at you.

So, hey! Be careful out there. Get your rest, drink your water, take your vitamins and fight the good fight against the yucks! If they catch you, give us a shout.