What is up you guys?
Speaker 1:Welcome back to another episode of the Babel's Nonsense podcast. Today is kind of a self care episode. I'm talking about my massage experience at Squee Spa this past weekend, talking about kind of massage therapy in general, and then a little bit of TMI in my appointment coming up with Claire and why I chose to make an appointment with the pelvic floor physical therapist after our podcast interview last week. And then I'll lastly talk about my under eye fiasco. If you've been following me for a while, you know I had under eye filler years and years ago and had it surgically corrected approximately two years ago. So stay tuned before the updates on that and we are going to go ahead and dive in. What is up you guys? Welcome back. I'm just going to start with the most recent thing, since that is what is on my brain, and then we will dive into the past experiences after that. So I want to first talk about my experience with the Squee Spa here in Huntsville. I know they have a few areas. I do believe they are located in California, tennessee, arizona, colorado, texas, arizona, georgia, I believe, illinois and now Huntsville. So I believe if y'all don't hold me to this, but I believe it was originated out of LA and now we have one in Huntsville. Huntsville is just popping off, it is growing, so we are getting some cool restaurants, some cool things here and I love it. It's kind of a love hate relationship. I love that we're getting the things and there's things to do, but I also hate the traffic that we're getting, because I moved from Nashville back to Huntsville just because of the traffic and the vibes. But it is great for our city and I do love it. So we'll keep it as a positive for now.
Speaker 1:But going back to my experience at Squee Spa here in Huntsville, I went for a massage yesterday and one thing about your girl here she loves a massage. I love a massage mostly because I'm constantly having tension in my neck and shoulders due to computer work. I know we all are. There's stress, computer work, lifting weights, whatever you have it. So this year I had decided well, probably more towards the end of last year that I was going to start doing more self care things. Y'all know that I had hired me and you as an energy healer and just working through therapy and things like that. But then other physical things that I was like I'm going to start making no point to doing things and stop telling myself that I can't afford it or you know, I don't deserve it because I'm really bad about having issues with spending money on myself.
Speaker 1:So this year, in the last year, whatever I said, I'm going to do a massage once a month. Because I was going for a massage like when I was hurting. And that's just not good because, number one, the massage therapist can't break up all the knots when you're in pain. And then, of course, I was leaving, not that I was out of like I wasn't fully out of pain, not that I didn't feel better, but then sometimes I would be hurting worse because I had waited so long. So that was one thing that I told myself I'm going to start going for massages once a month. And then I also said I was going to start doing facials once a month, which we can get into that on another episode, maybe with Hannah or Ashley later down the line.
Speaker 1:So when squeeze reached out to me to offer me a massage, I was like absolutely who would turn this down? So didn't know what to expect when I went there, because I typically I do have a massage therapist here in town love her shouts outs to Shawna she's at second nature, she's amazing. But I was like I've never really quote-unquote went to like a spa type membership place because it Sometimes you, when you go to like massage therapists that are more membership based, it doesn't give you the spa experience. I will say those squeeze does an amazing job at not making it feel like it's like a membership based Top feeling. It does give it very spa vibes. So if you want to check out actual photos and things like that, I posted it on my Instagram.
Speaker 1:Kind of walking you through the Huntsville location, the first thing I noticed was it was very bright. It's very bubbly, very Zen too. So you would think something that was bright wouldn't be zen, but it was. It felt like very positive, like positive vibes were coming from it. And then the host that standing at the Front, the receptionist was so sweet and so accommodating when I got there because I didn't know what to expect and sometimes you know massage massages can be a little intimidating because you're like Getting half naked and I had booked a mail.
Speaker 1:As a massage therapist I've been massage by males before, not uncomfortable with it, but that can be intimidating. And so she walked me through, kind of showed me the area and Showed me the lounge where you can sit. There's like spa, water, tea, snacks that you can sit there while you're waiting in your massage or when you're done with your massage you can go back and enjoy the refreshments. Showed me where the bathroom was that even had like all kinds of things that like anything that women feminine products like mints, like Lotion, draw shampoo, things that women like maybe you got done with your massage and your hair. You were going somewhere afterwards you could fix your hair a little bit in there, so loved that. And then they had an aroma therapy bar. So you there was different like aroma scents that you could pick for your massage. And that is not extra which we will get into.
Speaker 1:So then, once I got called back for my massage, jesse was my massage therapist at the Huntsville location and he is amazing. Love him too, and it's very rare that you can find really good massage therapists like multiples. But I'm gonna give some shout outs to some massage therapists here in Huntsville that I love as well. But Jesse is that squeeze spa and he was so nice and so polite and just so professional. So when you go into the room they have like this little area that you can sit in like in the room and it's like it almost kind of reminds you of Like a locker room, but in a very nice way, if that makes sense, not not like a like a gym locker, but like a very like a spa locker room, I guess, because there's like this little wooden bench. And then he kind of goes over everything with you, since it was my first time and he was like you're okay with the heated table, heat therapy, so they can put like heat on your back and Shoulders to kind of loosen up the muscles.
Speaker 1:They also offer percussion therapy, where they take like the percussion gun if you know what like the Thera gun looks like. It kind of looks like that and like kind of work out some of the knots if they're deeper or whatnot, and then you get to choose your pressure so you don't have to worry about like, am I going to somewhere where, like, they're gonna not push hard enough? Like if I Off ask for a deep tissue, or they not going to, are they gonna push too hard? And so they're very accommodating and he made sure to be like please tell me if anything needs to be changed, whether it be the temperature of the table. You know the pressure, the music. You even get to pick your own music, like there's a whole screen to pick your own music from the volume of the music.
Speaker 1:And something that I thought was so clever and Genius was they have in the room, like in your little area where you get to sit and stuff before your massage and put all your things Is a cell phone charging station Genius. Genius because your phone battery could be sitting there on 20% and you're kind of thinking and stressing about that. And what if you got dinner plans afterwards? Not to mention love their hours. I do believe the one in Huntsville is open until 10 pm. Give me just a second, I'm going to make sure I give you the accurate information. Okay, yes, did a quick Google search. They are open Sunday through Saturday, 8 am To 10 pm, so that is plenty of time to get your hours in.
Speaker 1:If you're a Monday through Friday workperson like me, where you kind of like I really need weekends, or maybe you need something after 5, it's perfect. They offer 50 minute massages and 80 minute massages and then you can also, you know, become a member, where they're a little bit cheaper, or you can pay as you go. You don't have to become a member, which is also a great thing, because I've seen other membership spas where they don't like really allow that, like you can't just pay for one. So love that about them and I just love the whole vibe of the place. It really did feel like you know, positive vibes and it felt very spa like. So I really enjoyed that. Now I will say in Huntsville some massage therapists that I want to give a shout out to, because I have found like I've lived in Nashville, like I lived in a smaller town and then I've also went to different, you know, massage therapists in town just trying out different massage therapy techniques, and I will say it's kind of hard sometimes just to find that massage therapist that you vibe with that maybe you know doesn't talk too much or doesn't talk enough, or their pressure is not firm enough or maybe it's too soft. So I'm going to give some shout outs. So now I'm adding Jesse to my list from squeeze spa. I haven't experienced any of the other massage therapists there. I'm sure they are wonderful. I'm going to have to try somebody, some else out to help boost that business there.
Speaker 1:But Algin, here in town she actually travels to you, so that is a perk of her and she's savvy massage. I mentioned Shauna, she's at second nature. And then I've been to Bailey before at Wellbeing Love her, she's amazing as well. And then Joanie at it's really massage. And what I love about this that about these people that I've pointed out they're all in different locations of town so depending on where you are. You know Huntsville can be. You know if you're in South Huntsville and then you have to drive somewhere else, you know that it could be long. So Algin is in Owens Crossroads area, but she, like I said, she does travel as well. So she like, if you're a person that has a bunch of kids or you can't leave or something like that, she is perfect for you. Shauna is located more by the behind Whole Foods, so kind of on the Parkway area there, close to the medical district, and then Bailey is down on South Parkway and then Joanie is in Providence and now Jesse, who is another one of my favorites, at squeeze spa, is located at Mid City, so kind of of plethora, plethora depending on what side of town you're on. So I do love that they're in different areas, love that. But I highly recommend you check out squeeze spa here in Huntsville. If you love massages, you're looking for professionalism, spa vibes and great pricing. They are, for you could not recommend them more.
Speaker 1:Other things that have been going on with me y'all were with me on my eye journey. I talked about that in an episode where I talked about plastic surgery to my eyes due to under eye filler that had went horribly wrong. Nothing the injector did, but it's just some people's body responses to the filler. And if you want to know more about this, like I do a horrible job explaining it because people look at me and they're like I don't say anything wrong but we all pick ourselves apart because you know your face. But I had some like edema, like swelling underneath my eyes that I just every time I just looked in the mirror it was like this does not look like my face. So I had tried everything you know dissolving the filler, ultrasound therapy, laser therapy, you know chemical pills, everything and it would get better, but then it would just come right back. So if y'all remember, two years ago I actually had my under eyes. I had a lower blepharoplasty performed.
Speaker 1:Well, I followed Dr Parse and Dr Peric I'm going to say her name wrong, peric, I think. So Parsa is in Beverly Hills, california, and Peric is in Tampa Bay, florida, and they both kind of advocate about the complications that under eye filler can cause to some people. They do think it happens more often than not. Even if it happens two to three years later, it's probably the filler, because filler migrates and it can get stuck in the lymphatic drainage system, our lymphatic drainage system. In our face there's so many lymphatic drainage channels so a lot of times it's just not the best procedure. But anyways, talk to your doctor if you feel like this is happening to you or your medical esthetician or nurse injector or anything like that.
Speaker 1:So the first step is dissolving it. Because if you have the surgery to correct it which I had surgery due to so much dissolving and just you know, filler in general stretches out the skin and then when we dissolve it like it is kind of like a tissue expander. So think about it like this so if you have a very small breast and you go get breast implants, sometimes they recommend tissue expander. So they'll put like a small tissue expander in to expand the tissue prior to placing the implant, just so that it's not so traumatic on your body. So kind of think of it like that. So like, filler under your skin is a tissue expander. It's expanded, your skin, and your skin stretches out to accommodate for the increased, you know, whatever it may be, whether it be fluid edema, whatever. So then when you dissolve it, it's not that the dissolver itself calls the issue, it's that your skin was then expanded and now you've dissolved the filler which was expanding the skin anyways, and now you have left, like, whether it be crepey skin, you know, less desirable outcome than what you thought.
Speaker 1:It doesn't happen to everybody. There's a lot of technology now that you can do, whether it like, if you think this is happening, you can get it dissolved, use radio frequency, micro-natallying the next day, tighten the skin back up. There's CO2 lasering that can tighten the skin. But at the time this had happened several, several years ago, guys, and that wasn't an option or I didn't know about. It had been to several different consoles, like, and at the time that it was happening to me, there wasn't a lot on the internet saying that filler could actually cause this problem. So anyways, there's so much information now. If you just look up Dr Perrick and Dr Parza, they're they educate highly on it and then they they correct it as well, and they do non-surgical and surgical corrections on this, depending on how severe the swelling was and then dissolving it. Well, there must be some. Well, I know for sure there is.
Speaker 1:But so what happened to me recently? I noticed it a little bit on my New York trip and then noticed it the most at Disney, and this would always get worse, like you know, traveling, or if eight salty foods drink, alcohol, things like that. So I mean, obviously, swelling, that's what happens anywhere in your body. So I noticed it more than, and I was just like, is this about to come back? I was like, please, no, like this, like it. This has been gone for two years, because I'll be two years, I will be two years post-op this May and and I was like, oh no, it's coming back and it, it definitely is back. And I had one of my ear doctor friends ultrasound my face and he's like an ultrasound specialist. And the filler has now migrated back to this top of the tissue which I consulted with Dr Perrick last week about it. Perrick, I don't know if it's Perrick or Perrick, I hope I don't know. Anyways, she's amazing, she's total badass. But she's an ophthalmologist, plastic surgeon and I consulted with her because she actually had this happen to her herself where she underwent surgery to correct it, and she said this is something that I could potentially deal with often on the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:It's kind of hard to know, because I've had different layers of filler over years that you don't know really what tissue layer it's in. Is it all dissolved? It's hard to say. So the first step we're going to try is dissolving again. Brittany is going to dissolve the filler in the next few weeks so I'll keep you all updated on that, because when Dr Solis ultrasounded my face, he definitely saw that the filler was superficial again. So is this old filler that's now migrated to the surface? Possibly One thing I will say like I'm not a nurse injector so I don't have any experience in this, but some of the research I've done and talked to other people in plastic surgeons the thought initially was that filler dissolved on its own within six months.
Speaker 1:Like people would be like, oh, you just have to do this every six months to 12 months. Is this the new? Like? What people are now educating is saying that filler is lasting years, like years on years, on years, and sometimes you do just have to have it dissolved with the enzyme to dissolve it, and that does not go without like complications in itself.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying all complications will happen or they'll happen to you. I'm just saying do your research, know who you're going to. Make sure it's a really, really highly trained person in the area that you're getting injected. Make sure you do. Even if they're, like, really trained, this can still happen. It's not the injector's technique, it's just sometimes your body doesn't like either the filler being there or it migrates or any of those sorts of things. So I'm hoping this does not result in another surgery, because that would be devastating.
Speaker 1:I know I did consult with my plastic surgeon and he does agree that my left eye is swelling again and he thinks that he does need to do a little bit of a procedure on that side under local anesthesia. So not under anesthesia and see if that corrects it, but definitely doing the dissolving and radiofrequency to hopefully preserve the skin this time. And I'll keep you all updated because, again, filler does not go without its complications and I definitely want to educate on this matter. So you know, like, definitely look it up, not everything, like even though you look at yourself and you think maybe your under eyes is the problem? It may not be. I highly recommend consulting with multiple people and doing your due diligence and your research, seeing if you're a candidate for this, because some people are just are not.
Speaker 1:I unfortunately was not, I didn't know, I didn't do a lot of research on it. I was just like, yeah, that seems to be a problem area for me. Let's go. And that could be with anything, guys, any kind of medicine, anything you're doing like, whether that be with your medical doctor or not, always do your research, always advocate for yourself. And yeah, I think I will end this episode there. Next week I'm going to be talking about New York trip in January and the Disney trip in February. Just to kind of recap that. I know if you follow me on social media, you probably saw me posting reels and pictures of it. So if you want to see a little bit behind the scenes, laugh a little bit at my expense mostly, then those are the episodes for you and hopefully get some more guests on here soon for you, guys. But until next time, bye.