Community Highlights: Meet Mira Witman of Recovery Lounge & Spa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mira Witman.

Hi Mira, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story started in childhood with pain and symptoms that got pushed aside, or ignored. I just thought pain was normal. I got sick with a viral infection, and this triggered symptoms that got worse and worse.
Around my 18th birthday I ended up in the Cancer center, surrounded by doctors trying to figure out what was wrong with me.
As a young woman, I was tossed around the medical system, begging for help, for someone to believe me & my symptoms.
Because of my age, gender, and race, I spent years being gaslit by doctors or turned away for being too complex.

I remember being 18 sitting in the rheumatology/oncology wing in Lahey hospital in Boston scared and alone. The specialist told me “<i>You’re too young to be sick, this isn’t a funny joke, leave my office”</i>. This wouldn’t be the last time a doctor didn’t believe me.
Doctor after doctor, the trauma of begging them to believe me started to worsen. I hated being seen as a number on a chart. I felt invisible.

My symptoms worsened, I needed medical intervention, the doctors thought it was leukemia at first.
After years of being a medical anomaly, boards of doctors reviewing my case, and years of being a test subject, we finally found out the cause of my illness.
I was diagnosed with Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Idiopathic thrombocytopenia Purpura, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, POTS, and Reynauds Syndrome.

Naturally, this turned my entire life upside down. I lost friends, relationships, jobs, control of my own body.
When the pandemic happened I realized how little the world talks about &amp; cares about disability.
I had to beg people to wear a mask as a “simple cold” to them would kill me, an immunocompromised person.
I watched so many disabled people lose their lives due to COVID, and the world pretend not to notice.

The pandemic lit a fire in me. Not only were the disabled being affected, but more people were becoming disabled every day from Long Covid.

The reality is the disabled community is the community <b>everyone will join</b> at some part of their life; but is one of the most marginalized communities.
If we’re all eventually going to be part of this community, why do we treat it so badly?
Disease DOES NOT SEE AGE.
Joining the disabled community opened my eyes to the struggles and unfairness that the disabled and elderly have to face daily.

I moved from Boston MA to Colorado. Partially for a change of pace, partially for doctors.
I knew I wanted to help others with disease and disability and that is where my path started.

Medications were offering a band aid fix but I needed actual quality of life.

I realized bodywork was one of the only things that helped my quality of life during my most intensive chemo/ medical treatments. Massage helped me feel safe in my body even when that body wasn’t controlled by me.
The chronic pain relief mixed with hands on body treatment was exactly what my body needed.
Feeling someone’s hands on my body was the missing piece in my healing journey, a stark contrast to the sterile medical experience where they didn’t even asses my body.
I attended <b>Denver Integrative Massage School</b> with one goal in mind: What ACTUALLY helps chronic pain/disease, and how can I bring that to my community.
Through my school I interned with Amanda Glenn at Recovery Lounge &amp; Spa and I fell in love with her concept.

A space for people to go to recover from chronic illness, disease, surgery, trauma and more, with trained professionals to help the body truly heal. The spa focuses on nervous system regulation with educated practitioners. The cherry on top was it being fully female founded and run.

Through school and continuing education &amp; training I started specializing in chronic pain, disease, Oncology and the lymphatic system.

My bodywork primarily focuses on people with chronic illness, cancer, and chronic pain.
My goal has always been to serve my disabled &amp; at risk community and give them actual quality of life.
The massage techniques and therapies I integrate are all things that have genuinely helped me, and many of my chronically ill clients. No snake oil, no BS.
My work integrates lymphatic, dynamic cupping, and bodywork, to focus on the individual’s quality of life, symptom control, &amp; pain reduction.
My table is a place for chronically ill people to feel safe, heard, and to connect on a human level, with hands on body.
Because I know chronic pain and disease very intimately myself, I know how to help others with it.
I know how it feels to not be believed, to not receive treatment, to have to fight to stay alive.

This year I got a medical chest port implanted. It was one of the scariest and hardest things I’ve done. I’d never had surgery before, and this was something placed in my chest, connected directly to my heart.
The surgery and recovery was intense, and showed me how much I needed my community.

The tools at Recovery Lounge &amp; Spa helped me recovery from my surgery quickly, and helped my chest port scar heal beautifully.
Recovery Lounge &amp; Spa offers tools like Massage therapy, Craniosacral, PEMF, Nutrition support, NeurOptimal, Infrared Sauna, Red Light Therapy, and more. All of these tools have helped me get my quality of life back.

Focusing on my symptoms &amp; quality of life with these tools &amp; good doctors has gotten me into lupus remission. This journey has shown me that my body was I needed to be fighting against, but instead <b>with</b>.
Now, I am eternally grateful to be able to offer the same support &amp; tools to my community.

I now work primarily with disabled and chronically ill people, and love what I do with my whole heart.
I love to teach and educate on the lymphatic system and chronic illness.
My instagram page @thelymphomaniac is dedicated to chronic illness education and lymphatic work.
With disability rights being taken away, and access to medication getting harder, I feel it is necessary to bolster and protect our disabled and elderly communities.
I use my platform to educate people on disability, disability rights, and chronic illness education &amp; advocacy.

My hope is that nobody has to feel alone in their illness journey, and that through community we can get hands on bodies, and help people get the treatment and pain relief they deserve.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
100% this journey has not been easy.

Being a young woman (half Jewish half Indian) in the medical system was hell.
So many doctors didn’t believe me, laughed in my face, and didn’t believe I had diseases that were DIAGNOSED in my chart.
I had to learn how to navigate the medical system alone at 18, through a global pandemic.
I learnt how to stand up for myself, how to speak to doctors so my voice is HEARD, and how unfair the system is.

The medical system is incredibly messed up. Racism, power dynamics, politics, money, gender.
All of these things influence if someone receives medical care.
People of color are systematically discriminated against. This means we don’t get the same medical treatment, care, medications, longer diagnosis and in some cases death.

Growing up I thought our taxes went to things like helping those with cancer pay for treatment. Now, I watch cancer clients go into debt for generations in order to receive cancer treatment. The cost of healthcare is crippling, and this needs to change.

Masks got politicized. Masks were a tool to protect disabled, elderly and chronically ill people from dying. All of sudden, it became a political statement.
People called me a “Sheep, idiot…and much worse for wearing one, when in reality; Im in the cancer center every week for treatment, if I get sick there’s a chance I may die, as my immune system is compromised.

Masks are a tool to protect the disabled and elderly community. We need to be protected as we CANNOT protect ourselves.

Invisible illness is well ..Invisible.
One of the biggest struggles I’ve faced is people taking me seriously/ believing me as I present very “normal looking”. People with chronic illnesses look just like everyone else. We still have to work and function every day to pay our bills let alone afford healthcare.
Other examples of invisible illnesses are; Diabetes, Lyme, Mold poisoning, EDS, POTS, MS, Arthritis and many many more.
I hope people will begin to understand invisible illnesses, and give them the respect and care they deserve.

I hope in educating the general public, we can come together. Everyone deserves medical treatment. People’s health should not come down to politics or money. We all deserve to live.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Recovery Lounge & Spa?
Recovery Lounge &amp; Spa is a team of practitioners who work together to form a one-of-a-kind facility that integrates healthcare &amp; healing. Regardless of if you’re on my table one day, or another practitioners the next, our goal is the same- Giving your body what it needs in that moment. Your health and wellbeing is our priority as a team.
Eventually, we hope to see you less and less, we WANT you to get better!

We also are a safe space for our LGBTQ+ community. Please know we want you here, our tables are a safe &amp; judgement free space.
We do not tolerate any form of racism, transphobia, or discrimination.

Recovery Lounge &amp; Spa is located in the heart of Denver, and is focused on creating a healing sanctuary for those recovering from: Chronic illness, Pain, Surgery, Chemo, TBI’s, Pregnancy &amp; Postpartum, Mold, Parasites, Sports Recovery and more.

We offer wide variety of services with the thought that you can jump from once service to the next- All you need to heal under 1 roof, no need to drive from appointment to appointment.
Our practitioners are all specialists in their fields;
-Craniosacral Therapy
-Lactation Support
-Chronic Pain &amp; Autoimmune care
-Sports Recovery
-Functional Nutrition
-Trauma
-Infants + Pediatrics
-TBI + Neuro care
-Massage therapy
-Medical Lymphatic Drainage
-Esthetics

We offer;
-Lymphatic Drainage &amp; Medical Lymphatic Drainage
-Craniosacral for both adults &amp; infants
-Massage Therapy
-Infrared Sauna
-Ionic Foot Detox
-PEMF Mat Therapy
-NeurOptimal Brain Training
-Bioscans &amp; Rife Therapy
-Lactation support &amp; consulting
-Red Light Therapy
-Facials and Scalp Treatments
<b>We also offer community days, where services are 50% off to make care more accessible and affordable</b>. Some of our practitioners offer sliding scale as well!

Recovery Lounge also hosts events for our community;
Adaptogen happy hours- 4-7 every Tuesday.

Monthly Mental health check ins specifically for our POC, and LGBTQ+ community.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
That I’m Homeschooled!

Both my parents attended MIT in Cambridge MA.
They decided to homeschool my siblings and I, and I am so grateful.
Homeschooling gave me the freedom to choose what I was interested in and dive headfirst into it.
I have dyslexia and am neurodivergent, so being homeschooled allowed me to find a learning style that worked for me.
I’m incredibly grateful to my mom, for choosing to homeschool three kids herself.
I attribute my appreciation for learning and love of the medical science side of things to being given the freedom to learn what interested me at a young age.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://recoveryloungeandspa.com/services/
• Instagram: @thelymphomaniac