As we merged into yet again another lock down , at the beginning of the year, I pushed to see whether my MASSAGE therapy was counted as essential, as I know how essential it is for my client’s that I have been treating over the past 4 years.

I had a gut feeling that this lock down was going to go on further than the initial 6 weeks, and with my maternity leave just around the corner, I did not want to leave my beautiful regular client’s without their massages for the first half of the year.

Initially I thought, this is great, I would be surprised if I do not get some new client’s through the door. And the only reason I thought I would not be able to go until the end, would be if I could not reach over my bump, but then hit SCIATICA. A debilitating pain that I could never have foreseen.

So I tried scaling back to 4 days, less driving, as this was aggravating it , and 4 massages a day, which I would usually do with my eyes closed, with beauty treatments around them, and would have been to the gym and dog walk that morning .

But unfortunately scaling back to even 4 a day was not good enough, as I was left hard set to put my foot to the ground some evenings, so much so that Dug went to get his brothers crutches for me one Sunday, as the pain was that bad.

So what does work? Rest. which anyone that knows me, knows how hard this is for me to do and to accept . It kills me that I cannot even get out for my morning walks with Terry, and that doing a quarter of the work I am used to, is what is helping me manage this pain . But manage the pain, I will have to.

So as I work on scaling back, it will be my ride or die regulars that I will be looking after , now until I finish up for maternity. I do know this is ticking all boxes, as it is the reason I wanted to stay open during this lock down, but it is so hard now saying no to new customers, and new client’s in need .

Massage therapy is so healing, and I am so grateful for people for reaching out, I just hope these people know how sorry I am, with having to point them in a different direction, and I pray they know that the door will be wide open in July when I return from my maternity leave .