I cannot under any circumstance recommend anyone go to Academy Massage for Infrared Light Therapy for chronic pain. I will detail the full experience from booking to my appointment.
I arrived early to the consultation because I was unable to fill out the intake information online – for some reason the appointment didn’t show up in my profile. I mentioned this but was not given intake forms to fill out – I think because the front desk person was on a personal call.
When I went into my appointment it was in a basement, in a cluttered/crowded treatment room. The woman doing my service asked me what I was there for, and I explained. She then said, “I am not a nurse; I am an aesthetician… can you explain your problem more.” So, I explained the issue further.
After the very fast consultation, I asked if I was having a treatment done today and what the cost of the treatment was. She said she would need to check with her boss to see if she had time to do the treatment and the cost.
After about 5 minutes she came back and said she did have time, and that today, because it was my trial(?) appointment it would be $200, and every other appointment would be $150 + $200 ($350 total). I asked if that was for both arms/hands and she had to text her boss to make sure because she was unsure. It did end up being to cost for both.
When that was confirmed, I said “Sure, I will do the treatment today.” At this point, I knew I was not going back because the cost was much more than I figured, the website only says “Pricing starts at $100 per treatment” and this did not seem the most professional, but I was there already and just wanted to know if this treatment would work.
To me, it appeared that she had not done this before, with the previously made comments and how the procedure began. She put on gloves without washing her hands and took pictures of my hands and the screen of the laser machine, which just said the wattage (?) (It showed 60) so that she “knew what she had done (??)”
She then had me hold out my arms and squirted what seemed to be lube on my one arm and spread it with a tongue depressor. During that, she said, “Oh, I don’t know if I can go over your tattoo with this. Let me text my boss.” So, she again texted her boss – with her gloves on. After waiting a few minutes, the answer was “No, do not go over the tattoo.”
So, when the laser actually started, she told me “Let me know if it gets too hot.” Well, it definitely got too hot. I wasn’t burned, but I did have a square red mark for the evening on my wrist after I said, “It is too hot," and she removed the laser.
After the first wrist/hand, she scraped the lube off my arm and put in on my other arm. After spreading it around with the tongue depressor again, she got the laser for the other side. During this, I realized she was holding the tongue depressor between her teeth.
I asked if she was doing my forearms, since that is where I indicated a lot of the pain was, and she said something along the lines of “I can?” and I said “Yes, thank you.” So, the scraping and respreading of the lube happened twice more.
Also, it was not until after that I realized the laser machine plate that was run over my skin itself probably should have been sanitized and it was not.
After she was done – the laser treatment itself was max 10 minutes – she mentioned I didn’t fill out the intake form and handed me a MacBook to do so, but that I had to leave the treatment room and go upstairs because she had another client.
So, I filled out the form and paid my bill, which came to $210, and I left. I regret staying after the consultation because of the unprofessional experience and lack of knowledge on what the procedure was or what the protocol of the treatment was.
I thought because I was going to a well known and established business, everything was just going to be done properly. Also, I did not feel any improvement in my pain that evening or the next day – I was told it was immediate or the next day or two. I do not know if I will have any side effects...
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