Cankles and the So-So Miracle Massage

It's amazing how you take things for granted until you lose them (if only temporarily). For example, in retrospect, I've always had really nice ankles. I never thought to have them bronzed, or even really compared them to the junction between other people's feet and legs, but it was nice to have this thin point when the calf narrowed and the foot began. Yep, looking back I had ankles to be proud of. Upon getting pregnant (and much sooner than one with normal ankles would expect) I noticed one day that those nice ankles I'd always enjoyed had been replaced with... wait for it... brace for the horror... CANKLES. That's right, my ankles had swollen and all of the sudden I couldn't see those dainty ankles bones anymore.

I started to panic.

What if they don't come back? What if this is what my ankles look like from now? Shortness of breath. Absolute fear. Same day I went for my first maternity massage. I was most excited about the maternity massage table I'd heard about with cut-outs for your growing stomach and tah-tahs. Literally, there are holes there where your more sticky-outty parts can go. Genius. The places without these tables (like Red Door Salon - www.reddoorspas.com) require you to lay on your side the entire time - which doesn't sound particularly relaxing to me. The massage therapist warned me up front that this massage was going to be a little... different. She can only do light pressure (I like tough pressure), she massages the palms and soles of the feet, but not the fingers or toes (wha?), there were certain pressure points she had to avoid, and the weirdest of all... some weird therapy on the legs that isn't massaging at all. At least she told me beforehand. I would have been seriously disconcerted if she's started doing this strange thing on my legs that definitely wasn't rubbing, but rather felt like she was building something. She started at the ankles and would touch them for a second, pause, put her hands in a circle around my legs a few inches up, pause, then up, pause, then up, pause. It was the massage equivalent to chinese water torture. I wondered at points what she was doing? I guessed that if I opened my eyes I might find her doing some sort of bizarro Native American breathing or voodoo. Were those long pauses her filing her nails? It didn't feel bad, but it didn't feel like a massage either. I was confused.

I'm rambling. I know. Sufficed to say it was weird. 

Until, I stood up after the massage, looked down and for the first time in a month saw.... (drum roll)... MY ANKLES! My real, actual, normal sized ankles. I asked her what she did and she said that during pregnancy the swelling/bloating in the ankles and legs is very superficial, and she literally pushed the excess water out of my ankles, up my legs and into my system. I don't know how it works, but it went from weird to miracle.

Vanity? 

I'm sure.

But I'm excited nonetheless:-)