Kate Maas LMT

04/03/2026

Did anyone else feel yesterday’s storm, in their knees?

If your body feels swollen, heavy, or just… off today 👀

Check the pressure before you blame yourself.

Low barometric pressure = fluid shifts, tissue sensitivity, and your nervous system acting a little dramatic.

Especially if you're post-op or already inflamed.

It’s not you.
It’s the atmosphere 🌩

Forecast: take it easy + support your lymphatic system.

03/15/2026

Why Water Can Help Lymphedema 💧

One reason aquatic therapy feels so helpful for lymphedema comes down to a simple physical principle: hydrostatic pressure.

💧 When your body is submerged in water, the water gently presses against your tissues from all directions. Unlike gravity — which pulls fluid downward — water pressure works evenly around the entire body.
This creates something very similar to a natural compression garment.

But here’s the fascinating part:
✨ Water pressure actually increases with depth.
That means the deeper a part of your body is in the water, the more pressure it experiences.

For example:
💧 At about 10 inches of depth, your body experiences roughly 18–20 mmHg of pressure
💧 At about 20 inches, that increases to around 35–40 mmHg
💧 At about 40 inches, pressure can reach 70+ mmHg
Sound familiar? That’s the same pressure range as many medical compression garments. 🙌

This means water immersion naturally creates a graduated compression effect:
👣 More pressure on the feet and lower legs
⬆️ Slightly less pressure as you move upward
🔄 Helping guide fluid back toward central circulation

For people managing lymphedema, this can support your body’s natural fluid movement by:
💧 Assisting lymphatic return
💧 Reducing fluid accumulation in tissues
💧 Encouraging circulation
💧 Decreasing that heavy, swollen feeling in your limbs

When gentle movement or therapies like Watsu are added, your body also benefits from:
🌿 Muscle movement
🌿 Deeper breathing
🌿 Nervous system relaxation
All of these work together to stimulate lymphatic flow.

Here’s something worth remembering:
💛 Your lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump like the heart.

But it responds beautifully to movement, pressure, and breathing.

Sometimes the right environment — like warm water — can help your body do exactly what it was designed to do. 🌊

03/14/2026

Why Warm Water + Watsu Can Support Lymphatic Flow 💧🌊

Many people notice they feel lighter, less swollen, and deeply relaxed after spending time in warm water.

That’s not just a feeling — there are several physiological reasons why warm water immersion and therapies like Watsu can support the body’s natural fluid movement.

Your lymphatic system is responsible for moving excess fluid, inflammatory waste, and cellular debris out of the tissues. But unlike the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system does not have a central pump like the heart.

Instead, lymphatic flow depends on things like:

💨 breathing
🚶‍♀️ gentle movement
💧 pressure changes in tissues
🌿 contraction of lymphatic vessels

Warm water creates an environment that supports many of these mechanisms.

Hydrostatic Pressure: Natural Compression

When your body is submerged in water, hydrostatic pressure surrounds the body from all directions.

This pressure acts like a gentle full-body compression garment, helping encourage fluid to shift from the tissues back toward circulation.

This is one reason people often notice:

💧 reduced swelling
💧 lighter feeling limbs
💧 improved fluid movement

after time in warm water.

Warm Water Improves Circulation

Warm water also encourages vasodilation, meaning blood vessels gently widen.

This increases circulation and improves tissue perfusion, which supports the lymphatic system because lymph ultimately drains into the venous system near the collarbone.

Better circulation helps create a more efficient pathway for fluid to leave the tissues.

Nervous System Regulation

Watsu takes place in warm water and involves slow, rhythmic movement of the body.

This environment encourages activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, the state where the body focuses on repair and recovery.

When the nervous system shifts into this calmer mode:

😌 breathing deepens
🌿 muscles relax
💧 lymphatic vessels can contract more rhythmically

All of these factors support the body’s ability to move fluid.

The Role of Breathing

One of the most powerful drivers of lymphatic movement is actually the diaphragm.

Deep breathing creates pressure changes inside the body that help move lymph fluid upward through the thoracic duct toward circulation.

Warm water immersion often naturally slows breathing and encourages deeper diaphragm movement, which can help support this process.

⸻

Your body already has an incredible system designed to manage fluid and support healing.

Sometimes therapies like Watsu simply create the conditions that allow those systems to work more efficiently.

03/14/2026

Most people think about lymphatic massage after surgery.

But one of the most helpful times to support your lymphatic system is actually before surgery ever happens. 🌿

Your lymphatic system is responsible for moving fluid, inflammatory waste, and cellular debris out of your tissues. After surgery, that workload increases dramatically. 🔬

Your body suddenly has to manage:

💧 swelling
🔥 inflammation
💊 anesthesia byproducts
🧬 cellular waste from healing tissue

That’s a lot for any system to handle all at once.

Pre-operative lymphatic massage gently stimulates lymph flow and helps encourage fluid movement before surgery occurs. ✨

Think of it as preparing the drainage system before the storm arrives. 🌧️➡️🚿

When lymphatic pathways are already moving well, your body may be better prepared to manage the sudden increase in fluid that happens during recovery.

Many patients choose pre-operative lymphatic sessions because they want to:

✨ help reduce post-operative swelling
💙 support healthy circulation
🌿 prepare their body for healing
😌 feel calmer going into surgery

Your body is already designed to heal.

Sometimes it just helps to give the system a little support before the work begins. 🤍

02/21/2026

If you’re new to my page, let me introduce you to the Morale Committee.

We wish you a fun weekend!

02/06/2026

If you’ve had a lymphatic session with me, you have probably heard me talk about how aquatic exercise is great for your lymphatic system.

Aqua Zumba is a super fun way to get your heart and lymph going!
Check out the North Liberty Rec center for aquatic exercise classes!

Limited space remains for the free Aqua Class Jamobree on Saturday, Feb. 8, from 9 to 11 a.m. Register and come to whichever segments you're interested in: Aqua Zumba (9 to 9:20 a.m.), Easy Does It (9:30 to 9:50 a.m.), water resistance (10 to 10:20 a.m.;) and Arthritis Class (10:30 to 10:50 a.m.)

Register at https://northliberty.recdesk.com/Community/Program/Detail?programId=17821

02/05/2026

01/24/2026

Great read 👏

“Creative work often asks us to enter a state of openness, presence, and emotional engagement. This state is what many describe as "flow," a form of energized focus where time fades and ideas unfold intuitively. But for many artists, writers, and makers, entering this state can feel elusive or even impossible. The challenge is not a lack of discipline or imagination. Often, it is actually an issue of nervous system regulation.

The ability to create with ease is closely tied to the body's sense of safety. When the nervous system is regulated, we are more likely to access states of curiosity, spontaneity, and play. When the nervous system is dysregulated, we may find ourselves in shutdown, agitation, or hypervigilance. Understanding how your body responds to stress can transform the way you approach your creative life.”

Many people try to force creativity while in a dysregulated state, only to become frustrated or ashamed when the work does not come. The key is understanding how to work with your nervous system.

01/20/2026

Medical Jargon can be confusing. Let’s break this down.

Red Light Therapy- What it actually is

Red light therapy uses specific wavelengths of red and near-infrared light that can reach into your skin and tissues.

Think of it like:

Sunlight’s calm, useful cousin — without the sunburn.

This light helps your cells make energy more efficiently. When cells have more energy, they:
• repair faster
• calm inflammation
• communicate better
• don’t panic as much

Let’puts this into an analogy.

If your body were a farm:
• Surgery = storm damage
• Inflammation = flooded fields
• Stress = equipment running nonstop

Red light therapy is like:

Fixing the wiring in the barn so everything runs smoother again
—not tearing the whole place down and rebuilding overnight.

01/11/2026

POST-OP BILL OF RIGHTS 📜 (Unofficial… but absolutely real)

Surgery doesn’t end when the stitches come out.
Healing doesn’t end when you look better.
And recovery definitely doesn’t follow a straight line.

That’s why we created a Post-Op Bill of Rights—because your body deserves advocacy after the operating room.

You have the right to:
✔️ Heal at your own pace
✔️ Experience swelling, soreness, and setbacks without judgment
✔️ Feel “fine” and not fine at the same time
✔️ Ask questions, rest, and need support longer than expected

Post-op recovery is not weakness.
It’s biology, trauma, inflammation, and repair doing hard work behind the scenes.

At Iowa Postoperative Massage, we specialize in the part of healing no one warns you about—the after.
The delayed swelling.
The emotional whiplash.
The “why does this still hurt?” phase.

If this resonates, you’re not behind.
You’re healing.

💬 Save this.
💗 Share it with someone in recovery.
📅 And when you’re ready, we’re here to help your body move forward—safely and supported.

Kicking Pain to the Curb.

POST-OP BILL OF RIGHTS 📜 (Unofficial… but absolutely real)

Surgery doesn’t end when the stitches come out.
Healing doesn’t end when you look better.
And recovery definitely doesn’t follow a straight line.

That’s why we created a Post-Op Bill of Rights—because your body deserves advocacy after the operating room.

You have the right to:
✔️ Heal at your own pace
✔️ Experience swelling, soreness, and setbacks without judgment
✔️ Feel “fine” and not fine at the same time
✔️ Ask questions, rest, and need support longer than expected

Post-op recovery is not weakness.
It’s biology, trauma, inflammation, and repair doing hard work behind the scenes.

At Iowa Postoperative Massage, we specialize in the part of healing no one warns you about—the after.
The delayed swelling.
The emotional whiplash.
The “why does this still hurt?” phase.

If this resonates, you’re not behind.
You’re healing.

💬 Save this.
💗 Share it with someone in recovery.
📅 And when you’re ready, we’re here to help your body move forward—safely and supported.

Kicking Pain to the Curb.